BBC Radio Scotland's Richard Gordon will be in the AFC Club Shop at Pittodrie this Thursday (17th December) night signing copies of his latest book. Richard will be there from 5.00pm-7.00pm. 

Richard wrote the following article about his book for his RedMatchday column recently:

I have often thought that one of the best places to sit at any football stadium is in the seats just behind the dugouts. Here at Pittodrie, for instance, those just behind the home technical area get a first hand insight into Derek McInnes’ thoughts and feelings as he plots his way through the match. They hear what he’s shouting to players – his own and the opposition – and how he feels about decisions made by the referee; and they get the first inkling of likely substitutions.

They’re also privy to ‘conversations’ with the visiting coaching staff, and get a close-up experience of the vast range of emotions which spill over throughout the ninety minutes; from humour to fury and just about everything else in between.

No matter how close you are however, nothing is quite like being inside that sacred area by the side of the pitch, and according to many of those who patrol it, nothing quite prepares you for the feelings it provokes.
While researching my last book about the 1974 World Cup squad, I was having a chat with the Scotland manager, Gordon Strachan, and he was recounting a string of unbelievable, and at times, hysterical incidents which had unfolded during his managerial career. He ended with a chuckle and said, “Someone should write a book about that you know…” and that got me thinking.

Almost two years on, and after countless texts, phone calls and interviews – with large and equal measures of frustration and uncontrollable laughter heaped into the process – that book, ‘Tales From The Dugout’ has now been published.

We launched it at Pittodrie earlier in the season; the obvious place given, as many of you will be aware, that was the site of the first ever dugout, constructed back in the 1930s by club legend Donald Colman. The Dons coach was a visionary, and adapting an idea he had picked up while working in Norway, he had his new home installed below pitch level so he could better assess and monitor the movements of his players.
Little did Donald know what madness and mayhem his invention would help to unleash in the decades that followed!

The evolution of the dugout is covered in the Introduction to the book, but it is, in the main, a collection of first-hand accounts from players, managers, coaches and officials of the stressful/hilarious/quite frankly unbelievable situations which develop down there.

Craig Brown, Pat Nevin, Kenny Clark, Chick Young and Gordon each gave detailed accounts of their experiences, allowing me to draw from their different perspectives, and each provided enough material for separate chapters.

The rest of the book consists of technical area memories, some longer than others, and while there are inevitably the confrontations and bust-ups, what became clear in compiling them was the humour which pervades across the board. Or maybe the guys just prefer to remember the laughs rather than the fights…

So, if you want to know which physio passed out in the dugout in an alcohol-fuelled haze; which former Aberdeen boss opened the wrong door and fell down a dozen stairs into a boiler room; which current manager once answered the call of nature in the away dugout at Pittodrie; or just generally revel in the bizarre goings-on in the technical area, might I respectfully suggest that ‘Tales From The Dugout’ (published by Black & White, RRP £9.99) which is available in all good bookshops and online, would be just the buy for you!