Boyhood hero

[The Cockney Don]

Rachid Belabed.

Good in Corrie.

[Studebaker-90]

Good in Corrie.

Does a rousing version of o flower of Scotland

[Dons79]

Must be close to a 20-25 year span of playing careers in there too. All solid picks to be fair but maybe stretches the boyhood definition.

Am like Peter Pan, a never grow old

[ab24_5qh]

Simmie. He helped coach my primary school team in the early 80s.

[King Street Loon]

You know what to do.

What Tommy said.

[Guest the shepherd]

Bruce Lee.

 

Supergran.

Not consider going for Paul Kane or big Ally Brazil? Leg ends of the Hibs of the 80s.

[Hazlehead Don]

Dons - Willie Miller, Peter Weir, Dougie Bell, Doug Rougvie, Frank McDougall, Steve Archibald.

 

Non Dons - Kenny Dalglish, John Robertson (Nottingham Forest), Bryan Robson.

[thomsod]

From Primary - Jess and Leighton

Jess and Anderson my all time favourites though.

Non Dons - Zidane. Absolute genius.

[aberdeen1970]

The entire Gothenburg team.

Kenny Dalglish

Diego Maradona

[Sonoftherock]

Eoin Jess.

 

No old enough to remember the great sides of the 80's....  Consequently Eoin Jess was the best player I have seen playing for Aberdeen - by a country mile.  

[ericblack4boss]

Surely Paul mason too

[Byrne Baby Byrne]

How good was Jess?

 

Went down to Coventry and wasn't good enough

 

At a time when you could win the English Premiership with Kevin Gallagher and Colin Hendry in your side

 

Did the injury finish him?

[aberdeen1970]

How good was Jess?

 

Went down to Coventry and wasn't good enough

 

At a time when you could win the English Premiership with Kevin Gallagher and Colin Hendry in your side

 

Did the injury finish him?

I personally think the early injury put a cap on his potential.

 

His failure at Coventry was partly due to confidence. Strachan said he had the best skills of anyone at the club.

[aberdeen1970]

So, ironically, "a glorified futsal player?"

Lol, I'm not biting.

 

He was more than good enough for Aberdeen and that's all that matters to me

[Guest the shepherd]

How good was Jess?

 

Went down to Coventry and wasn't good enough

 

At a time when you could win the English Premiership with Kevin Gallagher and Colin Hendry in your side

 

Did the injury finish him?

It was a horrific injury he suffered and he came back well from it, all things considered. The fat boy Murdoch fae Clydebank clumsily sat on his leg in the penalty area and broke it (not sure how many fractures Jess endured but it kept him out the best part of 3 months). Strangely enough no penalty or yellow card was given

[Dons79]

Was an absolute gem of a player, a would rate as one of the best technically gifted players Aberdeen has ever had!,I think the reason he failed in England was the injury but the main reason was he was so slight!,English players and there foreign contingent were huge.

[tightbreeks]

A team of prime ruud gullits and one van basten. Leighton, post pass back rule, just for a bit of danger. Loved his throw outs, backspin.

[Sonoftherock]

I personally think the early injury put a cap on his potential.

 

His failure at Coventry was partly due to confidence. Strachan said he had the best skills of anyone at the club.

 

The injury was definitely a set-back however, his failure at Coventry was down to a few things imo.  His choice of clubs in England definitely hindered him... Coventry, Bradford and Nottm, all on downward spirals, heading towards financial oblivion!

 

Even when he came back the second time, he was still light years ahead of everyone else in our squad.

[NEM]

So, ironically, "a glorified futsal player?"

 

 

Should be banned from the board for that tbh

[Byrne Baby Byrne]

Was an absolute gem of a player, a would rate as one of the best technically gifted players Aberdeen has ever had!,I think the reason he failed in England was the injury but the main reason was he was so slight!,English players and there foreign contingent were huge.

 

This was long before English football had the money to sign anyone from anywhere in the world though. The overall standard was nowhere near as high as it is now... and yet there's Bobby Snodgrass most weeks for West Ham

 

Was Eoin Jess as good as Robert Snodgrass??????????????

