Phil Sumbler
Swansea City are set to appoint Aberdeen academy director Gavin Levey to fill the vacancy left by Andy Goldie who recently swapped Swansea for Southampton.
Levey will take his role in SA1 and arrives here in South West Wales with a strong track record behind him having taken charge of the Aberdeen Women’s side on an interim basis in the second half of last season as well as overseeing the development of the likes of Connor Barron, Ryan Duncan, Jack MacKenzie and Alfie Bavidge who are now all established members in the first team under Barry Robson.
Scott McKenna and Calvin Ramsay also rose through the ranks in the Granite City under the watchful eye of Levey, and went onto to bank Aberdeen millions in transfer fees with their respective moves to Nottingham Forest and Liverpool.
As we say goodbye to our Academy Director, it is impossible to thank him enough for his immeasurable contributions over the past 17 years.
Whilst we will miss Gavin, we wish him and his family the best @SwansOfficial.
Thank you for the memories @GavLevey!
Once a Don… pic.twitter.com/vrUKPnpL0e
— Aberdeen FC Youth Academy (@AberdeenFCYouth) October 16, 2023
Aberdeen are now set to look at internal and external options as they look to appoint a new academy director. They have plenty of conversations as it stands with Stuart Glennie coming in as the new head of academy coaching and Neil Simpson also played a big part in the youth set-up along with Levey.
Levey has been at Aberdeen for 17 years and only last year talked about some of his philosophies used to get the best out of the players that were in his structure
“We have to look at every group, the individuals within it and the qualities our staff have. We then select the best individuals as coaches to get the best out of that group.
“We’re very fortunate at Aberdeen now as we’ve built a coaching team with current players like Jonny Hayes, former players like Fraser Fyvie and Stuart Duff, and current professional players playing elsewhere like Chris Antoniazzi (at Elgin City).
“He’s a young guy who came through our academy and it is so fresh and raw for him from being a player here to carving out a career somewhere else.
“To bring someone like Chris in he needed a mentor and Mark Emslie, who came through here in Sir Alex Ferguson’s era and has been here 22 years now; there’s no better person than Mark to work with Chris.
“We also have some terrific and highly qualified staff here. The coaching programme here in terms of our staff is as good as I’ve seen in my 16 years here.”
Levey’s last act at Aberdeen was at the weekend with the club’s U14 team lifting the inaugural Craig Brown Memorial Trophy with a 3-0 win against Rangers in the final.
What a way to finish the weekend!
The Craig Brown Memorial Trophy was a huge success. This was never in doubt with the staff that we had hosting the first ever tournament at Cormack Park.
The young @AberdeenFC side winning it was an absolute bonus! pic.twitter.com/An2zXip9EL
— Gavin Levey (@GavLevey) October 15, 2023
