Dons are the perfect platform for Jayden
JAYDEN STOCKLEY could never have envisaged Bournemouth shelling out £15million on a Liverpool fringe player when, a fortnight after his 16th birthday, he was called up from school to debut against Northampton amid a financial crisis and transfer embargo.
The striker is delighted to see his former club raiding the English elite for talent seven years on and enjoying the kickbacks of the top-flight’s exorbitant television deal. He is just glad he did not hang around to see it at close quarters on Thursday as Jordon Ibe signed.
For while the 20-year-old Ibe penned a four-year deal for that Bournemouth record fee, Stockley was scoring his first competitive goal for Aberdeen to send his new club on the way to a 3-0 Europa League victory over Ventspils ahead of Thursday’s return in Latvia.
The switch to Pittodrie finally saw Stockley sever ties with the south-coast club that had been his home since youth football, albeit he completed nine tours of loan duty around England.
Stockley concedes that ‘crazy money’ available to pursue deals on that scale for unproven players and an ‘insane’ depth of talent means that Dean Court — or the Vitality Stadium as it is currently known — now signals the end of hope for many reared at his former club.
Last week’s bumper business in Bournemouth emphasised how important it was for the 22-year-old to seek a permanent platform at a progressive, winning club — with European football a bonus — in the hope of eventually returning to the richest league in the world.
‘Bournemouth have gone from strength to strength and are now in a position where they can go and spend that kind of money on players,’ said Stockley. ‘The talent in their squad now is insane when you look back a few years and see where the club was.
‘But they deserve everything they get because they’ve done everything the right way. It’s crazy to think that just a few years ago they couldn’t really afford much, which is probably why I played!
‘When I started off there, I just wouldn’t have believed that one day they’d pay £15m for a player. In my early days there, we didn’t even know where we’d be training some days.
‘When Eddie Howe came in as manager, you could tell he had the desire and ambition for where he wanted the club to be and didn’t really have a cap on the success he thought he could achieve.
‘I’m a big believer that, despite clubs making big-money signings, there are more than capable players already in their squads who just need to be given a chance and a run of games and they can be better.
‘Even training with the first team takes some players up that extra level and clubs need to look at themselves more and see what they have in their academies because there is some unbelievable talent among youngsters at every club.
‘I’ve got aspirations, being only 22, to reach my full potential and I hope I can eventually do that in the Barclays Premier League. But it was the right time to make this move.’
Howe was the boss who gave Stockley his debut as a teenager, one of 14 substitute appearances the striker made for the Cherries.
That one of the brightest young managers in the game never saw fit to trust Stockley to ride with Bournemouth’s trip to the top division has not in any way harmed the regard in which the Aberdeen new boy holds Howe.
In his short time in the north east, Stockley has seen enough to believe he can be far more effective for the Aberdeen first team than he was for Bournemouth.
‘I’d go along with the suggestion that Eddie is a future England manager,’ said Stockley. ‘He’s very committed to Bournemouth and I think he’ll be there a very long time because he sees that club going forward. There’s nothing to suggest they can’t achieve greater success.
‘He’s someone I look up to a lot. My relationship with him is good. When the club was on the up and I needed to go out on loan for experience, he always had kind words.
‘He was very supportive when I came to Aberdeen. He and Derek McInnes are very similar in their approach. I’m getting some very good vibes here. I’ve settled in quickly after making such a big jump.
‘My family have settled. European football has been a great experience. I hope it continues and I’m looking forward to seeing what the domestic league is like.
‘I believe I will become a better player by joining Aberdeen. It’s a very professional set-up at Pittodrie, similar to what it’s like at Bournemouth — the coaching and how far they try to improve you as a player.’