With Russell unlikely to add to his current total of 6 caps tomorrow, it could be that he joins a long list of Dons players with under ten caps. I thought it would be interesting to have a look at some of these sub-ten-cap wonders, kicking off with some of the more recent ones. Were they overlooked or did they underachieve?
Paul Bernard – caps: 2
Stephen Glass – caps: 1
Robbie Winters – caps: 1
Quick answer – underachieve. These three played for Aberdeen as we were plummeting to levels of obscurity unheard of since the inception of the Premier League in the seventies.
Bernard gained his caps before the Dons even signed him, while he was at Oldham, and it was the promise of a guaranteed future international regular that bumped his price tag up to the £1m mark, a figure not touched before or since in a single transfer by the Dons. To say that this promise was wide of the mark is an understatement, as Bernard combined injury with some masterful on-field blousery to be one of Aberdeen's worst signings ever. The chance of him earning more Scotland caps disappeared as he chose to run down his lucrative contract and vanish. What is he doing now? Who cares?
Glass and Winters both left the Dons just as they were entering their peak, and the dreadful career decisions made by each is crystal clear when looking at the number of caps picked up since leaving Pittodrie.
Brian Irvine – caps: 9
David Robertson – caps: 3
Duncan Shearer – caps: 7
Stephen Wright – caps: 2
Moving a bit further back, to the start of the 1990s, we find these four players, each of whom is not so easy to pigeonhole. Wright's career ended prematurely through injury, and as he had signed for rangers by this point would have probably added to his cap total unless mysteriously withdrawn from the squad like so many other Ibrox-based Scots.
It was always assumed that Davie Robertson was much better going forward than defending, so therefore he had no place in Roxburgh and especially Brown's teams.
Shearer however was prime Brown material, but was deemed too old by the time he hit his peak, and was indeed upstaged by fellow Highland brute John McGinley who plied his trade in England (therefore, obviously, making him the better player according to Brown).
Brian Irvine, most would argue, is not an international player. But if nothing else he was dependable, solid if slow, and gave everything for the shirt. Sadly, only having some of these qualities is now celebrated in the likes of Pressley and Weir, rather than merely accepted as the bare minimum.
Eric Black – caps: 2
Bryan Gunn – caps: 6
Stuart Kennedy – caps: 8
Mark McGhee – caps: 4
Doug Rougvie – caps: 1
Neil Simpson – caps: 5
Peter Weir – caps: 6
Now we enter perhaps the most shocking list – the one that includes the double European trophy winners, multiple Premier Division championship winners, and multiple Scottish and League Cup winners. These players were involved in victories against English champions Ipswich, European champions S.V. Hamburg, and the introduction-not-necessary pair of Real Madrid and Bayern Munich. These seven astonishing players have 32 caps…between them. Mark McGhee has four caps. He scored two goals, one against England. A goal every two games. Clearly that sort of performance is far too good for Scotland.
Arthur Albiston, John Wark, Ray Stewart, David Speedie, Graeme Sharp, Murdo McLeod…what did these players do to deserve inclusion ahead of Aberdeen's legends? I would even include Steve Nicol who, despite his Liverpool form, did nothing for Scotland. The old argument about Scottish players playing in England rears its head here, and while not wanting to go over old ground, it is a continual theme of Scotland squads that players who ply their trade outwith Scotland are believed to be of higher quality than those who play in God's ain country, and this blinkered vision has been proved wrong time and time again yet is continually adhered to.
The argument will run that Scotland had too many good players at the time to let in any of Aberdeen's so-called bit-part players. The counter-argument is simple. In how many tournaments did Scotland get past the first stage while the supposedly better, English-based players were playing? History speaks volumes.
However, despite the eye-opening list above, I believe there is one Aberdeen player that has far, far less caps than he deserved in a glittering career.
Willie Miller – caps: 65, 12 as captain
For Willie Miller to have only gained 65 caps in a fifteen year international career, and for only twelve of these to have been as captain, is an outrage. You don't think so? Well drink this in. Tom Boyd has seven more caps than Willie. Case closed.
Good luck to Scotland's boys against the Italians tomorrow – they'll probably need it.
C'mon Scotland!
Cms1903