By Graham Hunter (in association the UEFA Europa Show)
Earlier this season, Graeme Shinnie returned home to Pittodrie, picking up the unfinished business that he left behind when he headed off to a new adventure in England in the summer of 2019.
I think we all hoped that one day, Shinnie would be back and how grateful are we that he did return? Leading from the front as he always did, the Dons’ number four has even found time to score three absolutely crucial goals, two as we clinched group stage football with a 3-0 win over St Mirren and then that absolute screamer at Ross County that helped propel us into the Viaplay Cup semi-final, and now final.
He’s making his presence felt in Europe too and, assuming he gets on the field on Thursday, he will be making his 24th appearance in European competition. That is a significant number, because it puts him above Bobby Clark and into the top 20 of Aberdeen’s European appearance makers, no small achievement.
“I’m whole-hearted, I like putting tackles in. I was never a dirty player, I was never one to recklessly try and hurt anyone; I’m not that type of player. But I’m whole-hearted and if the ball is there to be won, I’ll do anything to try and win it back for my team. In football, if you’re not giving 110%, then why are you playing? The passion needs to be there for your club and for your team-mates that you’re playing with, and I think that’s everything I want to be.
“Obviously, with the ball, I want to be as good as I can be with the ball and I’ll never downplay that side of my game. I always want to help my team-mates with getting forward or trying to get assists or starting attacks, to try and create openings for players to go and score goals. But I think fundamentally, my game is playing with that heart and that desire and that aggression, to try and stop attacks from the other team, win the ball back.
“I like to lead as well, showing my team-mates that the minimum we require on this pitch is to give everything. If you walk off the pitch having given 110% of your effort and determination, you can’t ask for much more than that. Naturally, you bring quality after that, but sometimes the quality is not always there. You have bad days, that happens, but always on the bad days, you want to come off thinking: “I gave my heart and my soul and I gave 110% for my team. It just wasn’t to be today.”
“For me, it’s always about playing with that desire and that passion. You win games, you look up into the stands and you see supporters cheering and singing your name, and that’s what football is all about. These feelings are hard to describe when you’re on that pitch, you’re full of adrenaline and they’re singing your name, they’re singing for the team and you’ve done well, you’ve made them happy. There’s no better feeling in football than that. Those are the days you remember.”
We’ve already mentioned the three goals Graeme has scored since returning to the Granite City, but perhaps the most memorable came first time around in a 2-1 win over Apollon Limassol in July 2017, a late screamer to win the tie. He remembers it fairly well…
“In terms of goals, it won’t get much better than the Limassol one for me – in terms of the goal in itself and everything around the goal as well: the magnitude of the game, the timing of the goal, the stadium was packed, Pittodrie was rocking. It’s a memory that is always right at the top of my list. I’ve won the Scottish Cup, I’ve played for Scotland and done different things, but that goal is always something that I remember: I remember the stadium rocking, singing my name.
“Those are things that you probably appreciate more when your career finishes and you look back at it a lot more, because right now when you’re playing, you still have a lot to focus on and you’re always looking forward. But, I admit I have watched that goal back quite a few times on YouTube! It’s one of the cleanest strikes I’ve hit. I’m not known for long-range shooting or anything like that, but the ball was just set up perfectly for me, sort of egging me on to shoot, and I thought, ‘Well, I’m going to have to go for it here.’
“Seeing it hitting the back of the net, the place erupting, to give that goal to the team and to put us 2-1 up in that game, it was such a good memory. I can hear the sound in my head. I think I responded to the crowd because they were all cheering, they were all singing my name. The buzz goes through your body in those moments. It’s a bit scary sometimes because the adrenaline runs through you so much that I lose control a little bit and sometimes, I watch it back and think, ‘Calm down a bit.’ But, that’s just the way I am: I get carried away in the moment. Whenever I get asked questions about what’s my favourite goal or anything like that, that’s the goal I always look back on. That’s one to show the grandkids and tell them I was actually half decent with the ball as well!”