[Dons79]

Schmeickel,Jenson,limpar,cantana, not exactly shrinking violets along with hard men like jones,pierce etc is what I meant, why compare snodgrass to Jess?, snodgrass was much broader than Jess!,have they not got shit players in big teams now, Man City-delph Man Utd-Jones, when was the English teams most successful in Europe by actually winning euro cups, was back then when the qaulity was apparently low?,strange that?, and as for Jess, he was a 100times better than snodgrass!, difference is that snodgrass has stayed fit without major injury, Jess didn’t

[Dons79]

Ps you just compared Jess to snodgrass

[Fridge]

I think you had to really had to see Jess in the flesh to appreciate how good he was, it’s a shame for the younger one’s on here who didn’t.

 

It is fairly indicative that 100% (as far as I can see) folk on here rate him as one of the best talents they’ve ever seen.

 

Normally you will get somebody piping up that he was over rated. The fact there hasn’t been say’s it all I think.

[Dons79]

Defo agree white goods!, had the pleasure a few times in the 90s and your right you had to see him live to really appreciate his talent.probably the same as willie miller as well but was just too young for that.i always get the sense that miller was phenomenal but had to be seen to be completely appreciated. Surely anybody saying Jess was overrated just simply doesn’t understand football!. I really feel for the fans that weren’t old enough to see him either, just like iam envious of the fans that were old enough to see Gothenburg live.jammy bastards

[Byrne Baby Byrne]

Just to confirm I rated Jess as my number 1 boyhood hero in my post

 

Just generating a debate. I compared him to Snodgrass because it seemed so ridiculous. 

 

The money and global reach in England is huge now compared to the 90s though. A lot more British players playing in the top flight in those days than now. But Jess still didn't make it.... HOW NAE

 

Noel Whelan was the man in that team...

[StandFree1982]

Shearer and Jess were my heroes growing up

[strachanmcgheegoal]

Defo agree white goods!, had the pleasure a few times in the 90s and your right you had to see him live to really appreciate his talent.probably the same as willie miller as well but was just too young for that.i always get the sense that miller was phenomenal but had to be seen to be completely appreciated. Surely anybody saying Jess was overrated just simply doesn’t understand football!. I really feel for the fans that weren’t old enough to see him either, just like iam envious of the fans that were old enough to see Gothenburg live.jammy bastards

 

Its also fair to say we probably appreciate him more (more than say a Doug Bell or John McMaster type) because of his efforts when we were utter shite (at least relative to where we'd been, turns out we still had some depths post Jess to plumb).  Carried us through innumerable games.  The black and gold strip era seems to particularly stick in my mind for some reason. 

[Dons79]

Just to confirm I rated Jess as my number 1 boyhood hero in my post

 

Just generating a debate. I compared him to Snodgrass because it seemed so ridiculous.

 

The money and global reach in England is huge now compared to the 90s though. A lot more British players playing in the top flight in those days than now. But Jess still didn't make it.... HOW NAE

 

Noel Whelan was the man in that team...

It is very strange especially back then when the flair,creative skill full type player that Jess was, wasn’t easily bought back then, they were few and far between in Britain and seemed to go for the giant, rugby type!,was it English racism towards a Scot?, was it the injury right enough?, was it the coaches just didn’t think it would work for him?, or was it his mentality ?, thinking he wasn’t good enough himself and only produced half his talent, could have also been homesickness?, some folks aren’t designed to move away from there birthplace? What a will say is, imagine we had a Jess coming through in the near future, a wonder what he would cost in this current market

[Dons79]

Its also fair to say we probably appreciate him more (more than say a Doug Bell or John McMaster type) because of his efforts when we were utter shite (at least relative to where we'd been, turns out we still had some depths post Jess to plumb). Carried us through innumerable games. The black and gold strip era seems to particularly stick in my mind for some reason.

The A FAB one with the vertical lines running down it?

[Fridge]

Yeah, funnily enough I remember being at Tannadice when we were wearing that strip on a New Year’s Day fixture. Jess scored in a 1-0 win.

 

We must have went top as I remember singing we’re gonna win the league and actually believing we would.

 

And correct it was unbelievable the shifts he used to put in the second spell when we were utter pish. He used to go all the way back to his own box to get the ball from the keeper as everyone else was too shit scared to take responsibility. Was almost a one man team at times.