preview

This week’s main interview is with Nicky Weaver

The goalkeeper’s lot is not an easy one. You only have one potential spot in the team rather than the multitude that are open to the rest of your teammates. Even if you play a blinder, you are rarely the hero but rather you’re simply doing what’s expected of you. If you make a mistake, the buck stops with you, even if the ball didn’t. And, should you pick up an injury, the consequences are far greater for you than any outfielder because once the other guy is between the sticks, he takes some shifting. Oh, and they keep changing the balls to make it easier for strikers to bend them, shape them, any way they want them. With all that going on, it’s a wonder Nicky Weaver manages to stay so cheerful.

Nonetheless, like most goalkeepers, Weaver has a sunny disposition, well used to brushing off the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune as he is. He is one of those players with a proper sense of perspective, a real fan at heart and somebody who realises that, for all its ups and downs, there aren’t many better jobs on the market than that of professional footballer. He’s been doing it for a while now too.

…”The celebration has caused me nothing but embarrassment ever since! I still get asked about it all the time. I was only 20 and it was my first season, so I did not know any better. I did not realise what the score on penalties was because you are concentrating so much on saving them. All I remember was me asking the linesman, ‘If I save this do we win?’ and he said ‘Yes’. When I saved it, I waved the lads on and then started running and didn’t really stop! I did not want it to end so I carried on and then we had a mass pile up in the middle and I almost died of exhaustion underneath everyone! It is only when you look back now you realise how good it was to be a part of a day like that.

…”During that time (at Manchester City) we signed Peter Schmeichel, then David Seaman and then David James. To work with those three goalkeepers and to see how good they were, but at the same time to see how different they all were, was a great experience.

…”Everyone was saying this and that about me but I never said anything myself. It was others who said I would play for England. I had just turned 23 and I got injured and I then played one game in three years. It did hamper me a lot and at one time it looked as if I would have to pack the game in aged 24, 25. To still be playing at 34 after all that, I count myself very fortunate. I don’t really think about what might have been. It happened to me and I just get on with it. I am just grateful to still be involved in the game.

…”People say they nearly packed it in, but I was very, very close to calling it a day. I had to go over to America five times and I have had six operations on my knee, so I am under no illusions as to how lucky I am still to be playing. Obviously I would rather be playing in the first team, but I try and make the most of it and I am enjoying it. When you have been out injured for a long time, you realise how lucky you are to be doing what you are doing and, once you retire, you are retired for a long time then so I wanted to continue as long as I can.

…”Aberdeen is a proper football club. I spoke to the manager at length a couple of times over the summer and he had nothing but praise for the club. From the moment I got here until now, everyone has bent over backwards to make me feel welcome. It is a very well run football club, it is a big club, a club steeped in history, and I am thoroughly enjoying my time here. We are a striving for the same things and it looks like the good times could be just around the corner”.

The Young Dons feature is on Scott McKenna

“The one thing that has surprised me is the fact all the first team players send so much time speaking to the young boys and helping us. You are involved with them far more often that I thought we would be. Everyone at the club, including the manager, takes time out to speak to you. The older boys also come into the away dressing room and have a laugh with the boys”.

Scott has also had to suffer quite a bit of banter from the first team squad (and actually everyone at the club!) due to an uncanny resemblance to his fellow defender Joe Shaughnessy.

“When we were away in Ireland someone – I think it was Jamie Langfield or Josh – called me Joe 2 and the name has stuck! It did not help the fact we were dressed the same and wearing the same trainers! I think I am just going to have to accept it as my new name, everyone just calls me Joe 2!”

And the Former Players Interview is with Derek Stillie

…”I remember one of my first training sessions with the club in 1986, it was only a couple of weeks before Sir Alex Ferguson left and joined Manchester United. I remember thinking at the time that that would be my Aberdeen career over, which shows how innocent you are at that age! I am not actually sure the manager would have been aware which 13 year olds were at the club! But it’s nice to think that my Aberdeen career did overlap with Sir Alex’s.

…”There was no goalkeeping coach but I was very fortunate as Theo Snelders had not long come to the club. You could not have a better tutor than that. Ex-England International Joe Corrigan came for a short time, he was the first dedicated goalkeeping coach the club had before he joined Liverpool. After that, a Dutchman called Jerry van Eyck came in for a while but as I said, we had Theo who was just as good as any coach.

… “I started my studies when I was at Aberdeen. It worked well because I was able to study throughout my career and then able to give up the game on my own terms. I left Dunfermline and then went to Dundee United but felt I had achieved as much as I was going to achieve in football. I made the conscious decision to stop at that time and complete my studies and move across to law.

…”There was some interesting times while studying. I was lucky enough to get called into the Scotland squad at one point but the international was just before my exams. We were staying in the lovely Cameron House Hotel and I was stuck in the library with a pile of books whilst the rest of the players would be walking past, saying “What the hell is he doing?!

…”I work for a company called Kennedy’s based in London and live just outside Cambridge. We are a specialist law firm with an expertise in litigation and dispute resolution. I am still involved in football. I do a lot of work in the regulatory side of the sport. I do work with the FA and clubs in England, and there are some players that we represent. I have also written a couple of articles for The Times on the financial side of football.”

AFC Sticker Collection

Over the next few months, redmatchday will be giving away free stickers to collect and to put on your squad wallchart! The first eight stickers were in the Dundee United programme and there are a further eight on Monday evening. The wallchart was on sale at the Viking game. If you didn’t get one, don’t worry.

You can still get one from the AFC Club Shop and also online at the Curtis Sport website – www.curtis-sport.com

Alsoif you missed the Dundee United programme, you can buy one here, plus any other programmes you have missed throughout the season.

Also in this weeks redmatchday: Richard Gordon, Derek McInnes, Chris Crighton, Russell Anderson, Andrew Considine and Dave Macdermid. Plus all the usual features and indepth historical content.

redmatchday magazine is on sale from in and around the ground on Saturday and is also available from the Pittodrie Club shop still priced at £3.

You can pre-order a copy and have it delivered to your door – Visit www.curtis-sport.com and order your copy now or click here