Gothenburg Great Willie Miler believes Jimmy Calderwood embraced what it meant to be an Aberdeen manager.
Evening Express columnist Miller has led the tributes to the former Dons boss following his death at the age of 69.
Miller was the man who helped bring Calderwood and his coaching team to Pittodrie in the summer of 2004 and he insists Calderwood not only understood but embraced his remit after accepting the chance to take charge at Pittodrie.
Miller said: “An Aberdeen manager has got to play the game in a certain way – certainly, that’s my opinion anyway.
“It’s got to be that you take the game to the opposition. You don’t settle for anything less than victories, no matter who you’re playing against.
“Jimmy had that attitude and he brought a very strong team with him in Jimmy Nicholl and Sandy Clark. The coaching team was a potent force.
“They built a team that was capable of winning silverware but they just didn’t manage to get it over the line.
“But throughout his tenure it was an exciting time for the club and the fans, I’m sure.”
Miller and Calderwood were schoolboy team-mates
Miller, who returned to the club as an executive football consultant at the end of the 2003-04 season, was charged with the task of leading the search for a new Aberdeen manager.
Former club captain and manager Miller knew exactly who he wanted.
He said: “I knew Jimmy from when I was a kid because we played together with the Glasgow schoolboys at under-12 level.
“We went back that far, but had lost touch with him as his career had taken him to England then to the Netherlands.
“It was his time at Dunfermline that alerted me and the club to his talents.
“He had guided Dunfermline to the Scottish Cup final and I remember clearly seeing him with Jim Leishman walking up the pitch at Hampden.
“From an Aberdeen point of view, that’s where you want to be. That’s where the club wanted to be.
“He had that history of taking a club to a cup final. That was one of the main reasons we wanted him.
“I think his style of football as well and his style of management was attractive too.”
‘It was an exciting time when he came to Pittodrie’
Calderwood lifted a team which had finished second bottom in the season prior to his arrival and guided the Dons to five consecutive top-half finishes in his five season in charge.
His most memorable campaign was in 2007-08 when he led the Dons to the last 32 of the UEFA Cup and the semi-finals of the League Cup and the Scottish Cup.
Despite falling just short of a cup final appearance and a chance to bring silverware to Pittodrie, Miller maintains the Calderwood era was an exciting one for the club.
He said: “It was an exciting time when he came to Pittodrie and it’s just a little bit unfortunate that he didn’t get to a cup final and didn’t manage to lift a trophy. But still, the European campaign was exciting.
“Getting us to the last 32 of the Europa Cup against Bayern was special as was the Copenhagen game at Pittodrie.
“He was a big character. He liked to play football a certain way.
“It was never going to be a quiet dressing room or a quiet night if you were in Jimmy’s company.
“But behind that he was a very good manager, a manager that liked to play the game on the front foot and take it to the opposition.
“I think he’ll be very fondly remembered by the Aberdeen fans. They enjoyed the time that he spent at the club and gave them a lot to smile about.
“It’s just a shame he didn’t manage to get it over the line as far as lifting a trophy was concerned.
“But there were many exciting games that the fans can look back upon and enjoy the time that he spent.
“It’s sad news and my condolences go to his family and his friends as well.”
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