Football: Rob MacLean; Big side? Dr Who are you kidding.
HOW Aberdeen supporters must wish they could take a trip back 20 years in Dr Who's Tardis. If you'd talked about a European League then the Dons would have been top of your list.My passport has never been so well-stamped as it was then. I was a local radio commentator in the North-East and considered it normal for my country- hopping to continue well beyond Christmas. Around Europe, Aberdeen were respected by most and feared by many.
Now it's the Old Firm who lead the way into Scottish football's new beginning. They're the biggest and best. And there's room for a third team in the proposed Saturday Euro League. Hearts and Hibs are front-runners and Dundee have big ideas while Kilmarnock, St Johnstone and Motherwell will all want to be there.
But Aberdeen? You've got to be kidding. Those days are gone and in the past they seem certain to remain. Forget European glory. Domestic survival is a bit nearer the truth.
"I'll show you mine, if you show me yours." The words belong to Eoin Jess.
He was asking this week if there was any real ambition left at Pittodrie. That was BB - Before Bohemians. I think Thursday night's debacle gave him all the answers he needed.
Jess, the local lad made good - although to most observers, should've done better - doesn't want to sign a new contract until he sees some hard evidence of a club committed to climbing back towards credibility.
His current deal, in his second spell at Aberdeen having been sent back from Coventry, is up at the end of the season.
The Aberdeen enigma's concerns are shared by his adoring North-East public. How can the team with the worst record in the Premier League last season be the only one to make no moves in the transfer market?
Where are the squad improvements which would ensure there will be no more embarrassing capitulations against the Old Firm? Why can a well-paid side not beat a bunch of Irish part-timers?
Ebbe Skovdahl said pre-season he was trailing a left-sided defender/midfielder. That appears to be the extent of his recruitment plans.
Now, for me, left-flank pair Jamie McAllister and Andy Dow were two of Aberdeen's better performers last season. Is it not the central core of the team that needs urgent attention?
But Skovdahl's modest spending plans are not based on a belief that the side is good enough as it is. They're based on a knowledge that money's too tight to even talk about.
Yes, there are promising youngsters on the staff. Anderson, Esson, McGuire, McNaughton and the Young brothers could all be part of a bright future if present problems can be dealt with.
The fall and fall of Aberdeen is nothing new. But I think the beginning of the decline even pre-dates the departure of Alex Ferguson - I reckon things started to slide even as the Dons were winning the European Cup Winners Cup 17 years ago.
Complacency set in, the winning feeling was taken for granted and, although the successful streak stretched on for another couple of years post-Gothenburg, the expertly-built squad was allowed to crumble.
That was maybe a natural reaction to the seasons of glory under Fergie's management. But, as the great man launches the new season in England with this afternoon's Charity Shield curtain-raiser, what must be unforgivable to the Aberdeen fans is that since 1983 little has been done to halt the slide.
No-one expected a return to those heady days of the late 70s and early 80s but there was surely, though, an entitlement to presume the team's fall from grace would have been a little less dramatic
Dons supporters worry that, despite last season's cup final double, their team is heading for another big fall.
HHE could be Handy Andy for ever more with any further confessions about washing dishes. And what's that? These domestic duties weren't even undertaken at gun point?
Andy McLaren had a strange way of celebrating a two-goal show against Rangers last weekend. He went straight to the kitchen sink with the same urgency he used to show heading for the pub to get himself well-lathered.
Cleaning up his act is the best thing he's done. Andy reckons he could now play for Scotland rather than drinking for his country, for which he was previously well qualified.
I hope he does. And he can celebrate by hoovering the front room!
BIG DEBUT IS IN CANNES
MY long-awaited Hollywood debut is due for release later this year.
Actually when I say MY big screen breakthrough, you'll have to let your eyes wander quite far down the credits to find commentators Rob Maclean and Andy Gray, the Sky football pundit.
Long after the names of Messrs Robert Duval, Michael Keaton and Ally McCoist are scrolled skywards, just ahead of the catering assistants and best boy, you will find our names on the list of cast and crew.
The film won't be "The Cup", I can exclusively reveal. It'll be "A shot to Glory" or words to that effect.
Andy and I have confirmed our availability to the producers for the movie launch at the Cannes Film Festival. Strangely, we haven't heard back.
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| Title Annotation: | Sport |
|---|---|
| Author: | McLean, Rob |
| Publication: | Sunday Mail (Glasgow, Scotland) |
| Date: | Aug 13, 2000 |
| Words: | 869 |
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