So that's it all over. The domestic season is completed and the final curtain fell on European competitions with Real Madrid's victory over Juventus in the champions league final this week.
The Spanish club's victory brought back memories for me as it was 15 years ago that Aberdeen beat the Madrid club in the cup-winners cup final to give me my finest moment in football.
It was interesting for me to hear former Chelsea manager Ruud Gullitt's comment after the match that it was difficult to go for a major European trophy and the league in the same year. He said that when he was with AC Milan the priority for them was the European Cup rather the league. Certainly Real Madrid's poor show in this years Spanish league championship indicates the European trophy was always on their minds.
In my time with Aberdeen we had no pecking order of trophies as we wanted to get our hands on every one of them on offer and because of the success of our side at the time we believed nothing was outwith our capabilities.
However, what I do agree with is what Ruud said about the problems chasing success in so many competitions during the same year. I well remember the times playing for Aberdeen during our European run when we would return home from a winning European tie and then have to build ourselves up for the following league game on a Saturday.
The year of our European success we also won the Scottish Cup and had a great chance of winning the league but certainly the run we had in Europe hindered us as the amount of travel and emotion involved in the latter stages of European competition drained us.
I also remember our manager Alex Ferguson criticising us after we had beaten Rangers in the Scottish Cup final of that year for our poor performance. Looking back some may say in light of our victory criticism was harsh but Fergie was correct in that we had set ourselves such a high standard that year it was important we didn't let it drop, even in victory.
Going back to when we won the European Cup-winners' Cup, I believe before the match we had not grasped the importance of the game or the way it would affect our lives. It was looked on, not just as another game, but maybe just as another cup final. Certainly I was tense but not too nervous before the game and we were confident we could win it.
Maybe part of that attitude was because we had broken the Old Firm dominance, won the league, Scottish Cups, league cups at that time and felt anything was possible.
No member of our side realised how winning a European trophy catapults you into the minds of everyone in Europe. Beforehand nobody had heard of Aberdeen then all of a sudden we were getting letters from all over Europe and supporters from all sorts of countries were asking for our autographs and photographs. It really did come as a shock to us how it took our name out of obscurity and put it into the limelight and made you a household name in Europe certainly for that year.
I would love to think Hearts and Scotland's other European representatives next season will emulate us and bring back a trophy to Scotland. Like I said winning your first trophy, be it in Europe or on the domestic front, is something that lives with you forever.
With that in mind my thoughts turned to Hearts and the 200,000 people who took to the streets of Edinburgh to watch them return with the cup. It reminded me of similar scenes when we returned to Aberdeen with the European cup-winners cup.
Both moments were great for the fans and the teams and the emotion felt will easily eclipse any future success for Hearts, unless of course that success comes in Europe.
My first trophy was when we won the league in 1980 and that was the most sweetest domestic honour I ever got my hands on. You can't say it's not nice to win trophies, I would never say that, but it's not the same after you win that first one.
I believe that because of the 15 long years since a Scottish club last won a European trophy there would incredible public reaction to any team that lifted such an honour next season. Hearts could do well next season both on the domestic front and in Europe because they have a young side.
However, European tournaments are all part of a learning process. You don't just walk into them and take them by storm. It takes a few seasons to understand what it's all about. It will take them a little while but I am sure they will do well and I wish them, and our other European representatives, well in next season's tournaments.
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