WE WERE SOSKINTI FELT LIKE QUITTING
But Milne refused to walk out on Dons
STEWART MILNE has admitted there were times when Aberdeen were so much in the red the easy option would have been to walk away.
But the chairman stayed to guide Dons through one of the most turbulent periods in their history – and took them out the other side far stronger.
Aberdeen chased the dream in the mid-90s with big-money buys like £1million man Paul Bernard, Dean Windass and Robbie Winters.
The collapse of the Setanta TV deal and pressure from banks to repay debts left a host of Scots clubs struggling.
Some went bust, others went into administration and desperate owners tried desperate measures in a bid to stay afloat.
Only a handful can admit they did things the right way to clear debts and Milne – who stood down this week after 21 years – says Dons can hold their heads high. Milne said: “I would like to think we have been good as a club, looking out in front of us. Sometimes when we did that we didn’t like what we saw!
“But that gave us the time to get the cash to take us through the next period, even though at times it wasn’t easy to see where it was coming from.
“When you take on the role you just have to accept that is sometimes something you’ve got to do.
“At times it probably would have been easier to just walk away from things.
“But when you’re in here pride takes over
BY SCOTT BURNS and you know there is an expectation on you. The consequences of something horrendous happening are there, you know all about it.
“If that had happened it would have reflected very badly on me and on the Stewart Milne Group. But most of all you knew what the consequences would have been for the club. “The stakes were pretty high at times. Even if I had had the inclination to walk away it wouldn’t have been an easy walk. But I can honestly say I never felt once like that’s what I was going to do.”
New chairman Dave Cormack revealed at Monday’s agm Milne and his company regularly handed over six-figure sums to get the cash-strapped Pittodrie club through to the end of a season.
Milne, 69, added: “Over the years a lot of fans, some friendly and some not, have come up to me and asked me to put my hand in my pocket.
“My answer to them has always been that they have my assurance the club will keep moving forward and we’ll find ways to do that.
“We’ve made mistakes over the last two decades. But one thing I can say 100 per cent is I never made one decision that wasn’t in the interests of the football club.
“Often I knew it would be a hard decision to sell to the supporters and knew it would put an additional burden on me and the board.”