JAMIE LANGFIELD

On Sunday afternoon we come together to celebrate the Aberdeen career of a goalkeeper who has seen it all, on and off the field, living through enough trials and tribulations, highs and lows to fill a book. Few have had to contend with the challenges that have beset Jamie, but each time, from whatever direction it has come, he has beaten it. All through that time, his absolute commitment, loyalty and love for Aberdeen FC has never wavered. Thank you Langers!

For RedMatchday Jamie gave us a special insight into his time at the club. In a feature length interview he looked back at his 10 years at Pittodrie. It is well worth a read.

RedMatchday Magazine is priced at £3.00 and is available from the sellers in and around the ground before the game as well the AFC Club shop. For anyone who can't make it along to Pittodrie on Sunday you can buy a copy online by clicking here

This is just a small extract from it:

….“When the club went into administration and I got made redundant, I did start to worry seriously about my future. What do I do now? It changed my outlook on life a little bit. In truth, it was good money that the Italians were paying. The money us young boys were getting was very good, especially for the ones such as myself who were playing for the first team but I didn’t make the most of it.

….. “Jimmy told me that Derek Stillie was away and that I would be challenging another keeper they were bringing in for the number one jersey at Dunfermline. …. Then on holiday, I picked up a paper to see Jimmy on the back page holding up an Aberdeen scarf! Then I picked up the paper the following day to find that Derek Stillie had re-signed at Dunfermline!

“But Jimmy Calderwood came back for me and said he wanted me to go to Aberdeen. It was a no brainer. It was definitely the best decision I have made in my footballing life and I will always be very thankfully to Jimmy for giving me that opportunity.

“It’s not until you come in the door at Pittodrie that you fully realise what it is like here. When you put the strip on and play at Pittodrie for the first time you realise just what a special, special place this is.
“The thing that has always impressed me most, right from day one, is the fact it is a family club. I speak to everyone at the club. I am friendly with everyone from the cleaners and catering staff through to the Chairman. It is a unique place to come to work. The club is also so well run. It is great to have been part of it for so many years and that’s something I have never taken for granted.

…..“People always go on about the goalkeeping union, but it is not like any other position. Only one goalkeeper can play at any one time. It is important that if you are not playing you are pressurising the other guy in training so that they play better on a Saturday, but it is also important that you get on.

“At the end of the day if the person plays better on a Saturday that is all that matters because it is all about the club. I am a team player. It is not all about Jamie Langfield. It is about the squad. When you are not playing, it is just about working hard and being ready for when that chance comes along.

…. “For a goalkeeper to do it outside the Old Firm is quite an achievement, so hopefully the record stays for a while. Although I thought Scott Brown was going to get close to it last year with the rate of shutouts he had! I do pride myself on the number of shut outs I have, and a lot of it started from that season.

…. “2006/07 was a great year, we had a very good team. At the back, we had Russell Anderson, Andy Considine, Zander Diamond, Richard Foster, Michael Hart and Scott Severin also dropped in there now and again. I felt our defence was as good as anyone’s that season and it showed in the goals against tally.
“We had a very good season. We were second for a long time, we split the Old Firm and were right up there and it wasn’t until Rangers changed their manager and brought back Walter Smith that they kicked on and finally overtook us. We deservedly finished third and qualified for Europe in what was a very strong league. Celtic and Rangers were littered with internationalists and multimillion pound players. Hearts, Hibs and Dundee United were all strong as well.

“I will always remember the last day when we beat Rangers to qualify for the UEFA Cup. Pittodrie was packed out with 20,000 there and we won 2-0, which showed just how good a side we were. Those days were incredible”.

….. “I got a phone call from Jimmy over the summer, but I knew it was coming as he had spoken to my agent. He said “I am going to have to do this to you”. It was not an argument between me and Jimmy. I have never, ever said that. I want to put it on record that I have never fought with anyone nor said that I wanted to leave.
“I had been offered a three year deal at Aberdeen and I had agreed to sign it. I was signing it when I returned from a short holiday, just before I got married. The reason I was dropped was because of something I did on that holiday that Jimmy was not happy with. I totally agreed with him. I accepted it although I can’t remember doing it, which is never a good thing!

“Jimmy hung up and then 20 minutes later, he phoned back. In between that time, I was having to explain the situation to poor Louise and this was about a week before our wedding. I picked up the phone and he said, “Langers, it is the gaffer. Alex McLeish is just off the phone. You have been called up to the Scotland squad. You have to meet up with them in Glasgow tomorrow.”

“I actually thought he was winding me up! But I then went to the Faroe Islands with Scotland for four days and came back on the Friday night and we got married on the Saturday. It was a crazy time that probably just about sums up my career. I went from getting transfer listed to being called up by Scotland in 20 minutes!
Jamie’s recall to the side could hardly have been for a more significant fixture – the first leg of the UEFA Cup qualifier against Dnipro. It was the start of a spell that has gone into Pittodrie folklore.

…. “Before the home game, I was just so nervous. It was probably the most nervous I have been going into a game because what had happened and because I had only just come back in. I wondered how the fans would react to me. We managed to get a 0-0 draw in a game with few chances at either end.

“Then the away leg, that was something else. I can never remember a game where we were camped inside our own half for such a length of time. Then when we scored I thought. “Here we go!” And I was right, it was just wave after wave of attacks coming at us. The goal we finally lost was so unlucky because Andy tried to clear it and the boy just stuck his heel up and it flew off him and went in the net.

