Clipping wings of Christie would be music to the ears of skipper Shinnie
NO SOONER had the video gone viral than Graeme Shinnie was being woken up by his young daughter singing about her father being ‘half-man, half-gull’. Cup finals often spawn novelty songs, and none have been more bizarre than the unofficial melody penned by an Aberdeen fan ahead of today’s Betfred Cup final.
The lyrics compare Shinnie to a seagull, Scott McKenna to a fridge freezer and another odd line about making love in the embrace of Shinnie’s wings. It’s all tongue in cheek but the tune has tormented the Dons captain in his build up to the clash with Celtic.
He said: ‘I’ve been sent it about 50 times. I woke up to my little one who was playing it on my phone on YouTube. So I woke up to ‘Half Man-Half Seagull’ and my little one loves it, but she’s about the only one. The boys haven’t said much to be fair but they’ve just been laughing and all my mates have been sending me it, so it’s a good laugh.’
Now to the serious business. Shinnie will be tasked today with marking his old pal and team-mate Ryan Christie. The former was captain at Inverness Caley Thistle when Christie was making his breakthrough in the Highlands and they won the Scottish Cup together in 2015.
When Shinnie moved to Pittodrie in the summer of 2015, Christie was not long in following him out of the exit door and moved to Celtic. But they were reunited when Christie moved north on loan at the beginning of 2017, eventually spending 18 months at Aberdeen.
‘Right from the start when I first saw him, I knew he would go on to have a good career,’ said Shinnie. ‘He had something about him, a confidence in himself. He had belief in his own ability. Coming into Inverness at such a young age you could see what he had.
‘It can be quite daunting sometimes coming into a first team but he never had that. And he had a good manager in John Hughes, who loved to play football and play the way Ryan loved to play.
‘With him being here as well, we know exactly what he’s got and how much of a threat he can be. I guess it will be up to me to stop him.’
Christie’s emergence at Celtic this season has been spectacular and his form has earned him a new three-year deal.
‘It’s no surprise to see him do so well at Celtic,’ said Shinnie. ‘He came on loan here, developed and learned a lot as well. Going back to Celtic and being amongst it — all he really looked for was that chance. He’s taken it and done well. But hopefully not too well on Sunday. ‘You’d love to have a player of
his calibre here. He did excellently when he was here and is a great boy to have in the dressing room.
‘He works his socks off which is something I love about him.
‘I remember in one of the training sessions at Inverness he didn’t track back and I had a full-on argument with him that lasted for about 30 minutes! We had a laugh about that when he came to Aberdeen.
‘Growing up in that Inverness side, it was all about working hard. Maybe we didn’t have all the ability in the world, but we worked as hard as we can. That’s what I like about Ryan. He’s got the talent but he also works his socks off, which is something that I rate.’
Derek McInnes has only masterminded one victory over Brendan Rodgers in two years. The current aggregate score between the managers is 23-4, with Rodgers winning 10 of the 11 meetings.
Despite that poor record, Shinnie insisted Aberdeen have the confidence to win their first trophy since the 2014 League Cup.
He added: ‘I feel that there is a belief in the squad that we can go and do it, but that is easier said than done. ‘We need to make sure that when we step over that white line, we do mean business. Celtic have obviously done well in the last few years, but we want to be the ones to stop them winning everything. ‘Beating them down there on the last day last season was important in proving we have that belief as we were determined to win. If we had failed to get the victory it would have given Rangers the upper hand in terms of finishing second, while a win meant we had definitely done it. ‘We proved ourselves that day and that’s what we need to do on Sunday as we treated that game as if it was a final. It was a case of win and finish second, which was a massive achievement for us with Rangers desperate to take over that spot. ‘But even in defeat at Celtic Park in the league this season, we did well in the game and created some good chances. However, in the end we lost to a sloppy goal on our behalf. Of course Celtic have kicked on a lot since that match. ‘So that means we will really have to be at the top of our game to make sure we are in amongst it and in a game.’
We know exactly what he has got and how much of a threat he could be