Craig Swan’s Dubai Diary
Dons duo were like something from the movies
IT wasn’t Morgan Freeman and Brad Pitt and it wasn’t Seven – it was only Tony Docherty and Barry Robson and it was just Two.
Aberdeen’s arrival in Dubai doubled the Scottish contingent in the United Arab Emirates as they joined Celtic over here.
Derek McInnes and his team got here in the early hours of Wednesday and headed away from the city, 30 minutes up the road to the Jebel Ali Centre of Excellence and their hotel.
It’s still a swanky gaff. While there’s a sign telling you not to drive over the peacocks wandering around outside reception, a couple of super yachts in the water out the back with palm trees in between tell you it’s classy.
However, before you get to this luxurious oasis there’s a stretch of barren ground, as yet undeveloped, which has to be travelled.
At one point it’s like the road scene at the end of Seven. If you haven’t seen it, it’s a movie where Detective William Somerset, played by Freeman, tackles a final case with the aid of newly-transferred David Mills who is Pitt’s character.
The pair discover a number of elaborate and grizzly murders and soon realise they are dealing with a serial killer, played by Kevin Spacey. In the final scene Somerset and Mills find a severed head in a cardboard box on a road in the middle of nowhere.
There were no movie cameras or heads in sight yesterday, just two guys out there pounding legs.
Surrounded by nothing as the taxi sped towards them, Docherty and Robson appeared out of the distance running the length of the road in the baking sun just hours after landing.
While Derek McInnes was inside tying up the signing of Chidi Nwakali from Manchester City his assistants were already putting in their own legwork.
You almost felt guilty sweeping past them. Not quite guilty enough to get out and join them, mind you.