It had looked like the playmaker could leave Pittodrie this month after falling out of favour under Jimmy Thelin
19:00, 14 Jan 2026Updated 19:38, 14 Jan 2026
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Rangers' Mikey Moore and Aberdeen's Leighton Clarkson in action (Image: )
Peter Leven has admitted Leighton Clarkson is back in his Aberdeen plans because he can offer that X Factor.
The midfielder, who looks likely to play a central role in the Scottish Cup clash with Raith Rovers on Sunday, looked like he could depart in this window after seeing his playing time and involvement marginalised under former boss Jimmy Thelin.
Clarkson came off the bench at Ibrox and started the weekend return clash with Rangers. The former Liverpool youngster was also pivotal in Leven’s last unbeaten interim run two seasons ago.
Leven confirmed: “He's a very good footballer. He sees things that I don't think many people see. His vision, his calmness on the ball.
“He should have scored the other night (against Rangers). It was a great move. I don't know why he never went where he was right.
"But the move from the goalkeeper all the way through, right up, it was great. I don't know why he's not started as much. But listen, as I said, everybody's got their opportunity to impress myself and the staff in training.”
Clarkson is now in the final 18 months of his contract.Record Sportunderstands he was keen to go if he couldn’t get game time at Pittodrie.
The one thing is that Aberdeen will be keen to protect the significant six figure investment they made to take him from the English Premier League champions back in 2023.
Clarkson hasn’t been short of interest in recent seasons. Major League Soccer side Los Angeles FC and big-spending Stockport County have both made previous moves.
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Aberdeen interim manager Peter Leven(Image: )
Leven admitted that a decision on Clarkson is down to the player, his representatives and Aberdeen sporting director Lutz Pfannenstiel.
Leven claimed: “Possibly, but that's Lutz's department. Again, he's obviously spoken to players and agents and stuff like that.
“So, again, I'm only dealing with what I've got here in the building right now.
“I’m taking it day by day.
“So what I've got, I'm going to use to my advantage.”
There are players in the Aberdeen squad who have already been told they can go. The likes of Ante Palaversa, Peter Ambrose, Kusini Yengi and Vicente Besuijen are all likely to depart. Palaversa has strong interest from a few European leagues, including Belgium, Croatia and Romania.
Leven has admitted that he hasn’t and wouldn’t close the door on anyone, as long as they are contracted to Aberdeen.
He confirmed: “As I said yes, it’s a clean slate for everybody.
“Again, it's who's shown me on the training pitch, who looks fired up for this and I've no qualms of picking anybody that I see that is working hard in training.”
Nick Milanovic is one of those who was given a rare start at the weekend. The A-League’s young player of the year moved to Aberdeen in a six figure move in the summer. He came in and struggled to make an early impact and also dropped on to the fringes.
Leven added: “I had a chat with him the other day.
“Obviously, the change of system didn't help him because obviously he's been brought in to be a winger.
“We obviously went to the three at the back, it hasn't helped him.
“But listen, it's something we'll look to speak to him about because he's been training really well recently.
“So it's something that I need to think about.”
Leven is hoping Aberdeen can make a successful first defence of their Scottish Cup.
It is a potential banana skin when Dougie Imrie takes his Championship side north.
Leven has told his players they need to take more responsibility on their shoulders and be better in both boxes.
The former Kilmarnock assistant manager acknowledged: “Possibly, we’re just losing goals when we should be doing better.
“It's taking responsibility, taking ownership.
“It’s just doing the basics right.
“I said, we have spoken about it and we've worked on it.
“Again, it's part of football.
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“But again, the stats are five goals we've conceded from corners.
“There's a lot of teams that have conceded more goals than us."