The emergence of Zander Diamond at centre-half pushed McGuire to full-back at the start of this season, and he also performed a holding role in midfield as Jimmy Calderwood’s Dons made clean sheets their calling card. Before an ankle injury curtailed his progress, Diamond had been forced to fend off comparisons between his newly impregnable partnership with Russell Anderson in central defence and that of Miller and McLeish, way back when. In the players’ lounge in the bowels of Pittodrie, McGuire leans forward in his chair, a smile crosses his face as he shakes his head. “We got that! Me and Russell!”
He’s right. In 1999, with Anderson already earmarked as a future international, McGuire ousted Thomas Solberg from Ebbe Skovdahl’s backline, as the most successful Aberdeen youth side since that which fuelled Fergie’s team stormed into the senior set-up. McGuire’s aggressive defending, coupled with Anderson’s quiet assurance, drew comparisons that have now been dusted down for Diamond.
“Maybe you guys get bored and can’t find anything new to write,” says McGuire. “These players are legends, and rightly so. It’s nice to hear the comparisons, but you want to make your own name and not try to live up to someone else’s. It is important to be yourself and to play your own game.”
But isn’t that part of the deal at this club? Unattainable goals and wild expectation, the legacy of extraordinary achievement in a bygone era? “Any fan wants success, especially if they have had it in the past and been through the dark times that the Aberdeen supporters have been through. For the size of this club, those expectation levels should be there. Those players will always be remembered and we want to achieve even a small part of what they did in terms of winning trophies. If we could bring something back to the club, that would be great.”
McGuire has steered our conversation away from the past. After so many false dawns he knows better than to look too far into the future, and why should he bypass a present that, when we meet, has Aberdeen in second position in the Premierleague, the owners of the best defensive record in Britain? McGuire talks enthusiastically about what has changed at Pittodrie since the close season, when Calderwood replaced Steve Paterson as manager. He is clearly impressed with the new man. He makes numerous references to the fact that the former Dunfermline manager learned his trade in Holland, an apprenticeship that, McGuire claims, has shaped the way he prepares the side. We talk about Paterson and Skovdahl, and McGuire is not openly critical of either, but the comparison damns them both. You get the impression that he is being led in a way that he was not under the previous managers. “We defend as a team and when we have the ball we can keep possession. In the past we have been desperate to get midfielders forward instead of putting our foot on the ball, keeping possession and opening teams up. That’s the influence of a manager who has coached in Holland,” he says. “The two Jimmys (Calderwood and his No2 Nicholl) are always up and at the players. The old gaffer got a bit of stick for being laid back, and Ebbe Skovdahl was the same. That’s just the way they were as people, but they tried everything they could to motivate the players. With the new manager, everyone has had a lift. It’s like we’ve all got a clean slate.
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“We didn’t have a settled formation (under Paterson). We started out with three (at the back) and that didn’t quite work out. We went to a four and we picked up a bit, but then we had a few injuries. We had to bring young players into a team that was low on confidence and not playing well. The older players shouldn’t be learning from the younger ones, but that’s what was happening at times. They had the enthusiasm and the fearlessness that we lacked. ”
Now we’re talking about mental strength and it applies to the way that McGuire regards his relationship with Calderwood. When the new manager was searching for a striker in the summer it was reported that he had offered McGuire to Hibs in exchange for Garry O’Connor. Calderwood denied that, but has used McGuire in various positions. The player says he is happy to play anywhere.
“In the modern game versatility is a massive advantage. If the manager thinks he has players ahead of you for a certain position then he can still use you elsewhere in the side,” he says.
“It’s a harder shift at full back, you’re going to see a lot of the ball and you have to find your passes more than you do at centre half. The holding role I hadn’t played for about five years, but I enjoyed it immensely. Big difference in the work rate, though. I was man-marking, so wherever my opponent went, I was going with him. You have to be very disciplined. The manager likes you to know your opponents and nine times out of 10 the team he picks will be based on the team we’re up against, home or away.”
On Wednesday that team is Rangers, the prize a place in the quarter-finals of the CIS League Cup. Part of the pretext that makes this an even more intriguing fixture than usual comes from the 0-0 draw fought out by the sides at Pittodrie on the opening day of the season, a result that set the tone for what would follow for both. “We were delighted to have kept a clean sheet, but at the back of our minds was a disappointment that we hadn’t played as well as we could have. Hopefully this time we can create a few chances,” says McGuire.
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He believes Aberdeen can beat Rangers, but is wary of the hype that would follow such a coup. “We finished second bottom last season. We have to improve gradually, one small step at a time. If we remain hard to beat then we have a good chance at the top six.”
That, insists McGuire in an accent that betrays the longevity of the Glaswegian’s stay in the north-east, would be a successful season. However, after seven years he knows the fever with which this fixture is anticipated. A win over Rangers will not take McGuire and Aberdeen out of the shadows of their predecessors forever, but it will earn them a day in the sun.
Aberdeen v Rangers: Wednesday, BBC 1, 7.25pm, kick-off 7.45pm