Wright playing follow the leaders in a quest for excellence at Dons
LIKE any Aberdeen fan, Scott Wright marvelled at the exploits of Jonny Hayes and Niall McGinn. He might, however, have been the only member of the Pittodrie rank and file who feared the club’s star players would never leave.
Wright made his Dons debut as a 17-year-old in 2014 but has spent most of the intervening period hanging around the fringes of Derek McInnes’s squad hoping for a sniff of first-team action.
The sheer consistency of Hayes and McGinn, nailed-on starters in a settled team, kept his chances to a premium but a summer of upheaval has opened the door for the 20-year-old.
McGinn’s decision to exercise freedom of contract and pursue an adventure in Korea, coupled with the sale of Hayes to Celtic, left McInnes facing a summer rebuild and, although the manager has recruited impressively, he stated from the outset that Wright would get his chance.
So, while Greg Stewart and Gary Mackay-Steven have shown up as worthy options out wide, Wright has emerged as a key contributor.
A stunning goal at Firhill last weekend — a venue at which he scored a hat-trick on the final day of last season — helped the Dons to a victory that put the club clear at the top of the Premiership.
‘The manager said I would get my chance with Jonny and Niall both leaving the club and he’s been true to that,’ says Wright. ‘He’s brought in some big players like Gary, Greg and Ryan Christie but he has still given me my chance.
‘It was so hard to get in the team last year with Jonny and Niall there — they were tried and tested players, turning it on week in, week out.
‘That made things worse for me, but it’s why we were finishing second every year.
‘Sometimes I wondered whether it would happen. They could have finished their careers at Aberdeen but opportunities came up for them they felt they couldn’t turn down.
‘I’d say I’m a fairly positive guy — if it didn’t work out at Aberdeen I believed it would work out somewhere. But they’re gone now and it’s time for the new crop to step up — and, hopefully, I can be one of them.’
A cautious manager by nature, McInnes has not given too many opportunities to the products of Aberdeen’s academy but Wright’s talent has proved irresistible.
Comfortable coming off either flank or through the middle, the youngster plays with his head up — but acknowledges the role his manager has made in easing the transition to the first team.
‘The gaffer has been fairly laid-back with me,’ he explains. ‘Before every game I’ve played, the message has been fairly simple. He tells me to go and relax, enjoy myself, have fun — he knows I perform better when I’m a happy player.
‘I’ll get on the ball more and create things when I’m more relaxed, not too uptight and thinking too much about the game.
‘His assistant Tony Docherty is the boring one who reminds me to take care of the defensive side of my game!
‘To be fair, it’s the most important side of things — that when I come into the team I do my share of the defensive work, staying with full-backs, wingers, tracking back, just playing my part for the team, really.’ Although the management team are handling Wright carefully, that’s not to say he remains ignorant of the pressures to perform at a club that finished runners-up in each of Scotland’s domestic competitions last term.
‘The manager talks every day about winning, about churning out three points, even if we’re not at our best,’ he adds. ‘That has been the case a couple of times this season already and that’s why we’re in such a strong position going into the international break.
‘At Aberdeen, it’s about winning games, being up there in the league, challenging for cups. I know that myself being a fan and being full-time for the past four or five years, I’ve seen it first-hand, the standard I need to bring to the team.’
Wright’s form has been rewarded with a call-up to Scot Gemmill’s Scotland Under-21 squad. He is in the frame to start Tuesday’s opening Euro qualifier against the Netherlands and the prospect of Wright on one wing and £15million Oliver Burke on the other is genuinely exciting.
‘It’s a great part of your football education, playing against different international teams, seeing how they play, how they shape up,’ he said.
‘It’s a different style to club football — especially in Scotland — and I think it will make me a better player.’
As well as being consummate club professionals, Hayes and McGinn set a standard as internationalists as well.
Wright, who comes across as one of our more level-headed prospects, watched closely.
‘I saw how hard they worked in training, and therefore how hard I would need to work,’ he says. ‘I saw what they did on and off the pitch, how they look after their diets, work in the gym, do extra after training, work on crossing, finishing and just keeping their standards up every day.
‘They were both really driven players, I’d say.
‘As international players, they knew how to look after their bodies because they know if an international break is coming up they won’t be getting time off.’