It's about time we did another Meat Pie feature about the best team in Scotland. Now, we know that statement should come with a standard disclaimer, but as we exclusively revealed in an earlier Meat Pie article a few weeks back, had it not been for the Old Firm last season the mighty Aberdeen FC would have been league champions. So with that indisputable fact out of the way, let us proceed.
Aberdeen manager Jimmy Calderwood is still looking to bring in some more players, mainly defenders, before the transfer window closes at the end of this month. CSKA Sofia's Quido Lanzaat has returned to Bulgaria following his trail period which, according to Calderwood anyway, seemed to have gone pretty well. Also in the frame is Alan Maybury, the Republic of Ireland international who spent most of last season on loan at Pittodrie but who turned down the offer of a full-time contract at the end of the season. Despite a trail at Bristol City, no deals are on the table for the 30 year-old right-back, potentially leading to Aberdeen making another move for a player who performed well for the Dons last season and who could secure the right-back position where Richard Foster has been struggling recently.
All of which brings us neatly to the subject of today's Meat Pie. We were somewhat disappointed, but not surprised, to read that Sunderland's Russell Anderson has been sent on loan to Owen Coyle's Burnley for the rest of the season. He'll join up there with a growing Scottish contingent including Steven Caldwell, Kevin McDonald and Graham Alexander.
Following on in a great tradition of Aberdeen central defenders such as Young, Clunie, Buchan, Rougvie, Miller and McLeish, Russell Anderson, sold to Sunderland before the start of the 2007/08 season for a not altogether unreasonable sum of £1m, had been with Aberdeen since 1996 and made over 300 appearances for the club. Capped 7 times for the national side, he was widely regarded as one of the best defenders in Scotland, and his move south left Aberdeen with a tremendous problem. Together with Zander Diamond, the Aberdeen central defence was just beginning to re-establish itself as one of the more resolute back-lines in the SPL. Still without an obvious replacement - Foster and Considine are too inexperienced while Scott Severin is a midfielder - Aberdeen's defence has looked shaky of late. The goal conceded against Rangers on Saturday came from a free-kick that should never have been given away and which showed Considine's inexperience at this level, while David Weir was able to turn and rise above striker Lee Miller to head the 'Gers into the lead. You'd have to wonder if that would have been allowed to happen had Anderson - or even Diamond, out with an injury - been in the centre of defence.
Anderson has only played once for Sunderland since his move from Pittodrie. His debut - and swan song - came against his new teams 3-0 defeat to Wigan in the first game of the season, when he came on for Paul McShane in the second half. We'd gotten so used to seeing Anderson in the red and white of Aberdeen that it was strange to see him in other colours, a feeling somewhat like the feeling you get when your girlfriend cheats on you with the ugly bloke from up the road. His first action in the game was to give away a penalty, following a bad tackle that brought down Emile Heskey. Anderson picked up an injury in that game and never played for Sunderland again that season; finding it hard to re-establish himself in the first-team squad, he was farmed out to Plymouth on a season long loan. With the imminent arrival of the experienced central defender Anton Ferdinand from West Ham, it looks increasingly unlikely that Russell will be seen in a Sunderland shirt any time soon.
The reason for the lament we suppose is because deep down we're disappointed that a player that was held with such high regard north of the border is slowly slipping down the English leagues and into possible obscurity; we'd hate for him to end up like local-boy Eoin Jess, another highly regarded player at Pittodrie who didn't do too well when he went down south (unless you call spells at teams such Coventry, Bradford, Nottingham Forrest and Northampton 'doing well'). Jess played for Aberdeen between '87 and '96, then left for Coventry before returning north again in '97. He stayed until 2001 when he left to go to Bradford and other assorted mid-table mediocrity. He scored 50 goals in his first spell with The Dons and 30 in his second; he's currently youth team coach at Nottingham Forest.
Anderson and Jess are not the only players who left Aberdeen to seek their fame and fortune elsewhere. Some of those who preceded them included:
Doug Rougvie, a central defender of some class, who played for Aberdeen between 1975 and 1984 and made 279 appearances, scoring 21 goals along the way. Sold to Chelsea in 1984 for £150k, his lack of pace and his cavalier approach to tackling the opposition (he was sent off for head-butting John Fashanu) meant few regular appearances. He did notch up 100 games for Chelsea, scoring three goals. He later played for Fulham, Shrewsbury Town and Dunfermline as well as briefly managing Montrose.
Jim Leighton, the bandy-legged goalie who made over 391 appearances for the Dandies. Part of the team that won the Cup Winners Cup in '83, Leighton drew compliments from Peter Shilton and Brian Clough and became a rare breed - a Scottish goalkeeper that could be relied upon. He moved down south with Fergie in '88 and despite a good first season, things soon went downhill. His loss of form saw him fade from view before eventually turning up again at Pittodrie via Arsenal, Reading, Sheffield United, Dundee and Hibernian. He retired after a shocking Ally McCoist foul three minutes after kick-off in the 2000 Scottish Cup final. Robbie Winters took over and Aberdeen lost 4-0.
Another Gothenburg hero, Gordon Strachan was one of the first of Fergie's Babes to leave Aberdeen. He moved to Manchester United in 1984 in a £500,000 transfer. He was initially quite successful but then loss of form saw him lose his place in the team. He moved on to Leeds United and helped them win the old Second Division and promotion to the First Division. Voted Footballer of the Year in 1991 following a season in which Leeds finish fourth, he moved to Coventry in 1995 as player-coach, then Southampton, before coming back to Scotland as the new Celtic manager where he's now hoping to be the first manager since Jock Stein to win four league titles in a row.
Stevie Archibald, the only ex-Aberdeen player to appear on Top of the Pops not once, but twice, played at Aberdeen for four seasons, leaving for Tottenham Hotspur in 1980. He played in Spain for Barcelona and RCD Espanyol before coming back to Scotland with St Mirren, Clyde and East Fife. A desperate bid to buy Airdrie - a bid which seemed to involve buying loads of Spaniards - eventually failed and he scurried back to Spain where he currently lives.
Together with Stevie Archibald, Martin Buchan was the most successful of the ex-Aberdeen players to move south. Buchan was, like Anderson, a central defender, but it was at Manchester United for whom he signed in 1972 for £120,000 that he had his greatest successes. He stayed on at United until 1983 when injuries caught up with him, bringing to an end a career which saw him rack up 456 games in total and 34 caps for Scotland.
Our last contender is Neale Cooper, another uncompromising defender (his nickname was 'Godzilla' on account of his ferocious tackling) who played for Aston Villa and Reading as well as managing Gillingham, Hartlepool and Ross County. He's currently manager at Peterhead where he recently masterminded a 4-0 demolition of a full strength Aberdeen side.
Given the lack of confidence that most Aberdeen fans have in the current central defensive options at Pittodrie, it would have been good to see Russell come back north. It's hard to say how he'd have performed had he been given more run-outs for the Black Cats and perhaps had he not made that rash challenge in the game against Wigan, Sunderland might not be bringing in Ferdinand. The change from the SPL to the EPL is a pretty big one and Anderson needed playing-time to adapt his game to suit the faster pace and skill-level of the English leagues.
We've not seem him play since that Wigan game, but we trust that he's improved substantially during his loan-spell in the Championship at Paul Sturrock's Plymouth and we'd welcome him back anytime he wants to move north, hopefully twice the player he was when he left Aberdeen.
No comments:
Post a Comment