Co-manager Tommy Forbes says Banks o’ Dee are in good hands going forward after deciding to step down.
Forbes has spent nine years with the Spain Park outfit, joining initially as a coach under Doug Baxter.
When Baxter left in November 2015, Forbes and Sandy McNaughton became co-managers and for the last three years he has been joint-boss alongside Jamie Watt following McNaughton’s retirement.
Forbes said: “The club is in safe hands with Jamie, Brian (Winton, club president) and Gordon Christie (vice-president) as well who has done a lot for the club over the years and given me a lot of great advice.
“It will be strange having the time I’ll have now, my wife Jenny has been saying for a couple of years that it might be time to stop.
“It will be strange having the time to actually plan a weekend away, you’ve only really got a two or three week window between one season finishing and pre-season starting.
“It’ll be nice to spend more time with the grandkids, go and watch Aberdeen from time to time and I’ll go back and watch Banks o’ Dee as well and it will be good to watch.
“Sandy McNaughton reached a point where he decided he’d done his bit and it was time to move on.
“It was the same for me. I stopped playing 22 years ago and the time has flown by and it’s a lot of commitment when you’re a coach.
“Out of those 22 years since I stopped playing, I think there’s only been a year where I haven’t been involved in football.
“I coached in the youth development set-up at Aberdeen, I coached with Lewis United youth and Cove Rangers youth as well.
“I came to Banks o’ Dee with Doug Baxter in 2012 so it’s been a long time and it just feels right.
“It’s time for me to let Jamie take the reins. He’s done really well after taking over from Sandy.
“He’s added new ideas and freshened up training and it’s time to take the reins and take the club forward and I’m sure he’ll keep the standards high like they have been over the last five or six years.”
During his time in charge Forbes guided Banks o’ Dee to 14 trophies, including four straight Superleague titles between 2016 and 2019.
Alongside the silverware Dee have also had some good Scottish Cup runs, the most memorable being in the 2017-18 season when they reached the third round and played Ayr United.
They also reached three Aberdeenshire Shield finals in 2016, 2018, 2019 and the Aberdeenshire Cup final in 2018.
Forbes added: “Winning the league four times in a row was one of the big highlights.
“I think everyone knows it would have been five last year, but that got taken out of our hands.
“These things happen and you just have to move on, but winning the league was great because that’s your bread and butter.
“The league titles are what I would class as the biggest high.
“We’ve had some really good runs in the Scottish Cup which has been fantastic as well.
“You’re playing against different sides and testing yourself against opposition from a higher level.
“That was brilliant, but the league has been the biggest highlight.
“We won 14 trophies: four league titles, three McLeman Cups, three Jim McPherson trophies, two Grill League Cups and two Regional Cups.”
