National service has Devlin raring to go at Pittodrie
Who needs a holiday when you can go on national service and take a trip to the Arctic Circle with your club, says Mikey
SAMPLE Scotland training sessions twice a day under a demanding new manager in Edinburgh for a week, enjoy overnight stays with views of the Oriam Performance Centre before missing out on a one-night trip to beautiful Brussels and swiftly returning to the comfortable familiarity of the gym at Pittodrie.
It’s not an appealing advert to satisfy your average footballer’s summer holiday travel desires. But, for Mikey Devlin, it is hoped this non-existent break will prove a signpost to a successful second season with Aberdeen.
Devlin gave up on a vacation this close season. He savoured sufficient thrills by learning of a Scotland callup at his brother’s wedding. Then, after a week gearing up with Steve Clarke’s squad for the Cyprus international at Hampden, he rode that feel-good factor all the way back into an earlier than anticipated return to club pre-season.
Devlin ducked the opportunity to take extra time off, opting to be back working with Derek McInnes and his Aberdeen squad nine days after signing off from Scotland duty. The only getaway that matters to him is the serious business trip to Rovaniemi, five miles south of the Arctic Circle, in Finland.
That’s where Aberdeen will be bound next week for the second leg
of their Europa League first-round qualifying tie. First up is the Pittodrie leg and Devlin has been intent on impressing and marking his territory at centre-half in order to start the first competitive game of the season — and stay there.
The 25-year-old was frequently the odd man out in defence, benched for the bulk of the second half of 2018/19 after returning in early February from three months out with a foot injury sustained training with Scotland. Devlin explains how correcting that disappointment was of paramount importance as he prepared for building on his 30-game maiden season at Pittodrie.
‘I felt that rather than take any extra time the manager might have given me, if I felt I needed it, I just wanted to come back and hit the ground running and really go and fight for my place,’ said Devlin.
‘I wanted to make sure I’d done everything I possibly could to show that I was ready to play in the first competitive games. I thoroughly enjoyed my week away with Scotland. I wanted to try to build on the confidence I felt that I’d got from being a part of that. I really relished that week’s training, being close to such good players.
‘Towards the end of last season things weren’t how I would have liked them to be. I know deep down why that was and where I need to get to in order to get that back. I wasn’t performing well enough. I came back from injury and had opportunities to play. But I didn’t play at the level I expected of myself or what is expected here. I didn’t need the gaffer to tell me that.
‘Couple that with the team doing really well and two good quality centre-backs already playing, you don’t have time to take four or five games to hit your stride.
‘I didn’t manage to do that and that’s why I found myself not playing regularly. There’s only one person who can take responsibility for that and that’s me. Having known that and looking honestly at myself, there’s no point in questioning anything else.
‘You’ve got to get that back on track more than anything else and any opportunity I get to play, I’ve got to grasp that. I’ve tried to rectify that over the summer and be ready to go. I wanted to do enough in preseason to show the manager that he can trust me. I will take it from there and try to play as many games as I can and stay fit. That’s the main target.’
On the back of only five starts from Devlin’s February return to Dons contention, his inclusion in the first national squad named by Clarke acted as considerable succour. Flat-mate and team-mate Scott McKenna was preferred to play alongside Charlie Mulgrew in the Euro 2020 qualifiers and Devlin was among a quartet of players left at home when Clarke trimmed his squad down for the trip to Belgium. However, his initial selection by the former Kilmarnock manager was seen only as a positive for Devlin. He said: ‘I
felt it was a big thing to be part of Steve Clarke’s first squad. There was probably a slight surprise I was in there, I wasn’t really expecting it but was delighted to be part of it.
‘Certainly, it was brilliant and showed that the manager has watched me and, having played against him, he liked what he saw. That contributed to the boost of confidence that I got at the end of the season, which was great.
‘Any player who tells you he’d rather have a summer holiday than go away and be part of the national squad is miles off it. That’s how I took it. I got the news on the day of my brother’s wedding and it was one of the best days I’ve had. To get that news was amazing.
‘Any opportunity I got to be part of it and show what I can do was worth it. I believe in myself that I’m a good player, so you’ve got to take that chance and thrive on it. If that
I wanted to do enough in pre-season to show the manager he can trust me
comes in the summer or your “holidays”, as such, then it doesn’t really matter. It’s a brilliant opportunity.’
Serving up a stringent test of Devlin’s readiness in training is the combative one-two punch of Sam Cosgrove and Curtis Main as two of the most physical strikers in the Scottish game team up for the Dons.
Main, recruited from Motherwell on a free, will compete with James Wilson who is back permanently following his release from Manchester United and a loan spell at Pittodrie last season that only latterly hinted at his capabilities. Devlin revealed: ‘The first couple of days of training games, the two of them (Cosgrove and Main) were up against myself and I was thinking: “These will be a real handful for whoever they play against”. ‘Sam scored 20-plus goals last year, I played against Curtis at Motherwell and then in training here and I see the quality he has as well as his physicality. ‘We’ve definitely got good options up front now plus the addition of James Wilson coming in. We’ve real competition right throughout the squad. The last thing you want to feel as a footballer is comfortable in your position.’