Simpsonhopesthat toanfieldcanentice
Neil Simpson came through the ranks at Aberdeen to win the European Cup-winners’ Cup when he was just 21.
He also picked up two Premier League titles, three Scottish Cups and a Scottish League Cup during the club’s halcyon period under Alex Ferguson.
His 40-plus-year association with the Dons continues, and his job these days is to get players out on loan in the hope they can make a career for themselves at Pittodrie.
But one of Simpson’s top football memories is denying Calvin Ramsay a move to the Highland League or Lowland League.
Now the 18-year-old full-back’s future could hardly be brighter following his £6.5-million transfer to Liverpool.
Yet as Simpson – now Aberdeen’s pathways manager – recalls, it was a different story this time last year when Ramsay was agitating to kick-start his career with a loan move similar to those undertaken by his friend and youth team-mate, Connor Barron.
“Calvin was training with the first team, but I knew he was frustrated. He was coming up to me all the time, asking: ‘Please can you get me a loan?’,” said Simpson.
“Back then, he could not see himself getting into the first-team.
“He had played a few games at the end of the previous season, but the manager, Stephen Glass, had brought Jack Gurr in, with others on the way.
“Calvin had seen Connor and others go out, and his argument was that if he could get six months out on loan, then he would be better prepared to play for the first-team.
“It was not going to happen, though, so I told him: ‘Look, just get your head down and do your best because you never know what will happen in this game.’.
“Then, of course, he got his chance, and used it to show everyone he was a star.
“Yes, he had a few niggly injuries later on. But in the first half of the season, you really saw his huge potential.”
Simpson had already spotted the teenager’s attributes, and Ramsay’s age-level coaches at Aberdeen’s academy were already all too aware of them.
“Eighteen months before he broke into the first-team, Calvin played against Rangers in the Final of the Club Academy Scotland Cup. Calvin was just 16, but he was the best player on the pitch,” he said.
“That told us a lot.
“Alex Lowry played for Rangers that day, and scored a screamer. But Calvin was outstanding.
“My old team-mate Peter Weir was at the game, and I remember him turning to me and saying: ‘Oh, that Ramsay is some player’.
“Calvin had played in midfield, but we felt the best pathway was to go to right-back, and obviously he excelled at that.
“To be fair, he was with us from eight years of age, and he was the outstanding player all the way through.”
For all Ramsay’s time as a firstteam player with Aberdeen was brief, Simpson is confident the scale of his move to Liverpool will ensure he leaves a lasting legacy.
“The fact a boy from the northeast can go to Aberdeen, come all the way through the age levels, and then get a huge move to Liverpool, gives encouragement to all the young players,” he said.
“It means folk from outside the area will look at Aberdeen, and think this would be a right good place for my son to come and develop.
“Take in Calvin and other academy players who have gone before him, such as Ryan Fraser, Scott Mckenna and Ryan Jack, and there is a really nice history there.
“Ryan Fraser was like Calvin. Nobody knew about him really, and then he came into the first-team and he was just unbelievable.”
The 60-year-old was not too shabby himself back in his playing days when he was a key member of Alex Ferguson’s young side which piled up the trophies at home and abroad.
“If you look at the young ones Fergie brought through, you would be talking about myself, Neale Cooper, Eric Black and John Hewitt,” he said.
“Neale, John and I were all only 16 when we made our debuts. Eric was 17.
“It was very much a case of ‘If you’re good enough, you’re old enough’, and happily it all worked out well for us – just as it has for Calvin.”
Ramsay’s departure has increased the focus on Barron, the teenage midfielder Aberdeen are trying to tie up on a longterm deal, and those at the age levels below him.
“Like Calvin,
Connor is a star,” said Simpson.
“I hope he stays on with us but, whatever happens, there are a lot of good other ones coming through.
“You have always got to be looking ahead.
It is what we do.”