“We managed to hold on though. I just remember sitting in the dressing room afterwards and there was no celebration amongst the boys, every player was just slouched in their seats, absolutely shattered. We then got to the airport and there was a little bar. All the fans were in there singing away, so we went in and joined them.

“The gaffer said we could have a beer. I think it was actually out of date beer, but the boys had one anyone! Sandy Clark then quietly came up to me and said, “Not you big man!” so I had a diet coke! It was a really good time for all the players and the staff and an enjoyable flight home, although we all slept because we were that tired.

…. “The European adventure that followed that season was a blur to be honest. It is only when you look back now or see Bayern Munich winning the Champions League, Atletico Madrid getting to the final and Dnipro getting to the final of the Europa League that you fully appreciate what we achieved that season. You look back at the quality of the players we played against, some of the world’s best. It is nice that we all have these stories that we can tell the grandkids one day. It was something I was very proud to be part of.

…. “The side needed rebuilt but for whatever reason, things just did not click. Mark McGhee had gone to Motherwell and things had worked out. He came here and they did not. Sometimes as a manager that happens. It was a bad time for club, attendances fell and we suffered some very bad defeats. It was a challenge for everyone at the club to get to it back to where it is now and where it should stay.

“The 9-0 defeat at Celtic Park was certainly one of the lowest points of my career. It simply should not have happened. However bad you are, you should not be getting beat by that amount. If you look at the game, they scored three penalties, there was an own goal, we had Paul Hartley sent off after about half an hour. It was just one of those days where if it could go wrong, it did. I have come off the field at Parkhead before in games where we have lost 1-0 and they have had 25 shots on target. That day they had eight shots on target and it finished 9-0. They actually went down to ten men as well, but then the pitch became so much bigger. You have to learn from experiences like that and make sure they never happen again”.

Losing nine goals is bad enough for any goalkeeper, but the following summer, a dose of perspective was delivered when health problems looked as if they would put an end to Jamie’s career.

…. “The next thing I remember was waking up during the night and it was like I was screaming at the top of my voice, not making any sense and I was trying to climb the wall. My fingernails were actually scraping the wallpaper off. Louise put the light on and I just flew back and started fitting and having a seizure. The next thing I knew, I came round and I was so disorientated. People said to me afterwards that the experience is like a computer shutting down and rebooting.

“Louise worked in the neurological department as a nurse, so she knew there was something very seriously wrong, but did not let me know. I was speaking in the ambulance quite normally and then when I was at the Paisley Alexander Hospital waiting to be seen, I went again. You can actually feel the seizure coming on. I then went for a scan but nothing showed up. They then put me in another room as I came round but then I could feel it coming on again, and at that point I thought I was dying because it felt so severe. They say seizures can last from 30 seconds to a minute. I had a seizure for almost five minutes. I was completely out of it. I remember turning away from Louise and fitting. It was the most horrific thing I have ever experienced in my life. Thankfully I was given the right drugs so I came round again. Then I had the MRI scan which showed that I had had a brain haemorrhage.

…. “I will always be grateful to all the staff at the hospital as well as Louise and I would like to thank Doctor Sarah Jenkins who operated on me and who also saved my life. I now have a little bit of glue in my brain, but that glue saved my life.

…. “They stabilised things. They were quiet different people. You had Craig who was so placid and then you had Archie who was less placid! But they worked well as a team. The chairman knew he had to get people in to stabilise the club and that’s exactly what they did. We became a side who were hard to beat. The work they did maybe goes under the radar, but they set the wheels in motion. They also made some good signings in Jonny, Mark and Niall who are all big players for us now.

“They put in the foundations and we have taken it from there. In Derek McInnes, we now have a manager who is special. He has total respect from all the players and all the staff. He is so in tune with what is needed to be successful, he is a complete football man. But he also knows the other side of the game has to be done right too, the preparation and the sports science side of it. Everything.  Like Craig and Archie there is also a very good balance between the manager and Tony Docherty. They are very approachable and have very good staff round about them. Everything here is so professional, and it’s that that has delivered the success we’ve had over the last couple of seasons.”

…. “The thing I remember was how important the win over St Johnstone was in the semi-final. Semi-finals had become such a problem for the club and it was a real mental barrier. It played on everyone’s mind. We had some bad defeats and also landed up playing against Celtic more often than not.

“When we got to Tynecastle the place was rocking. It was great to be apart of that event. And then onto the final. People say it was not the greatest of games but for anyone connected to the club, the players, the management team, the fans, no one could care less! It was just all about getting our hands on that cup.

“It was one of the greatest days of my life and it was so special having my kids and my wife there. Walking round the pitch at Parkhead with the girls made all the hard work worthwhile. Seeing their smiling faces and for them to turn round and say “Daddy, you’re my hero”, that was truly wonderful. Life does not get much better than that. 

“It was an emotional day. I went from nearly dying two-and-a-half years ago to winning a cup at Parkhead with a team I love and I want to be part of. That’s incredible. To lift a cup, for the club that means so much to me, it was very, very special. I know my picture will always be on the wall somewhere at Pittodrie because of that!

…. “I still believe I have got a few years left in me. I am still relatively young for a keeper. I keep myself in shape and I believe I can perform at the highest level. It is up to me to prove that I am good enough to get back in the team,

We’ll just have to see what the future holds – experience has taught me there’s always something going to happen to change your plans!”