Gavin Levey hopes to make a fast appointment after receiving an “influx” of applications for the vacant Aberdeen Women manager’s job.
Levey – who is academy director at the Dons and took interim charge of the women’s team for the last six months – will head up the process of appointing a new full-time manager.
Aberdeen Women have been without a permanent boss since November when co-managers Emma Hunter and Gavin Beith resigned.
The vacancy closes today and Levey hopes to start having conversations with potential candidates as soon as possible.
He aims to have somebody – ideally settled – in post before the Dons’ pre-season begins on July 10.
“I was always very hopeful that we were going to have a lot of interest,” said Levey.
“As the weeks have progressed, over this week in particular, there has been an influx of applications.
“Of course, there are certain criteria that people need to hit, in terms of coaching qualifications but also their experience, and we said people with experience in the women’s game would be key.
“It looks like a lot of candidates are coming in with strong backgrounds in women’s football and that makes you think they’ve got a real passion for this type of work.
“That’s important because we don’t want to fill this job with somebody who is only looking for the next step – it’s always going to be an advantage if we’ve got people with a background of playing or managing at a strong level in the women’s game.
“I’m very confident that we’re going to go down the right route with this process and I look forward to the conversations with the people who get to the next stage.”
New manager will be ‘driving’ women’s programme forward
The Press and Journal understands coach Claire Garrett will continue to work with the women’s team, but the new manager will be given the chance to bring in their own assistant.
Levey says whoever is put in post will play an important role in developing the bigger picture of the women’s programme at the club.
“We want somebody to to be literally driving this programme,” said Levey.
“For me, I want someone who can come in and hit the ground running. I’ll be here to support them and the last six months have been important because it’s given me a clearer understanding.
“I’m looking to be the person someone turns to from time-to-time rather than being the person saying how things are going to happen.
“If you’ve got someone with that required skillset and knowledge to develop Aberdeen Women that’s massive.
“In an ideal world, we’ll have someone coming into this role with a far great level of experience in the women’s game than I have.
“I’m excited about where this could go next.
“The work from Emma (Hunter) Gav (Beith), Harley (Hamdani), Stuart (Bathgate) and everybody who has been involved here has been the building blocks to open this next chapter.”
Full-time manager another ‘huge’ step in right direction, says Levey
After putting five players on semi-professional contracts for the first time last season, Levey believes, the imminent appointment of a full-time manager reflects the progress being made at the club.
He also revealed the club will be offering paid contracts to more players this summer.
“Every year we’ve been doing more,” said Levey.
“Last year, it was a big step with five semi-professional contracts and you go in thinking this is really going to improve us, but then you look at the rest of the league and they’ve invested more, too.
“Having someone dedicated to the programme is another huge step and it’s a significant investment with a full-time salary and what comes with that.
“And on top of that, professionalising some more players which we will hopefully be able to announce in the coming weeks once everything is complete.
“It shows we’re doing more again. There will be more semi-professional contracts and more support for those not on professional contracts.
“It’ll become apparent very soon on how we want to do more with the players and not just in the staffing model, which is quite exciting.”
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