REACHING FOR THE SUMMIT
McKenna can take his career to the next level with Forest move
THE high altitude of Mexico City’s fabled Estadio Azteca was a fitting venue in June 2018 as Scott McKenna’s rapid footballing rise reached a significant peak.
At the age of just 21, only nine months after making his Aberdeen debut, the highly-rated defender captained Scotland against a side about to grace the World Cup finals in Russia.
Leading his country out in front of 70,000 passionate Mexicans was a scene he could scarcely have imagined two-and-a-half years earlier upon signing an emergency loan with Alloa Athletic.
With no sports shops open on Hogmanay 2015, an official at the Wasps had to write ‘McKenna’ in black marker pen on the back of his shirt ahead of his debut in a 1-0 home Championship loss to Falkirk.
‘It was one of those funny things you don’t expect as a player,’ recalled McKenna earlier this year.
‘The previous name had been scraped off — I think it was Omar Kader. He was away and I got whatever number it was, 12 I think.
‘It was like a tattoo across my back because it was pouring with rain and my name ended up imprinted on my back for about two weeks afterwards.’
Suffice to say that since that day at the Indodrill Stadium, McKenna has wasted no time making a name for himself and putting his stamp on the game as one of Scottish football’s most promising young talents.
He retains the Scotland captain’s armband that he had passed to the more experienced Charlie Mulgrew when he appeared as a second-half substitute during that respectable 1-0 defeat against Mexico.
It remains a source of pride during the bad days, of which there have been a few, whenever mistakes and doubts have crept into his play and frustration descended over his career path being blocked off.
‘After the game, Charlie Mulgrew came in and gave the armband back to me,’ said McKenna, who made 119 appearances in all competitions for Aberdeen since his breakthrough and helped the Dons finish second in the Premiership in 2017-18.
‘He said: “Take it home, make sure you get it framed”. That was a nice touch. It’s up in my mum’s living room in Kirriemuir with the top from the game.
‘These are things people can never take away from you. Sometimes you forget about them when things are bad. But I have captained my country. Things cannot be that bad.
‘You go through difficult spells but you try and remember the good times.’
Just a few months after captaining Scotland, Aston Villa boss Dean Smith was so sure he was going to land McKenna he told his Scottish midfielder John McGinn as much.
But the Dons rejected a £7million offer as well as other interest from Hull City and Swansea City.
A bid of £3.5m from Celtic that summer was also kicked out; as was a £5m offer from the Parkhead club in June 2019.
When yet another approach, this time from Mark Warburton’s Queens Park Rangers, was given short shrift, a vexed McKenna put in a transfer request on the morning of Aberdeen’s first league game of last season against Hearts on August 4, 2019.
‘There were a lot of things about that (QPR) move that made sense,’ he recalled in February. ‘Everyone would have benefited. This is me just being honest. It’s nothing Aberdeen won’t understand. That’s where my frustration lay.
‘I thought it was my chance to move on while the club was receiving offers probably nowhere near what they had received before.
‘I signed a long-term deal to protect the club. I was told I would be allowed to move on; that I wasn’t going to be there for five years. At the end of the day, it’s your career and your life. You want to know what’s going on.
‘I got a bit too involved, a bit too distracted. But I always did my best for Aberdeen. I did not down tools. It’s not in my nature.’
As good as his word, the powerfully built McKenna got back to what he does best and the Nottingham Forest-bound defender duly earned his imminent big move to the City Ground for £3million plus add-ons. McKenna underwent his medical yesterday and a ringing endorsement from his manager,
Derek McInnes spoke to the player’s professionalism, talent and temperament. ‘You would need to be living on Mars not to see how Scott McKenna has been playing,’ said the Dons boss, who will not be allowed to use the cash to buy a replacement, having snapped up defensive cover in Ross McCrorie and Tommie Hoban. ‘His stats are right up there in our league. Scott was always going to move at some point. ‘He is not just a good player. He’s a brilliant person and a great boy and I’ve enjoyed working with him. ‘It’s always a heavy heart when you lose good ones. But he’s one who is deserving of another opportunity to push on.’ McKenna is the latest Don to try his luck down south following the likes of Kenny McLean at Norwich City and
Graeme Shinnie at Derby County.
The Pittodrie club’s on-loan Leeds United striker Ryan Edmondson knows a lot about the standard of football that awaits in the English Championship.
He is in no doubt that the 23-year-old will prove a smash hit down south.
‘Can Scott do it down in the Championship? 100 per cent,’ he said.
‘The Championship will suit his style. He is very good on the ball, he is very vocal and he is a big guy.
‘Nottingham Forest are a big club with a big history. I do hope he can have a good run of games down there because I’m sure he will smash it.
‘He is a top player and a great guy and we wish him all the best.’
I have captained my country. No one can take it away from me, sometimes you forget that in the bad times