Cove Rangers boss Paul Hartley admits to being conflicted over Adam Emslie’s Aberdeen recall – but thinks the young attacker’s progress this term shows the benefits of a loan partnership between the two Granite City clubs.
Hartley got the call saying the Dons wanted 19-year-old Emslie back at 10.30pm on Monday evening.
After six goals and six assists for League One Cove in the first half of the campaign, Aberdeen – having sold Duk to Spanish La Liga club Leganes on deadline night – decided to give Emslie the chance to be part of Jimmy Thelin’s first-team squad.
While Cove have until the end of February to bring in a loan replacement, Hartley will bide his time, and is “hoping” he can get the young Don back to help his side’s promotion push.
He will be delighted, however, if Emslie seizes his chance at Premiership Aberdeen.
Hartley said: “He may get the opportunity to get into the team, and if he does well then we might not have that chance to bring him back.
“It was really late in the window that we lost him. It was a wee bit of a shock. I didn’t see it coming.
“But obviously he’s caught the eye of the Aberdeen staff. He’s their player.
“Do we get Emslie back in two or three weeks’ time? I don’t know.
“I would like to get him back, but, on the other hand, if he’s in there and does really well, then I’ll be really pleased for the boy, because he was brilliant to work with.
“He did really well in the positions we had him in terms of the left-hand side, the right and then through the middle.
“He’s got great pace, eye for a goal, and he’s got half a dozen assists for us.”
‘Loans work for young players’
Hartley think Emslie’s example “shows you the loan system works for younger players” who are caught in between academy football and their parent club’s senior side, and in Aberdeen’s case, with no B team to rack up regular matches for.
Former Scotland midfielder Hartley feels, by “20 or 21, you should have at least 100, 150 (senior) games under your belt”.
Cove still have young Aberdeen prospects Dylan Lobban, 19 – who arrived as a midfielder but has been “absolutely terrific” at right-back, Hartley says – and middle-man Findlay Marshall, 18, on loan this term.
Centre-back Liam Parker, 20, is also on loan from top-flight St Johnstone.
Hartley added: “I think it’s a great opportunity for these younger players to go and play first-team football, because they’re getting to a certain age at 18, 19.
“They need to go out and play, but when they come out and play, they need to do the business.”
Aberdeen-Cove Rangers loan partnership agreement?
Recently, there has been a push for a change to Scottish football’s rules which would allow Premiership clubs to enter into partnership agreements with lower-league sides and send an increased number of their young players on loan to their partner club (or clubs).
Operating in the same city, two divisions apart, Hartley feels Aberdeen and Cove are an obvious fit for such an arrangement.
He said: “I think that would be a nice plan if we could get with a club that we could bring players in. They (Aberdeen) are on our doorstep.
“They’ve got a lot of young players coming through the system. There’s no B team, there’s no development team – so the natural step for younger players is they need to get out., play games and see if they’re ready and if they can handle playing first-team football.
“We’ve certainly done that with the three Aberdeen youngsters who have done really well for us.
“I think if we could bring players in – say it’s Aberdeen – they come in here and they do really well, and then they go back and they get into their first-team, that then works for both teams.”
Meanwhile, Cove boss Hartley – speaking ahead of Saturday’s Scottish Cup fifth-round tie away at Championship Livingston – insisted the club were not willing to let goalkeeper Nick Suman, 24, join Premiership Motherwell on the cheap following two rejected late winter transfer window bids.
Hartley insists the Australian can “get up two or three levels because of the quality he’s got”, but says the keeper had “no issue” with Cove knocking back Well’s interest.
Hartley thrilled to see ex-Cove star Harry Milne sign for Hearts
Before the transfer window closed, long-time Cove left-back Harry Milne – a key figure in their ascent from the Highland League to the SPFL and a League One title-winner with Cove in 2022 – did complete a switch from second-tier Partick Thistle, where he had been for two-and-a-half seasons, to top-flight Hearts.
Hartley revealed he took a call from Tynecastle, where he is a club legend, to provide a reference on the 28-year-old Aberdonian.
He is thrilled to see his former full-back go from part-time football and pub work all the way up to the Premiership.
Hartley said: “He’s come through the tough way, the hard way – I think that makes it even more pleasing for myself.
“He’s had to come from the Highland League, right through the divisions. Every league.
“Obviously, when he left here to go to Thistle, it was another step up. It was a good jump.
“But then he’s proved that he’s a really good player still, with loads of football left in him at 28.
“He’s gone to a massive club like Hearts – that jump in five, six years is quite remarkable, but it shows you that he’s earned it.
“He’s had to graft and fight and work, and even when he was playing here, he was working a Friday night in a pub… and we stopped that just because of the preparation.
“We paid the shift he was getting to just keep him out of that environment on a Friday night, as he was on his feet all the time.
“Hearts done an unbelievable amount of background work on him. They knew everything.
“I gave him a glowing reference to be quite honest with you, because he never caused me any problems. He was terrific, and you could see that he was a really good player.”
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