Through its near 120 year of history, Aberdeen Football Club has had few more loyal, long-standing servants than Neil Simpson, from footballer, to community officer and on to the man at the head of the club’s highly impressive youth academy. There has been the occasional spell away from Pittodrie, but the prodigal son has always returned to his roots and the club is the better for it. So as we head into another year with “Simmy of the Dons” still in harness, it seemed like a good time to reflect on some of that journey, going all the way back to the beginning…

“When I was a boy, I stayed in Clunie and one time, there was a big charity fete up there at the castle, I think I was 12 at the time. I went up to see it, not knowing Bobby Clark and Jim Hermiston were doing a “Beat the Goalie” thing. I paid my money for my three penalties and I still wind Bobby up about it, I put two past him and the other one, Jim saved! I’ve still got a great photo of me, Bobby and Jim from the day. Little did I know when I started my youth coaching on the red ash car park at Aberdeen that I’d be training under Bobby and Lenny Taylor. Their training regime was fantastic. You didn’t think anything about playing on the ash, you were just excited to be training at Aberdeen. The first team had these hairy jumpers they used, so if it was a really cold night, Teddy Scott would give us these jumpers to wear. You were just thinking, “Joe Harper has worn this!”

“I grew up in Clunie, a little village and I was about a mile and a half from school, so from five years old, I had to cycle to school! Then we moved to really out in the sticks, a mile off the main road, this was when I was six, so I’d be cycling about three miles to school – my Granny always said that’s where I got my energy and my stamina from! We moved to Newmachar a bit later, which was a great place to grow up, especially for football. It was wall to wall football, that’s all I ever did as a youngster, playing out in the park with my mates.

“I got tipped off that the Cubs had a football team so I joined them with all my mates and that was my first real organised football, playing against other Cub packs. My school didn’t play much organised football, but we’d play before and after school and at play time and lunch time, then out again after your tea. I grew up on a diet of football! Money was tight so I’d go tattie picking in the holidays to make a bit of money. In the summer holidays, we did something called barley roguing, taking the corn out of the barley. You were basically walking up and down fields of barley the whole day, it was tiring! We’d go fishing with my mates on the Elrick estate, where the Ingrams are making the gin now and doing really well, which is great to see.

“I’m really proud of my north-east heritage. I was brought up with people who spoke Doric, spoke it myself. I had a great childhood. I think those years growing up defined the person I’ve become. It was a farming community where people work really hard, you have to have that work ethic to survive, and I think that became my main asset as a player. Fergie demanded it of you anyway, but it was in my nature. And being from that area, you don’t get “too bigsy” as my Granny would say! You don’t play things up, you just get on with it, you keep your feet on the ground and I think that helped me as well.

“My mates were brilliant guys as well. My friend across the street from us, his dad used to go to football every week, so when I got to Primary 6 or 7, he’d take me and a few of the other boys to games. Little did I know it was the works van we were in, full of boys of 10 and 11 in the back of the van – you’d not get away with that nowadays! I vividly remember some games, like Honved, which was the first time I went to Pittodrie, Celta Vigo was brilliant. I remember my mum taking me to the Celtic game in the South Stand, when Zoltan Vara scored two goals, the famous lob, then Kenny Dalglish scored the winner with a diving header. The stand was full of Aberdeen and Celtic supporters but they were all looking after each other, there was no trouble, it was great.

“My Uncle Fred took me to a game against Dundee, we were in the Merkland. One of the Dundee players hit a bad shot, it went right up into the stand and my uncle caught it and give it me, I had the matchball in my hands! When you’re a young kid, you never forget that. I remember we played Leyton Orient in the Texaco Cup or the Anglo-Scottish, and Laurie Cunningham was playing for Orient. That’s a game that stands out for me.

“After that, I started playing more organised football. I played with Newmachar United, which was set up by one of the boys’ dad. I was only 12 at the time, but the team was a mix of ages from 12 up to 16, so to make sure we could all play, he entered us in the Under 16 league in Aberdeen! The first game, we lost 18-0 to Sunnyside, it was playing against these huge guys for me, but that was something that helped me in my career, playing against older boys and men, it forces you to develop quicker. Later I played for Middlefield Wolves and that was excellent, playing against boys my own age. We had a really good school team as well, boys like Stewart Forsyth who went on to play at Dundee, Les Watson played for Scotland Under 18s.

