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SHEARER
WONDERLAND
SHEARER
WONDERLAND
DUNCAN SHEARER
WITH
PAUL SMITH
11 12 13 14
CONTENTS
1
A SENSE OF PERSPECTIVE
15
22
37
SUSPICIOUS MINDS
44
54
62
70
83
88
12 ABERDEEN AMBITION
98
13 PRIDE OF SCOTLAND
111
119
134
149
17 HAMPDEN GLORY
156
18 HIGHLAND HOMECOMING
167
171
181
21 GOING HOME
187
194
204
213
221
26 JOB-SEEKING
228
27 TWO JAGS
235
242
SHEARER WONDERLAND
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The first people I should thank are those this book is dedicated
to who sadly will not get the chance to read it. To my late mum,
dad and brother Willie, I say I love you and miss you. Mum,
nobody could make scones like you. Dad, I miss your poaching
and shinty stories over a few drams. Willie, sorry you ended up
supporting Rangers but we can carry on that argument another
time. They were all there at the beginning of the journey, a road
on which so many other people, far too many to mention, have
helped me along the way.
Two of the great inspirations have been my children, Hayley
and William. Im proud to be your dad now stop reading this,
and go and clear up your rooms. I have to thank the rest of the
Shearer family too, not least my brothers and sisters, for always
being there whenever I have needed them.
Mike and Nita, my father- and mother-in-law, have also been
a tremendous influence on me since the day they took me under
their wing when I moved to London as a young man. I thank
them both for their daughter Michele, who became my wife, and
Nita for the piece of cheese that was served up for my first
meal in England all those years ago.
In football, I must note my appreciation for the late Rod Clyne.
It was Rod who spotted my potential while I was playing in the
SHEARER WONDERLAND
1
A SENSE OF PERSPECTIVE
I know many people who would agree with Bill Shanklys famous
old claim that football is far more important than life or death.
Im afraid, on that issue at least, the great man got it wrong.
Football can give you shiny medals, a big pay packet, a nice
house and fancy cars. Thats all well and good, but none of that
really matters in the grand scheme of things.
It took the death of my brother, William, in 2005 to hammer
that home to me. It was a lesson late in life but it is one that
will stay with me for the rest of my days. I count myself very
fortunate that I managed to get a few seconds with Willie during
his final hours and in that time he put life in perspective for
me.
I was still coming to terms with everything that had happened
when Steve Paterson and I had been in charge at Aberdeen and
the way that had come to an end so suddenly. To be part of the
management team at Pittodrie had been a dream come true for
me and when it was snatched away it hit me hard.
Fortunately I had my big brother to put me in my place. He
was terribly ill in hospital, fighting for every breath, when he
turned to me and said: If you think youre feeling down, try
landing up in a wheelchair when youre nineteen. Try getting
cancer when youre forty-four. Youve nothing to be down about.
He was right, and Ill never ever forget that. It took something
1
SHEARER WONDERLAND
A SENSE OF PERSPECTIVE
SHEARER WONDERLAND
A SENSE OF PERSPECTIVE
SHEARER WONDERLAND
A SENSE OF PERSPECTIVE
SHEARER WONDERLAND
From memory the driver was banned from driving for a year
and fined for his part in the accident but Im guessing he has
paid far more than that by living with what he did for all these
years. I know it isnt something I would want on my conscience.
All we could do as a family was get on with life and make
the best of the hand wed been dealt. Dad and Finlay looked out
for Willie, who had a wee bell to ring when he needed anything.
There were home helps to lend a hand and everyone did what
they could.
It was difficult to take. He had his whole life ahead of him.
Who knows what he might have gone on to do had he not been
cut down in his prime. It was a wake-up call for me and I wanted
to make the best of the opportunities that I had.
2
TRIALS AND TRIBULATIONS
Ill never forget sitting on the Scotland team bus after a training
session at Greenock and catching the eye of one of the Morton
coaches who was loading balls into the boot of his car. It was
the old Rangers defender Davie Provan, who was working with
the Morton youth team at Cappielow at the time. He looked up
and gave me a knowing wink he remembered me just as much
as I remembered him.
