Group stage is no pipe dream for Logan

Defender’s grand plans for future include a European adventure with Aberdeen

SHAY LOGAN is a wounded veteran of Aberdeen’s failed attempts to reach the group stage of the Europa League in recent years but he’s hoping to turn the screw on Portuguese giants Sporting Lisbon and emerge from a plum draw with a place in the promised land.

The Dons begin a huge week today against Motherwell before travelling to the Iberian Peninsula for the third qualifying round clash, and Logan reckons their opponents are of the same level of Real Sociedad, the Spanish side who knocked Derek McInnes’ men out of Europe in 2014.

Aberdeen have evolved this season following the signing of Ross McCrorie from Rangers, whose arrival has added to McInnes’ abundance of options across the backline and in midfield. Logan now finds himself of the periphery of the squad, having once been an integral part of the club’s defence.

The 32-year-old reckons he may have as many as four years left him in as a professional, but having already started his own plumbing business, it is fair to say that he already has one eye on life post-football.

The trip to Portugal promises to be a thrilling excursion for Aberdeen, and even if Logan isn’t guaranteed a start, it is a contest that he is looking forward to.

He said: ‘Before you play them, on paper you’d think it is the hardest team we have faced since being here. Even though it’s away, what works in our favour is that it’s one leg.

‘You can go and beat those teams, it will be very, very difficult but you only have to beat them over one leg to go through. That’s a plus for us I think.

‘This is an even bigger test than when we played Real Sociedad, it’s definitely the toughest game we have had in Europe so far. Sporting are a Champions League club, you see them in there most seasons.

‘When you get to this stage you are going to be playing top teams and that’s what you get in the group stages. Even if we get through, it’s potentially another team who have been in the Champions League (LASK of Austria or Slovakia’s Dunajska Streda) waiting for us.

‘It’s always going to be tough, all you can do is try to perform on the day and hopefully the fact it’s a 90-minute game works in our favour.’

Logan has only made one start and three substitute appearances so far this season, but he has little room for complaint as his team-mates continue to take care of business on the park.

The Dons have won their last six matches and only conceded two goals in seven games, so Logan does not want to disrupt a winning formula just for the sake of it.

He said: ‘The manager’s changed formation a few times and that hasn’t always been ideal for me getting a game.

‘But you have to be a team player, be there and ready to play whenever he wants you to come back in.

‘It’s frustrating because for most of my career I’ve been playing but when the manager is picking teams to win games, we’re winning and keeping clean sheets, there isn’t much I can say.

‘You just have to be a team player, get your head down, train well and the chance will come again. When that opportunity comes, you have to take it.’

Players in Scotland don’t earn the vast sums that their contemporaries south of the border pick up for playing the game.

So, with a young family to feed, Logan took it upon himself to learn a trade and prepare for life after hanging up his boots.

‘I don’t know how long I’ve got to go on playing but I definitely feel that I have three or four years left in me,’ said Logan, whose contract is up next summer.

‘You always have to plan for life after football because we don’t earn enough money to just be able to retire when you stop.’