McDONALD BIDS ADOPTED HOME A FOND FAREWELL
McDonald feels Scottish now as he returns to Australia for one last challenge after causing shocks with Motherwell, winning titles with Celtic and helping out the Jags
AYEAR ago, Scott McDonald looked finished with football. Disillusioned after a miserable season at Dundee United, the 35-year-old packed away his boots and donned a set of headphones as he forged a new career path in broadcasting.
That he should prove a natural behind the microphone would have come as no surprise to any of the many and varied managers lucky enough to coach the Australian across a storied career.
With some, say Gordon Strachan and Mark McGhee, he got on famously. Others like Tony Mowbray and Stephen Robinson proved less amenable to his candid character.
At Celtic, Strachan had his own unique way of dealing with McDonald’s opinionated persona — more of this later — but the striker’s first two years at Parkhead rank as the most garlanded and memorable spell of his career.
Yet by the time he left Tannadice, McDonald had lost the sense of wonder that accompanied his goalscoring feats in the big Old Firm and Champions League occasions.
He credits Partick Thistle with helping him to fall back in love with the game and now he is about to make arguably the most adventurous move of his career as he helps start-up club Western United launch in next season’s A-League back home in Melbourne.
‘I am excited,’ he says. ‘We are a brand new club and it’s great to be getting in at the very start.
‘There is a lot to look forward to and lots of new challenges.’ The switch marks a first proper
homecoming since
he moved to Southampton as a teenager back in 2001. While the ingrained Aussie bravado remains undimmed, he admits other facets of his personality are now dominated by a distinctly West of Scotland tinge. Consequently he is preparing for a major adjustment as he gets ready to kick off next season on the other side of the world. ‘It’s back to where it all began for me: my home country and my home town,’ he continues. ‘But, culturally, I’m a Scot. I’ve been here for so long that I’m no longer a full-blooded Aussie. I won’t be able to fall straight back into the way of life over there. ‘It will probably take me time to adjust to the change of pace but I will have the advantage of being able to mix with my team-mates and colleagues. This a chance to give the family an exciting new life and we’re very much looking forward to it.’
The roots of McDonald’s brief fall out with the game could really be traced back to his final spell at Motherwell when he saw a mid-season move back to Australia fall apart in January 2017.
‘They decided it was better to keep me as they were fighting relegation,’ recalls McDonald. ‘I loved working with Mark McGhee and he kept my head right throughout that situation.
‘Come the summer, circumstances had changed. Mark was no longer there and I ended up moving on.
‘At that stage, I didn’t want to go to a club that was in a middling position. I wanted to win because I missed that feeling.
‘That’s why Dundee United interested me. There was a challenge there to try to get the club promoted and maybe stay an extra year.
‘The club wanted to dominate that division in the way that Hearts or Hibs did when they were down in the Championship. It still annoys me that we didn’t achieve that goal.
‘The club was in transition and the travelling was too much for me. Csaba Laszlo wouldn’t allow me the same rest as I’d been getting under Ray McKinnon and it started to get to me.
‘When you are not happy at work or on the pitch, that has an effect on your family too.’
After losing to Livingston in the play-offs, McDonald left Tannadice and started to drift from the game.
Still only 33, he had packed a lot into a career that had featured a post-Celtic spell in England with Middlesbrough and Millwall. He also witnessed a lot of globetrotting as he earned 26 caps for his country.
But even when his old Celtic team-mate Gary Caldwell invited him to train with his new team Thistle, McDonald just could not summon the enthusiasm of old.
‘When I left Dundee United, I just didn’t feel that there was anything out there for me,’ he confesses. ‘I would have gone to Australia but that chance had gone and when I went in to train at Thistle last November, I just wasn’t feeling it.
‘At that stage, I actually preferred doing the media work and playing sixes with my pals. ‘Gary had gone into Thistle in that scenario of new manager/old players. There was bad blood in the changing room and I just couldn’t be bothered with getting involved in that fight. At that stage, it was just best that I left it.
‘Things started to change around Christmas when I had the family over from Australia for their annual visit. Normally, we’d base what we were doing around games and a big part of the fun was having everyone come to watch me play.
‘For the first time, I didn’t have that and I really missed it. I then picked up the phone to Gary and told him I wanted to come back in. He was pretty straight with me and told me I couldn’t be messing him around. If I was just going to walk away again, I shouldn’t bother.
‘I asked him to give me the chance to prove I was fit enough and then he could make the call on whether he wanted me or not. He agreed and I’m so glad it happened.
I’ve been here for so long that I am no longer a fullblooded Aussie
‘I think we were just made for each other at that point in time and, although I was only there for a few months, I will always feel an affinity for Partick Thistle.’
McDonald’s knowhow helped Caldwell keep Thistle up but, while neither will forget the experience, it was at Celtic where the most vivid memories were created.
Two years before joining them, he had already played a part in Celtic history by scoring the two Motherwell goals that denied Martin O’Neill’s side the title in 2005.
Under the fresh management of Strachan, Celtic went on to claim the next three Scottish titles, with Caldwell and McDonald joining the club along the way.
Yet despite that group’s achievements both domestically and in Europe, McDonald believes the era is not remembered as fondly as others that went before or have happened since.
‘I look back on my time at Celtic with fondness and although it doesn’t bother me so much how we are perceived, it does disappoint me slightly that the manager is not held in the same esteem as others.
‘Gordon was the first Celtic manager since Jock Stein to win three titles in a row and that gets overlooked. I think that’s partly because he did not have that Celtic connection to start with. Not everyone warms to Gordon as a person and he has had his difficulties in terms of how he comes across in the media.
‘But speak to the players who worked under him. If, like me, you had his trust and did well under him, then he was great.
‘And, no matter what, his achievements are there in the history books. Three consecutive titles and twice to the last 16 of the Champions League.’
McDonald’s time in Glasgow saw him strike big European goals against AC Milan and Manchester United. He also struck a spectacular Old Firm winner at Ibrox.
Yet he didn’t always let his feet do the talking.
‘Gordon used to call me Stephen Hawking,’ he laughs. ‘He’d say: “You think you know everything”.
‘Do you know what? He was bang on. I had to laugh because it was such a good line.
‘And I believed the majority of what he told me anyway. ‘We shared some great times.
The Champions League nights stand out. They were something special.
‘I still feel it on those occasions if I’m there doing media work with the headphones on — the atmosphere sends shivers down my spine.
‘You remember those occasions and also the Old Firm games which were so exciting to be involved in.
‘Because I’m still playing, I’ve never sat down and reflected on it all. I’m sure when I do eventually take time to look back, the gravity of what I was involved in will set in.
‘But, really, the best memories are of winning. The night we won the league at Tannadice was one of the best nights of my life. Only the births of my children would rank higher.
‘We all enjoy those moments of individual glory, the goals against the big teams and so on. But when you are part of something bigger, a successful club winning a title, it means everything.
‘That year, it went to the wire and, coming so soon after the passing of Tommy (Burns), it was very emotional.’
Re-energised over the past few months, McDonald reckons he could have another big moment in him.
The A-League season does not kick off again until October but, ahead of a gruelling pre-season that will take the Western United squad to the Gold Coast, McDonald has been keeping on top of his fitness.
He and Turkish centre-back Ersan Gulum bring international experience to the squad and he knows there will be a weight of expectation on his shoulders.
‘For me, it’s a chance to go in there and be a really huge influence on how this club develops,’ he adds.
‘Because the league is salary-capped, everyone is on an equal footing. We are going to compete. I intend to help us do that.’
Gordon Strachan used to call me Stephen Hawking. He’d say: ‘You think you know everything’