Wes Burns |

With a heavy schedule in December still being ploughed through, now is the time for everyone with the club’s success at heart to come to the aid of the party, be they players, staff or supporters. It’s time for a united front in the face of those disappointments and a little understanding of the fact that, having played football almost without a break since August 3rd 2013 when we kicked off the new Premiership with a 2-1 win over Kilmarnock, this football club has achieved some remarkable things.

Had the Motherwell at Pittodrie game finished after 90 minutes and not seven, the Dons would have played 168 games in 1,228 days – on average, one every seven days, right the way through that period, travelling untold miles. In that time, they’ve won the League Cup, reached another final and semi-final, been Scottish Cup semi-finalists, been Premiership runners-up twice and come within 30 seconds of that being a hat-trick, created a club record for wins at the start of a league season, competed in three qualifying rounds of the Europa League on three separate occasions and won over 90 football matches. If we’d been offered that on Boxing Day 2012 when we lost 4-1 at Motherwell, I suspect we’d have taken it.

It has been that huge improvement which has allowed us to attract better and better footballers to the club and yet even in doing that, those players have been unable to walk into the first team as they would have done just three or four years ago.

Wes Burns is a perfect case in point, the sort of talented young player who might not have given the Dons a second thought a while back but who was only too happy to come and join us on loan this season. In spite of making an impression during the Europa League qualifiers though, he’s had to bide his time here at Pittodrie.

“It’s true that I have not played as much as I would have liked but that is down to the manager’s decision. I have consciously been working very hard in training to try and force my way into the manager’s thoughts. But up until the last international break, the team have been winning, we had won eight games out of ten. It is hard for the manager to change a winning team and therefore harder for me to force my way in. Players like Jonny, Adam, Niall and James have been playing very well, so it is hard to drop players who are playing well and scoring goals.

“In December we have eight games to play so everyone will get a chance to play their part at some point. You have to make sure you are ready to take that chance.

“I speak to the manager quite often, whether it be on the training field or off the field. He is always telling me to I have to be ready. I have to be ready to take my place, I have to be ready to score goals so that I can be most effective when I do play. You have to work hard and make sure you are prepared for when you get the call”.

He got the call in the second half at Hampden last month, coming off the bench in the League Cup final. What did he make of the experience?

“For me it is something I have never done before really. Down at Bristol City they had the JPT Cup run and they won that, but because I was out on loan I was not really part of the build up like I was with the League Cup final here. I went to support City on the day at Wembley so it was a big day for the club and a big occasion, but it was different here because I feel much more a part of it.

“I was part of the whole week’s build up and was with the boys in St Andrews doing all the training. The full week, we focused on the final, so it was a good experience for me. The result was not what we wanted but it was a great experience and one that will make me a better player

“As a footballer you don’t really learn much from winning. The only time you really learn is when you lose games. You look back at those games more and break them down. For me, the experience of being there and taking the atmosphere all in was special. The turn out from the fans was superb and to and see all the flags before was unreal. If I do ever get back to a cup final like that again, then it will be easier – I will have been there before so will know what to expect and it will therefore be a different experience.

“What went wrong on the day? It is hard to put your finger on that. I know some people are saying we just did not turn up but there is more to it than that. You have to accept the fact Celtic have some very good individual players. Scott Brown played well in midfield and Rogic, you can’t give a player of that quality time and space in and around the box. He will punish you, as he did at Pittodrie as well. Celtic were very good and we were not at our best. That is not the right recipe for going and beating them”.

Speaking of Bristol City, how closely does Wes follow his parent club while he’s away?

“We have a group chat going so I still keep in touch with all the lads. That is always quite lively every day. They all keep an eye on how I am doing and all wished me luck before the final and they are always asking how I am doing. Everyone has been supportive of me up here and they are all keen to see Aberdeen doing well.
“The goals have dried up a little bit down there. Tammy Abraham was scoring a lot at the start of the season but the goals have stopped a bit lately. If you are not scoring goals, then you are not winning games. They had an unbelievable start and were sitting in one of the play-off places at one point at the start of the season.

“They have lost a few in a row which pushed them down the table, but if you win a couple of games back to back, you very quickly go back up the other way in that league. They had a good win at home to Ipswich so hopefully they are on an upward curve again. After the transfer window in January, if they get a couple more players in then I think they will be ok.

“If you look at Leeds, they did not win any of their first six games, but now they are up there and flying after going on a winning run. It is a very tight league. It is a very tough league. You only have to see the quality of the sides near the bottom – Wolves, Blackburn, Cardiff, all big clubs”.