“I was never really thinking I could make a career out of football, I was just enjoying it, but for Middlefield Wolves, they organised a game down in Leven against Eastercraigs and there were scouts from every club there and I did quite well in that game. I got invited to Aston Villa, Manchester City, Blackpool. I was desperate to go to Blackpool because I’d been there on my holidays and I loved it! I went down with Stewart Forsyth for a trial at 14 at Aston Villa, that was the first one I had, and it was a great experience. Their first team were training on the pitch next to us and at the end, Andy Gray came across and said, “Scottish lads!” and joined in the five-a-side with us. That was the first taste and my first thought that football could maybe be a career.

“I remember signing for Aberdeen. Lenny came to my house on the Friday night and said Aberdeen really wanted me to sign and then on the Saturday, a scout from Middlesbrough came round and said, “We want to fly you down today to come to Middlesbrough.” Although my heart was always with Aberdeen, I flew down because they wanted me to just give them a chance and see what it was like there. I played for the reserves against Barnsley on the Monday night – I was only 15 – and we won 4-0, then the next day I played for the Under 18s which included David Hodgson, Mark Procter, Craig Johnston, a couple of others too who played at a really high level, a really good bunch. Harold Shepherdson, who had been assistant to Sir Alf Ramsey with England, was on the staff there and he took me into the office the next day and said, “There are the forms, we really want you to sign.” So I said I wanted to take them up the road to look at and think about, because in my head, I really wanted to sign for Aberdeen. When I got back up here, I phoned Lenny and said, “When can I sign the forms?” I had to let Middlesbrough down. I signed an S-form in November and then I left school that Christmas, 1977.

“Back then, we trained up at Seaton Park and as young boys, the reserves had to get there early, about nine o’clock and put the goals up and all of that. The goals were up at the TA, so we had to climb over the fence, go and get the goals and bring them back down to use! Archie Knox would mark out the training pitch and then the first team would arrive a bit later, around about ten. You can imagine in January, a cold winter’s morning, your hands are absolutely freezing as you’re putting up the metal goals! The surfaces were pretty good. The local authority were the main people looking after them and they kept them pretty lush, so they were great pitches to play on. Duthie Park at Hazlehead was excellent as well. To be honest, all I have of those days training in the parks are good memories. It was pretty special and there were a lot of great training sessions.

“I did my first pre-season in 1978 at Seaton Park, that was Fergie’s first as well. We did the “Seaton Run”, up the hill and round, it took about four minutes to complete, but you had to do it three times. I tell you, it was tough. The likes of Jim Leighton and Joe Harper weren’t maybe the fittest. You’d stop and get five minutes rest before you go again, so when the first group were ready to go again for the second run, Joe and Jim had only just arrived from the first, so they didn’t get the rest, we all started again together! When Teddy Scott would tell us in a morning, “You’ve got the Seaton Run today,” your heart would fall! It’s a true story that on one of the laps, Joe hid in the bushes and waited for everybody to come round again, so he only had to do two laps instead of three!

“We used to have people watching training, a lot of pensioners especially would come down and watch. There was this one guy, Orlando. We’d just beaten Waterschei 5-1, semi-final of the Cup Winners’ Cup, we got off the minibus and were walking down to the pitch and we could see him shaking his head. Stuart Kennedy shouts over, “What’s up with you Orlando?” “Oh, that away goal they got could be crucial!”

“It was very daunting coming into the club as a young boy. One minute I’m cheering Joe Harper and Davie Robb and the next I’m at the club. It took me a while to settle in but it’s always hard for any youngster. You’re used to playing at your boys’ club and then the level just goes through the roof. In the first three months, I just couldn’t see myself making it there because it was so different. Then Fergie came in and by the October, I’d made my debut for the first team, it was unbelievable. We played Stirling University in a friendly one Tuesday and Fergie was there – he used to go to every match, reserves, friendlies, he’d be away to England to watch games, him and Archie must have been out every night out of the week watching football. That day, I scored a perfect hat-trick, right foot, left foot, header. The following Tuesday, Fergie called me in the office and told me I was in the squad against Hamilton.

