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ABERDEEN boss Derek McInnes is eyeing more English loan raids - but won’t block the pathway for Dons kids to storm into his first team.

The Pittodrie club are building a reputation for being an excellent nurturing ground for young talents, either from their own system or having been adopted into the squad.

Danny Ward’s magnificent performances this season in goal having arrived on loan from Liverpool at the beginning of the season are another signal of the Reds’ ability to bring the best out of and improve kids.

Aberdeen also gave Michael Hector valuable first-team grounding on loan from Reading a couple of seasons ago and the defender has now signed for Chelsea.

McInnes’ assistant boss Tony Docherty believes word will spread about the success of youngsters going to Aberdeen and that could improve the chances of more highly-rated English kids being allowed to move to the Granite City.

He said: “Danny’s up to nine clean sheets now which is fantastic for him.

“It’s important when you sign a loan player that they buy into what you are doing and Danny has done that.

“He works well with Gordon Marshall and Scott Brown, who is pushing him every week.

“Danny’s a good kid and he has brought a lot to the dressing room.

“I can only speak from the experience I’ve had with him but what I’ve seen is a very good goalkeeper with a very good temperament for someone relatively young in the game.

“He has got a big future in the game and, hopefully, we can help him along the way at Aberdeen.

“That’s how loan spells should work. Michael Hector came here and his career has kicked on to the point he is now at Chelsea.

(Image: Sammy Turner/SNS Group)

“We’ve sent Danny Rogers out on loan to Falkirk and he has done well there too and he was excellent against Rangers on Saturday.

“Hopefully that move will work out for us in the long run too. Players now know when they come here we will look after them.

“We treat them as one of our players and spend every day trying to improve them along with the rest of the squad.

“Danny has a good relationship with Gordon, but we would encourage any player who comes here to try to improve their development.”

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Docherty confessed that scouting never stops, although there are no urgent moves required ahead of next month’s transfer window.

He added: “We sat down at the start of the season and assembled as good a squad as we felt we could with the budget we have. We have a good squad not just of footballers but of people here with the right mentality and attitude.

“It’s important to have those sort of characters in a dressing room.

“We’re happy with what we have got just now but we’re not dismissing anything at this moment.

“The manager and Russ Richardson are always identifying players and if an opportunity arises then we’ll look at it.”

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Docherty, meanwhile, is adamant that the Dons coaching staff will not add bodies for the sake of it, especially with a burgeoning crop of young guns making their way through the system.

Kids like Cammy Smith are making huge strides towards regular top-team action and the Aberdeen No,2 has pinpointed other potentially-talented kids who could soon be making the breakthrough.

Docherty said: “Danny Harvie, Scott McKenna, Frank Ross, Scott Wright and Frank Ross were with the squad at the weekend, which shows the good group we have coming through.

“We won’t block the young players’ pathway to the first team.

“We’ve got good talented young players here who will get their opportunity to play.”