How many of Aberdeen’s young homegrown talents will play a part for Jimmy Thelin during the Premiership run-in and tilt at the Scottish Cup this season?
A section of the Dons fans always want to see more youth academy products in their side – and they have arguably been given a little bit more encouragement over the past few days.
Firstly, 19-year-old Adam Emslie – the highest-performing young Don out on loan this season – was recalled from League One Cove Rangers in the dying hours before Monday’s transfer deadline.
Aberdeen have taken notice Emslie’s six goals and six assists in little more than 20 appearances for Cove, and the recall decision has very much been made with the intention of giving Emslie a few weeks to prove he can make the step up following the sale of another Dons wideman, Duk, before the window shut.
While Emslie was not included in the squad for the 3-0 Scottish Cup win over Championship Dunfermline Athletic at Pittodrie on Sunday, Fletcher Boyd was.
Boyd, 17, was last term’s end-of-season sensation – with two goals in his first two first-team appearances for Aberdeen – but, until his late five-minute cameo on Sunday, had not played since the League Cup group stage in September.
Some supporters have asked, with the Dons struggling for goals in recent months, why Boyd has not had a look in.
Though the Reds were all but through to the cup quarter-finals when the youngster was sent on by Thelin, it is another piece of evidence – following on from the Emslie recall – the Swede is willing to trust his young players in the right moment.
Understandable why Aberdeen boss Thelin hasn’t turned to youth more
Training is, of course, something the public are not privy to, and how these developing players adapt to the specific tactical demands being put on them by Thelin and his coaching staff will factor into how game-time they get.
Ultimately, it is understandable why Thelin has not turned to youth more often this term since the conclusion of the pre-season-like League Cup groups, and only defender Jack Milne, 21, has really made any meaningful appearances since.
Thelin arrived in the summer tasked with bringing success back to Pittodrie, and he has been backed to the tune of more than a million pounds in both transfer windows so far to do so.
Of course he would go out and sign experienced players who he thinks can bolster his team – especially during January in the midst of what has become a 14-game slump without victory in the league.
Yes, Aberdeen want to develop local talent, but it is also now a key part of Aberdeen’s stated financial model to speculate, by way of transfer fees and higher wages, on overseas talent as a means to strengthen the club year-on-year.
So there is a balance to be struck.
Aberdeen fans’ desire to see more local players turn out for their team is a noble one
Not having a first-team filled with local youngsters is also not a Dons-specific problem. At present, every squad in the top-flight is skewed away from homegrown talent.
But the underlying point, though – and it is a noble one – is some Aberdeen fans just crave seeing north-east lads, like them, in their side, and it being a priority.
When we revealed, for example, on the day after the transfer window shut, Aberdeen had struck deals to sell 17-year-old centre-back Timothy Akindileni and 16-year-old centre-back Lewis Carrol to English sides QPR and Nottingham Forest, respectively (the second deal actually fell through), there were angry (and hyperbolic) responses, including: “Hopefully someone from the academy will make it into the first-team squad at some point in time.”
Some of these fans seem to think, even at 16 or 17, young players are leaving Aberdeen over a lack of first-team opportunities, and there were even calls to start playing the still-very-young Carrol.
Clearly, it would be a very bold and unlikely move indeed to put a player in their mid-teens in as a starting centre-half at the physically-demanding, top level of Scottish football.
And it is frankly absurd to imply Carol, for example, would currently have any more chance of a first-team starting berth at English Premier League Forest.
But the reactions, while extreme examples, reflect many supporters’ strong feelings over seeing homegrown starlets in their team.
Will we see Boyd or Emslie among the starting line-up when Aberdeen return to Premiership action away at Dundee on Saturday, in a game where there is a highly-charged slump to put to bed? Almost certainly – and understandably – not.
But have the last few days given a bit more encouragement to all of the young talents trying to break into the Aberdeen first-team picture during Thelin’s management? It feels like it.
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