Robin Veldman says Queen's Park can flourish by following Ajax and Anderlecht blueprint

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 stepped down from his role as assistant boss at Belgian giants Anderlecht to take 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.”