“I didn’t know what you were supposed to do, so I remember getting the bus and going to Doug Rougvie’s flat, so I had someone to follow! We went from there to the hotel for pre-match. They asked me what I wanted to eat, I hadn’t a clue, I just had a huge plate of mince and tatties and then played for my boys’ club normally! Everybody was having fillet steak – I’d never had a steak in my life, so I had one. Now everybody says it’s the worst thing you can have in terms of digestion and everything. Had that, went in to Pittodrie and I was on the bench. I used to dream of being in the Aberdeen team with Joe Harper and in my first game, I set up a goal for him, so it was a real proud moment. Then I walked to the bus station and got the bus home to Newmachar!”
Quite rightly, Sir Alex Ferguson has acquitted legendary status at Aberdeen for his incredible achievements, but as a result, perhaps the work of some of his loyal lieutenants has gone underreported. Neil puts that straight.

“I’ve gone on record as saying Archie Knox is the best coach I ever worked with. The sessions were dynamic, a lot of energy, great quality in every session. When Fergie started, the reserves and the first team used to train regularly together. You’d do possession work, passing work – Archie loved passing drills, “Drive your pass!” – a wee bit of function work and then small sided games. It was brilliant.

“As young players, we trained four afternoons a week and you’d get Friday afternoon off to rest up for the game on Saturday. It was a great standard because we had such a good crop of young players coming through then. I remember one day, Archie was laying into us, “The standard’s terrible. Hewitt, Black, your runs are terrible. Let me in there!” So he went in the penalty area, “This is how you run. Andy Dornan, get the ball into me!” So Andy gets the ball, and he rolled the ball through this dog mess – we were always dodging that on the park pitches! – and then whipped in a cross. Archie’s up like a salmon, heads it in the net, “That’s how it’s done!” We’re all laughing in the background – he didn’t know ‘til about 30 years later what he’d just headed! There’s no way we could have told him then – we’d still be lapping the track now!

“Fergie was an incredible man manager. When they won the league in 1980, he instilled a real belief in them. Going to Glasgow, it wasn’t about being thrilled to get a draw – you need to win down there. There were games that you look back on and you see what was starting to happen here. We beat Ipswich, who were the UEFA Cup holders, Peter Weir was outstanding that night. That gave us a boost and started us thinking we might do something really special, because it showed how far we’d come since the Liverpool game a year or so earlier.

“Then getting to the ’82 cup final and coming from behind against Rangers to win, that showed great character and that was a big moment for that team. Our fitness was unbelievable, even against European opposition, we could just knock them off with our sheer endurance. Everyone saw that when we overran Rangers in extra-time. But there were a lot of good players here, that’s the way you have success.

“There was a photo taken at Pittodrie and there must have been 20 players on that picture who had played for Scotland at one level or another, all on the books at that time. You had Willie Miller, Gordon Strachan, Alex McLeish who were playing at the World Cup and getting great experience. Then there was me, Eric Black, Neale Cooper, John Hewitt who were all under-21s for Scotland and got to the semi-final of the European Championships. It was all just coming together, a lot of great experience, the younger boys playing lots of big games for Aberdeen and Scotland, getting some big wins behind us, everything was happening at the same time.

“Fergie did create a siege mentality here, it was all about playing for the city. Fergie was the one that made it all happen, he was a winner, he drove it on, but he then had guys like Willie Miller, Alex McLeish, Stuart Kennedy. Stuart was a big part in my development. If you were on his team in training, you learnt how to play! If you were up the pitch, he’d scream at you to get back if it broke down! He instilled the idea that you didn’t lose, even in training, that you did everything right, that you trained like it was a first team game at Pittodrie. But everybody there hated losing and every young boy that came into it, that was all you knew. You had to be the same and if you weren’t, you weren’t getting in the team. And everybody there wanted to play every week, nobody was happy being on the bench or left out, we all wanted to play.

