How the German visionary who transformed Hoffenheim can help Aberdeen

“Sorry, but that kind of thinking is very old fashioned. It is just not how football clubs operate anywhere else any more. Even in England. Yes, managers there have a high profile. But there are people behind the scenes who are creating the conditions for the managers to be successful.”

The holistic review of the football operation at Aberdeen which the board of the struggling cinch Premiership club commissioned at the start of this year was not being discussed by any Dons supporter at the weekend.

READ MORE: Alan Burrows provides Aberdeen new manager search update

Yet, Rae believes the audit which has just been carried out by consultancy group BPTC and headed by the renowned Bernhard Peters will prove to be every bit as important for his home town team as the man they choose to replace Barry Robson on a permanent basis – possibly even more important.

He saw how Peters, a former field hockey coach who led Germany to World Cup glory, helped to transform Hoffenheim from a tiny fifth tier outfit in a village in Baden-Wurttemburg into one of the most formidable teams in the Bundesliga back in the 2000s.

He feels that drafting in a man who was described in an Aberdeen statement today as “the most successful youth academy and high performance architect in the industry” is a “bold, correct and positive move”.

“Anybody who covers German football knows Bernhard Peters and his reputation as an innovator,” he said. “I think that is what Aberdeen need at the moment. They need to try to restructure things and they need to do it with an expert eye supervising that procedure.

“They have gone for an expert, somebody who has a background of structuring clubs well, especially when it comes to youth development and academies and making sure the conditions are right. He did that successfully at Hoffenheim

“He is an interesting character. He made the transition from hockey to football. He had been the coach of Germany’s hockey team. He then expressed a desire to move into football and take some of his ideas from sports science generally but hockey in particular into football.

“He worked wonders at Hoffenheim. People will sometimes say, ‘But Hoffenheim had money’. Well, they did. But they have never been the richest team in Germany or anywhere close to it.

“Peters and manager Ralf Rangnick essentially took a village team and retooled and restructured the entire club. The rest is history. They have been in the Bundesliga since 2008 and seem destined to stay there.

“Peters moved on to Hamburg and that didn’t end so well. But there was a lot going on behind the scenes there. They had been on a slippery slope for a long time and were flirting with relegation. By the time he went in it was a difficult job.

“Peters works with St Louis City in the United States now. They are in their second season in the MLS and got off to the best ever start by a brand new franchise last season. He works very closely with Lutz Pfannenstiel, who is the sporting director there. They are close from their time together at Hoffenheim.”

READ MORE: Graeme Shinnie lifts lid on Neil Warnock Aberdeen departure

Rae continued: “It really depends what Aberdeen want to do and who they want to be as a football club. Do they want to stand still and copy a model which was maybe relevant 40 years ago with ‘a strong manager’. We hear people saying ‘bring in a strong manager’ all the time.

“The German view is that a strong manager or a head coach is only as strong as the structure behind him. They don’t emphasise the role as much as we do in Scotland.

“There is no point in bringing in a manager and then bringing in somebody to review things. It is much better to do things the other way around and have a review carried out by somebody with the expertise of Bernhard Peters. Then recommendations can flow from there as to how a coach might fit in and which coach might fit in with those ideas.”

So how exactly did Peters help Hoffenheim to rise to the very top? And can Aberdeen emulate their approach? Rae explained how placing an increased emphasis on scouting and implementing a football philosophy which runs from the age-group teams through to the first team reaped rich rewards.

“Pfannenstiel was the chief international scout at Hoffenheim between 2010 to 2015 and they brought in some great players during that period,” he said. 

“Roberto Firmino is an example of one of the players they brought in. Nobody knew who he was at that time. His capture was just down to having the right scouting, having the right network, having the right contacts, having people in other countries.

“Aberdeen may have to do that on a more modest scale. But the same principles will apply in terms of having people in certain places, having good contacts and knowing how you get in players who fit your structure.”

READ MORE: Neil Warnock on claims he threw his Aberdeen players 'under a bus'

Rae continued: “Continuity of ideas is something they have done successfully at Hoffenheim. When they bring in a coach there they are not just bringing in a name, they are bringing in somebody who fits the structures and ideas. That is a very German way of thinking.

“I don’t think it’s a very Scottish way of thinking. In Scotland it is usually a case of ‘who is the next big name we can bring in?’. A lot of the time, clubs are bringing in somebody who is ill-fitting, who doesn’t fit the players who are there.

“So then they have to undergo this huge clear out operation and bring in more players. Who knows if that manager is going to fit the players he brings in? Then you are stuck with players who don’t fit the next manager.

“Understanding the culture that is needed at a club for it to be successful is one of Peters’ strengths. So when, as inevitably happens, there needs to be a change of coaches the club is not changing from one style of horse to another, is not going from being a sprinter to a marathon runner.

“Hoffenheim is much more similar to Aberdeen than Hamburg in that it is a smaller operation and there is a commitment to trying to restart. I personally think, and I work in German football so I am maybe going to view it this way, it is a bold, correct and positive step that Aberdeen have made. I think they need to do something like this.

“It is about finding the five to 10 per cent advantage over other clubs through that. A lot of Scottish clubs have relied on the manager and his contacts. They can be good managers, but scouting is a totally different area as is youth academies. That is not their skillset.

“Aberdeen are looking to take it to the next level. They have produced some good individual players in the past few years, but it is that lack of joined up thinking that has perhaps been missing. Bernhard Peters is very good at identifying a style of play that can work.

“Scottish football is different from German football, but we can all learn things from other countries, especially countries with a track record like that of Germany.”