The fact that I was sitting there with the national squad was
a gentle reminder that hed got it wrong when he decided I wasnt
good enough to make it as a footballer while I was just a teenager.
That was when Davie was with Partick Thistle and had the task
of taking the young players under his wing at Firhill. To be fair
to him, I made it easy for him to cross me off his list of potential professionals.
It was the summer of 1979 when my good friend Alan
McKinnon and I were invited down from Fort William to
Glasgow for a weeks trial with the Jags. Alan had spent the
season before with Clach and had shown up well in the Highland
League playing as a striker, while Id been playing away in the
Lochaber welfare leagues, still just a lad of sixteen. Partick obviously saw it as a bit of an untapped market and, as well as
looking at the pair of us, there was also word of them looking
at my brother Willie, who was a fast and strong defender before
9
SHEARER WONDERLAND
SHEARER WONDERLAND
and for a young lad from the north it was an intimidating environment to be parachuted into.
The thing that sticks in my mind is how nice John McMaster
was to me he went out of his way to come and talk to me and
give me encouragement. He didnt have to do it, but it was a great
help in settling me in. Its easy for senior pros to live in a bubble
and let the world revolve around them, but John was a class apart.
It was a baptism of fire working with Alex Ferguson and Archie
Knox. There was no question the pair of them were in charge and
even in the week I had with them I knew exactly how big an
influence they were on everything at Pittodrie.
I trained away for the week and really enjoyed my time, scoring
five in one of the bounce games we played and giving a good
account of myself. I went back to Clach on the Saturday but soon
enough Alex Ferguson called up the chairman Alistair Chisholm
to arrange for me to go down for a second week.
Clach must have been keen to push the deal through because
they sent a car to take me to the station to catch the train down.
I got word that the reserve game I was due to play in had been
postponed and decided to ditch the train to Aberdeen and head
for home instead. Maybe I should have gone through anyway
but I ducked out of it.
Understandably Mr Ferguson wasnt too pleased and I dont
think my chairman was either. He did his best to smooth things
over with Aberdeen but when I turned away from the platform
that day the deal was as good as dead.
Being headstrong, I had decided I wasnt going. I had no clean
clothes with me and needed to go home and get myself together
before I went back. I didnt think too much about it at the time,
but in retrospect I can see why the club decided not to give me
another chance they obviously thought I was too big for my
boots and werent going to let me dictate to them. That wasnt
my intention, but I can see why they saw it that way.
12
SHEARER WONDERLAND
Ive often had the debate with Charlie Christie at Caley Thistle
about the reasons behind the success of Fort William in producing
players compared to Inverness, with its far bigger population
and catchment area. That has turned on its head since Ross
County and Caley Thistle have been in the senior game, but
before then the players coming out of Inverness and going on
to play at the top level were few and far between. There were
exceptions, with Eric Black and Bryan Gunn feeding through to
Aberdeen and the likes of Billy Urquhart and Kevin McDonald
being picked up, but for whatever reason there was a better rate
of success over in Fort William. When myself and John McGinlay
broke through to the international team in the 1990s it put the
icing on the cake.
Playing for Scotland had never crossed my mind when I was
a wee boy. Kicking a ball around in the park was enough for
me. We werent far from the shops and if I went for a loaf of
bread Id go running through the fields with a ball at my feet.
I went to Caol primary school and Ill always remember the
headmaster, Mr Macleod, telling my mum when I was no more
than ten years old: Im sorry Mrs Shearer, but Im afraid your
sons brains are in his feet. Maybe he was right, but it turned
out that all I had to do for the bulk of my working life was sign
my name on a contract or two. I let my feet do the hard work
from the day I got my break with Clach in the Highland League
in the late 1970s.
14
3
THE JOURNEY BEGINS
SHEARER WONDERLAND
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