True Don Moves On

June 28th: True Don Moves On

So it's the end of an era for Russell Anderson and Aberdeen FC with him completing a £1m move to the English Premiership with Sunderland. Given the current market, Sunderland have got a bargain! I remember a few years ago taking my wee girl to a reserve game at Pittodrie (it was Aberdeen v Celtic).

Anyway, they had a kind of open night at the game and Ailsa and I queued up (she was about 5 at the time) to get a huge foam hand signed by the players who were sitting there (this was the mid-week after a seven nil humping from Celtic at Parkheid the previous Saturday) and Russell signed it for her. It's still in the house somewhere.

Anyway, you could see the guy was embarrassed to be sat there and it must have been hard to do given the hurt such a good professional player must have felt having to endure smart arse comments such as "nae such a good result at the weekend eh" to which he responded "aye, it was terrible" and then I retorted "too right it was I had to sit and watch it", it needed to be said just to vent my spleen and he got a red face to match the colour of the teams kit and looked at his feet, but the point is he took it on the chin and over time moved his game up to a better level after that watershed of a result and left the Dons with his head held high having captained them back into Europe.

He donated his slice of the transfer fee back into youth development at the club. That's a top gesture from a person who is very obviously level headed and can see the bigger picture. I hope he does well down South and that Sunderland stay up. I do wonder if his Scotland chances will improve now he's left what is according to the Daily Ranger a "provincial" club. For those in a different country read Ranger as Record, a down beat tabloid newspaper that is biased towards the West of Scotland population. The context of "provincial" leaves no doubt they class us as peasants.

Aye right, Aberdeen still remain the only Scottish team to win two European trophies. Provincial my arse!

Good luck Russell, get right intae them!