ABERDEEN have been tipped to appoint a foreign manager for only the second time in their history after bringing in renowned German specialist Bernhard Peters to carry out a review of their football set-up.
The cinch Premiership club released a statement yesterday revealing the BPTC consultancy group which is headed by Peters had completed its audit and produced a report which will “assist in the recruitment of a new first team manager and the addition of a new technical director to support the director of football”.
Ebbe Skovdahl, the Danish coach who was in charge at Pittodrie between 1999 and 2002, is the only man from outside of Great Britain and Ireland to manage the north-east outfit in their 121 year existence.
READ MORE: How the German visionary who transformed Hoffenheim can help Aberdeen
However, Derek Rae, the Dons fan who is the lead Bundesliga commentator for ESPN and an expert on German football, suspects that former Hoffenheim and Hamburg supremo Peters will have advised Aberdeen to talk to candidates on the continent.
And Rae reckons the man who promoted current Germany manager Julian Nagelsmann from youth team to first team coach during his time at the Rhein-Neckar-Arena may have identified a few interesting prospects to replace Barry Robson on a permanent basis.
“I would imagine with Bernhard Peters involved now that it probably opens the door to candidates who wouldn’t necessarily have been candidates for the Aberdeen job in the past,” he said. “That would be my view.
“Julian Nagelsmann has a pretty impressive CV. He is now the coach of Germany and was formerly the coach of Bayern and RB Leipzig. But he was the coach of Hoffenheim.
“It was Bernhard Peters and his colleagues who identified him as a youth coach with great potential. He paved the way for that ascension when he was just 28.
READ MORE: Alan Burrows provides Aberdeen new manager search update
“That tells you a lot about the boldness there and the innovative thinking. A lot of other people would have dismissed the idea that somebody in his twenties could make his mark as a coach in the Bundesliga.
“Nagelsmann was let go by Bayern – but most Bayern fans now think that was a mistake. He will be in the dugout when Germany play Scotland in the first game of the Euros in June.
“That is one high-profile example, and it is not the only one, of how Peters’ innovative thinking has been of a benefit to German football.”
Rae added: “Whoever gets the manager’s job, the technical director position at Aberdeen is important. That is one of the things which will come out of the review. A lot will flow from that in terms of their ideas going forward.
“I would imagine that will be somebody who has a lot of experience doing what Bernhard himself did years ago at Hoffenheim, a younger version.”
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