Wes is a Cardiff boy, but he didn’t follow them as a boy, being influenced by his dad instead.

“I grew up supporting Chelsea because that was the team my dad supported. Coming from Cardiff, I do keep an eye on them as well. I was with them as a youngster from the age of seven till I was about ten or eleven. I then left the Academy and went and played Sunday league football until I was about 14 then rejoined the academy from 14 to 16. That’s when I then went over to Bristol.

“At the time there were some big names there. Graham Kavangh, Robert Earnshaw, Craig Bellamy was there for a bit. Neil Alexander was there as well. I remember Neil from the Cardiff days so it was nice to see a familiar face when I walked into the dressing room. They are a club who will be desperate to get back in the Premiership, it was such a big thing for them to be there, but they are not the only ones”.

Being on loan is sometimes an awkward situation, knowing that you are at a club for a finite period of time, as James Maddison explained in our last issue. That helps explains why he and Wes are such good friends.

“James and I get on well. We room together, we are both up here on loan so are in similar situation, we have both come from clubs down south and we both have the same birthday as well!! We clicked straight away when he came in. I played against him in League One last season so I knew about him. When we played Coventry away, I wondered who was this rat was, running about the field nutmegging everyone! He was a very good player who made an impression”.

On the international stage, it’s Wales that have been making a big impression of late, producing the kind of players that Gordon Strachan would love to have at his disposal – but then who wouldn’t love to be able to pick Gareth Bale and Aaron Ramsey? But why are Wales suddenly doing so well?

“Having some big clubs in Wales, those in and around the Premiership, has helped. For a lot of years we never had any clubs anywhere near that level. Cardiff have produced a number of young Welsh players. I have obviously seen at first hand their Academy. I think you have to put Swansea in there as well. They have a very good Academy. I remember playing against the Swansea Academy growing up and the type of football they bred into their players was a very Barcelona-like style if you can put it like that. They like to play it out from the back.
They have a lot of very good technical players in their Academy. They drill into their youngsters from a young age that they need to be very good technically and positionally aware on the pitch.

“Obviously these clubs have very professional youth set-ups, similar to all the big clubs down south. There is probably a lot more money available than Scotland. The first time I got involved with sports science, I was around 13 at Cardiff. That is when we first started doing our body core and stuff like that.

Strengthening all the main muscle groups from an early age, because you can’t do that many weights at that age. As I was at school, I could not nip off to the gym to do the sessions I do now. What we were doing was very advanced. Even if young players are not making it with Cardiff or Swansea, they then move on and play at another level but they can still go on and play for Wales one day if they are good enough.

“We have a good young Welsh player here in Dylan Thomas. I see him about the club. I quite often bump into him in the gym and we have a good chat. He is from Port Talbot and I know a few people from there. It is good to speak to him and make sure he is doing ok and not missing home too much”.

As to Wes, there are real hopes of getting into the Welsh squad on a regular basis after narrowly missing out on a place at Euro 2016.

“I was pretty close to making the last 23. I was actually getting my hair cut when I found out I was in the preliminary squad. I have to be honest and say it was a surprise. I had done well towards the end of the season at Fleetwood and I had scored a few goals, so I had a little hope that I had caught Chris
Coleman’s eye to put me in contention for the squad but when it actually came around, it was a great feeling.

“To go to Portugal and then Sweden with the team before the Euro’s was a great experience for me. Playing with the likes of Ramsey and Bale was fantastic. Garth Bale joined us in Sweden and I spent a few days in training with him. He was exceptional. As a player, he was at another level to anything I has seen before.

“It was very obvious that he enjoys being part of the Wales squad. When he arrived he was very down to earth and had a good laugh with all the players and the staff. I am sure he is not like what everyone expects him to be”.
Up at Fleetwood last season, Wes came into contact with a former Aberdeen man who also features in the programme tonight, Barry Nicholson.

“I worked with Barry Nicholson and we got on very well. He did a lot of stuff after training with me; shooting, free-kicks, crossing, stuff like that. He was a very good coach. I believe he was a very good player and he can still play a bit now!”

Back to the present and when this hectic December is out, the players will get a brief respite in the form of the winter break. What does Wes make of that?

“I did not realise there was a winter break! I have never had one before. All the boys were saying that we have ten days off in January, and I was thinking really? What is this all about? So I have a little break planned and then we fly out to Dubai for a winter training camp which will be great for us. I think having started the season so early, I think we will benefit us over the course of the season, it will be a good chance to recharge and refocus things”.