“The crowd became the same and that is a pressure, but they were very fair with us. If they saw you were giving it your best, playing with honesty, then even if you did make a mistake, they’d stick with you. We had a lot of local boys and people say it’s sometimes harder for the local lads to get the crowd onside but we never found that. Myself, Eric Black, Bryan Gunn, Neale Cooper, John Hewitt, then add that to the Glasgow boys like Wille, Alex, Stuart and then Fergie himself of course, you had an unbelievable combination. And they were great times in the area too because the oil boom had started, it was a thriving city, people had a bit more money, the football club was winning things, it was a special period.”

Neil did eventually move on to try his luck away from Pittodrie, but the call of home was always a strong one.

“I had a spell away with Newcastle and Motherwell and it was a good experience to play elsewhere, especially to play in England, but my roots were always here, I always thought I’d be coming back. I was back up here at Cove Rangers initially, I was playing, I was assistant manager and doing a bit of commercial work too, but I was only there three months and the Scottish FA came along and asked if I was interested in a football development job.

“I’d started doing my coaching badges at Largs and it just seemed a great opportunity. I enjoyed working with young players, because going right back to my time in the first team at Aberdeen, I used to go and do some work at Newmachar Primary School, coaching the school team one night a week. If we were at home, I’d go and watch them on the Saturday morning and then go for my pre-match meal! I did that for about three years. Newmachar Primary School would be playing a game in the morning and then I’d head into Pittodrie and play against Celtic in the afternoon! Getting involved with the coaching education with the SFA up in Elgin was excellent and it was a really enjoyable time.

“Then in 2001, Aberdeen approached me to come back and be involved in the community department – Dave Cormack was involved in that. It was a more football orientated programme back then, coaching youngsters, and we had a great team of coaches, developing football, trying to get it into the community. We ran a lot of coach education courses, we’d run coaching sessions at Balgownie, we’d have 200, 300 kids there every summer. It was brilliant. Then Lenny Taylor took over as head of the academy and asked if I would join as his assistant and I jumped at the chance to work with the elite young players. Having been involved in that programme myself as a boy, it was almost full circle, and being involved with Len again was brilliant.”
The youth set up has evolved and developed over the years, such that now, it ranks with any in the country, a source of great pride for Neil.

“We have a great team in the academy who do so much hard work. Everyone works long, long hours but they make such a difference. Obviously this year in particular has been very challenging, but Gavin Levey, Liam McGarry, Scott Anderson and all the other part-time coaches have done a wonderful job. We did a huge programme to keep all the kids interested, we engaged the parents with regular Zoom calls.

“We’ve gradually got back to some sort of normality with the games, but I do feel really sorry for the parents. They invest so much time in it all. We’ve got boys in Fraserburgh, Peterhead, Elgin which means a lot of travelling and because of the Covid rules, the parents are not allowed to watch their boys play, and I think that is really sad. The sooner we can get back to playing at an elite level again, the better. That’s my hope for the near future.

“Cormack Park has been everything we could have hoped. When we were training at Balgownie or the Sports Village, everyone was so good to us and they were good facilities, but they weren’t our facilities, and that makes a difference, it makes everything so much more challenging. Now you turn up at Cormack Park with everything as we want it, and the facilities are just amazing. We don’t have to phone up other clubs and say we can only play one game because we’ve only got one pitch! It has taken us to another level and everybody is thoroughly enjoying being a part of it.

“We’ve got high hopes for a number of youngsters coming through but I always stress that you can have all the talent in the world but you need to be grounded, work hard, be ready to learn from the coaches every day. Every day they have to try and improve and get in that first team. It’s difficult, that’s been shown down the years. It’s a very high level, Aberdeen have been in the top two or three teams in the country pretty consistently since Derek McInnes arrived, so the standards are very, very high. They need to show the right attitude and commitment and then the skill they’ve got can shine through. But hopefully we’ll have a number of young players coming through and making their debuts in the next few years.”