Eilidh Shore made her 100th competitive appearance for Aberdeen Women at the weekend and interim coach Gavin Levey hopes she is at the club to make many more.
The 21-year-old midfielder became the women’s team’s second centurion against Partick Thistle in SWPL 1 on Sunday with skipper Loren Campbell being the first.
All of Shore’s appearances have come from the starting XI and her contribution to the team is clear, and as such was rewarded with a semi-professional contract alongside four others last season.
‘Eilidh is a top player’
Shore’s contract runs until the summer of 2024 and Levey hopes she will be donning red for much longer than that.
Levey said: “Eilidh is a top player for us and she’s key in the environment as well as performances on the pitch.
“She is one of the players on a contract here at Aberdeen, so as long as we can maintain our status (in the league) – which is our aim – then we look forward to her being here for much longer and beyond her contract.
“Contracts are hot on the agenda right now because right across the football club we like to be on the front foot with a plan no matter what team that player is in.
“The contract side is handled by our director of football Steven Gunn and conversations are happening right now between myself and Alan Burrows.
“Maybe we can take some learnings from the women’s programme at Motherwell and use Alan’s knowledge from what he learned there about the women’s game.
“Between the three of us – and my insight from being in the hot seat right now – we need to be ready to be extending or bringing more girls towards that semi-professional programme where possible.”
Aiming to keep talented young players in Aberdeen
The Dons interim coach says it’s vital the club – whose women’s team are made up of many youngsters – do their utmost to ensure those players’ futures remain in the north.
He said: “I’m confident to say that we’ve got great young talent here at Aberdeen and we need to make sure we’re doing all we can to keep them at this club.
“Keeping the young talent can be our way to close the gap and become really competitive in this league. If they can be like Eilidh and reach 100 games at 21 then that’s massive for this football club to build on.
“If we believe the time is right to do that (offer a paid contract) then that will be the case.
“We’ve managed to look at the players on contracts over a period of time now and take learnings from what being a young professional player brings – and the pros and cons of that.”
However, Levey confirms there are no set plans to offer new and improved deals to the existing contracted players – but does say it is part of the conversations happening behind the scenes.
Levey said: “I think coming to the end of this season we’re certainly in a better position this year in knowing what the next step will be than we have been before.
“Like all of our teams here at Aberdeen, whether that’s the men’s or the academy teams, we have a succession plan in place about what’s needed and what players are coming through.
“We’re not at that stage yet (renewing contracts or offering improved conditions) but we are talking about how things will look going forward.
“There are some actions on that succession plan that need to be taken care of at the end of the season – if not before.”
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