Interim Aberdeen Women boss Gavin Levey says he has spoken to Alan Burrows about the demands of being an SWPL 1 side.
Burrows started his role as Aberdeen’s chief executive at the end of last month after leaving Motherwell and the women’s team will fall under his remit.
Levey, who confirmed last week he would take charge of the side until the end of the season, has held positive initial talks with Burrows over the direction Aberdeen Women are to go in.
“He’s got a massive priority list to get through but we’ve had time to talk,” said Levey. “He was in here on Monday and we had a blether.
“He was asking about the academy and the women’s job and said he’d been following it.
“He’s been involved at Motherwell with that and I think he’s also very curious about the demands of the league and what we actually do.
“We have to be realistic with what we’re trying to do. You can try for years and years and never get close and that’s not being defeatist.
“It’s very difficult to get close to a Rangers, Celtic or Glasgow City, who are signing players from across the world and have an incredible amount of money being invested into their programme.”
Levey’s time in charge of the women’s side – he has been in an interim management role since the departures of Emma Hunter and Gavin Beith in November – has given him a crash-course into life in SWPL 1.
Aberdeen are one of the youngest teams in the league and are coming up against full-time opponents, whose resources are often significantly greater than the Dons.
“I’ve seen it from playing against them,” added Levey. “You can be at games where there’s 15-20 staff resourcing them; at the moment there’s four of us and we’ve all got others jobs.
“They’re recruiting from all over the world and having to get visas to bring players in. It’s certainly interesting and refreshing for the Scottish game to see the talent coming in.
“But at the same time, a player comes in from overseas to one of these clubs, it shunts a young Scottish player further down the line.
“That’s where maybe the teams in central belt are benefitting – Partick Thistle and Motherwell are having good seasons. Are they picking up players because Celtic, Rangers and even Hearts now are recruiting from overseas?
“Whereas for us, the best young talent in the north-east is playing right now.”
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