Where is Russell Anderson?

No, not literally, but something it is likely we will be asking in 5 years time.

If you’re an Aberdeen fan, I don’t need to explain what Russell Anderson was to Aberdeen, but if you aren’t, well…
Anderson joined Aberdeen in 1996. Ten years later he was awarded with a testimonial and in his testimonial season captained Aberdeen to European qualification for the first time in 5 years. He was not the type of captain who just screamed at his team-mates but more one who led by example. He motivated them this way as well, in co-operation with the Aberdeen support. While Ricky Foster couldn’t tackle a fish supper, Anderson was a literal brick wall in the Aberdeen defence and every time he broke down yet another attack, the red army bellowed out his name. When Anderson took the armband, Aberdeen suddenly seemed to make games against Rangers slightly competitive, and Anderson did in fact open the scoring in the 3-2 win over them which ended a 7 year wait for victory over Rangers. It was fitting in his final game he once again lead his team to a win against Rangers at Pittodrie which also secured European qualification.

That summer, teams from all over the UK made bids for Anderson, but in the end he signed for Sunderland for £1,000,000. Showing what a person he was, he donated his signing on fee to Aberdeen’s youth program.

He made his debut for Sunderland against Wigan as a substitute. A mere 15 seconds after coming on, he was outpaced by Emile Heskey of all people, and gave away a penalty, leading to Sunderland losing their lead and two points. I don’t recall him ever making a premier league appearance again after that for Sunderland and half way through the season he ended up joining Plymouth on loan, before Burnley this summer. The only thing we’ve heard of him since is he’s injured his cruciate ligament. Bye bye career. His time at Sunderland when he was ‘playing’ for them was also unusually hampered by injuries, which were very uncommon when he was at Aberdeen.

His premier league dream is pretty much down the pan and he will presumably slowly creep down the leagues before making a guest appearance for Droylsden in a charity match when he’s 46.

How could a player that was so much to Aberdeen and classed brilliant for SPL standards be so hopeless and unwanted in England?

To the point, how many players are there in the Championship or League One that could have a huge impact on Aberdeen? Is every centre back in the Championship as good as Anderson? If so, why haven’t we signed one? Because we don’t have the cash? Well we received £1,000,000 for Anderson, he left a year and a half ago and we haven’t replaced him yet. Did Calderwood/Milne/Miller think we could cope without replacing our main centre back? Did they think £1,000,000 would be enough to find someone as good or even better than Anderson? If not, why did they take such a measley (in modern football) offer? Too many questions to be asked.

But back to the point and another example is Aluko. He warmed the reserve team bench at Birmingham, give him a shot in the SPL and he looks like Pele. He single handedly tore the champions of the Bundesliga to pieces with Europe watching.

To a lesser extent there is the likes of Gary McDonald. Signed from Oldham Athletic of League One this summer and looks like a piece that’s been missing from the Aberdeen team for a while.

So maybe it’s time for Calderwood to stick his Dutch contacts up his ar*e and look closer to home. It’s like he’s being offered Coca-Cola or Tesco’s 10p Cola and he takes the 10p Cola because it’s cheaper even though he knows it’s ****! Spend some money and get the real thing.


Written by “Diehard”