Robin Veldman has vowed to follow the Ajax and Anderlecht blueprint for success as he bids to take Queen’s Park to the next level.
The Dutchman was appointed as head coach at Lesser Hampden earlier this month following Owen Coyle’s resignation and insists his priority is to produce a conveyor belt of talent from the Spiders academy into the first team.
Veldman left his role as assistant boss at Belgian giants Anderlecht before taking over at Queen’s who only missed out on promotion to the Premiership in a play-off defeat to Partick Thistle having lost a league title decider with Dundee on the final day of the season. The 37-year-old previously coached in the world-renowned Ajax academy.
And he believes his experience of those two clubs and their youth systems will help him build on the success of the Spiders academy that has produced stars including Andy Robertson and Lawrence Shankland in the last 15 years.
Veldman said: “It’s exciting. There’s a big project going on and that’s really good for me, the ambition of Queen’s Park and my own fits together and I hope to bring success.
“The academy work is building in a different way to a lot of other clubs. That makes this project really special and it wasn’t a hard decision.
“When I look at my previous clubs there was always a link between first team and academy.
“Last year at Anderlecht we were starting with six, seven or even eight academy players. At Ajax too a lot of academy players get a chance.
“Those clubs have big histories so to follow that with Queen’s Park is a nice challenge.
“The start of the project is the academy, to support it and the young players and give them the opportunity to join the first team training sessions. The academy is crucial for us.”
Despite the heavy focus on the youths Queen’s have bolstered their first team ranks with the ambitious signings of Brighton midfielder Jack Spong, playmaker Barry Hepburn on loan from Bayern Munich and goalscorer Ruari Paton from Queen of the South in the last week.
And Veldman insists he’s not done in the transfer window yet.
The Dutchman has promised fans a free-flowing brand of football as they look to get back in among the promotion hunt next season.
But he refused to set targets ahead of the new campaign. Queen’s begin with a Viaplay Cup trip to face East Fife and New Bayview.
And Veldman said: “I have core values in my style of play - aggressive, dynamic, energetic - it’s full passion.
“I like to take risks in the game, It’s something different to what we see in Scotland so I want to get something in there the fans will appreciate and enjoy watching.
“I’m still looking at players who can strengthen the squad. I’m already happy with the squad. Obviously we are going to play a lot of games so we need to manage them and the depth of the squad.
“I want to build a stable team. One which will perform, develop talent and it’s easier to get in as a talent. That’s the basic thing to start.
“We want to chase every game. After 15-20 games then it’s good to see where we are going."
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