Why Graeme Shinnie’s departure leaves Aberdeen facing their toughest replacement job yet

Soul. Spirit. Tradition. The three words adopted by Aberdeen as an unofficial club motto, given to them by the great Alfredo Di Stéfano.

The full quote from the Real Madrid legend says that the club “has what money can’t buy; a soul, a team spirit, built in a family tradition.” Perhaps no player in Pittodrie’s modern history has embodied those words more than Graeme Shinnie.

The midfielder’s second spell in the north east brings to an end his career in red after 344 first team appearances, including 32 in European competition, 22 goals and one famous Scottish Cup victory. However, those statistics only tell half the story of what the Granite City native means to his boyhood club.

Soul. Spirit. Tradition - why Graeme Shinnie represents all this and more to Aberdeen Football Club

In footballing terms, Shinnie has been the quintessential ‘man you want beside you in the trenches’ throughout his combined eight seasons at Aberdeen. A battling, box-to-box midfielder who leads by example and runs himself into the ground time after time all while beating the badge on his chest with pride.

That’s ‘Spirit’ and it is not necessarily the most difficult thing to replace man for man if you have the budget to do it. Callum McGregor is the current gold standard of that archetype in Scotland while Josh Mulligan and David Watson bring similar qualities.

It’s a combination of the mental attributes of work rate, determination and just the right amount of aggression combined with the physical attributes of stamina, strength and balance. They are not cheap but they are out there and Aberdeen could do a lot worse than Kilmarnock’s Watson as a long term replacement for the outgoing Shinnie.

Then comes ‘Soul’, harder to define and a hell of a lot harder to replace. At this point it’s worth noting that, at 34-years-old, Shinnie’s best years as a player are behind him.

You probably won’t find too many Aberdeen fans arguing that his loss is a huge blow to the team from a pure footballing perspective. As mentioned, while it’s not necessarily easy to recruit a similar type of athlete, they are out there and the Dons will need to plug that hole in their team this summer.

The ‘what money can’t buy’ aspect comes from a player’s moral fibre, their inner strength rather than the physical side. It’s easy to forget when watching him play and hearing him speak that Shinnie achieved everything he did while battling Crohn’s Disease, a condition that could have so easily cut short his career before it even began.

It’s more than that though, it’s in the way you embrace your role as a leader and an ambassador for your club that shows your ‘soul’ and in turn makes you part of the ‘soul’ of the club. You simply do not replace that by going out and splashing the cash on a marquee signing.

James Tavernier brought that to Rangers, Craig Gordon to Hearts and Lewis Stevenson to Hibs. It goes beyond what you mean as a player and is more about what you bring to the football club as a person.

A connection with the fans is key for sure but that’s something than can be built up quickly enough. You then have to translate that connection into the way you approach all aspects of your role at the club from playing and training to helping the next generation of talent realise their own potential through leadership by example.

Like the great man said, you can’t buy that, you have to build it up over time. Aberdeen have been able to hand this mantle down over the years with Shinnie himself taking it on from former captain Russell Anderson as the two passed through the doors of Pittodrie like ships in the night over a decade ago.

When Shinnie arrived at Pittodrie he came into a squad that included the likes of Andy Considine and Barry Robson who could hold down those qualities while he got up to speed and eventually took over the captain’s armband. A brief look at the Aberdeen squad now and there are less obvious candidates for a new ‘soul’ of the club to stand on the shoulders of.

Graeme Shinnie - an Aberdeen leader and legend who grew up in the Granite City

Finally, there’s ‘Tradition’. Once an individual wraps their head around a club’s tradition and the importance it holds for the supporters, that’s when they go from great players to icon or legend status.

You do not need to have grown up in the city the way Shinnie did or have come through the club’s academy, although it does help. It goes back to first establishing that connection with the fanbase and, from that, the connection to the club usually follows.

It can be hard to grasp the tradition of a club without that childhood connection but it can be done. Then, once you do it, you have that trifecta that can propel you to greatness - the playing ability, the moral fibre and the deep-rooted understanding of what a club means to the fans and the community. Soul. Spirit. Tradition.

For the player who does have to fill the massive void left by Shinnie’s Pittodrie departure it all begins with getting them back to where the club’s tradition was built. European football, as a minimum. They will also need the ambition to want to push beyond just that, as Hearts have shown a club outside of the Glasgow giants can still do.

Graeme Shinnie rides off into the north east sunset as one of the Dons’ greatest modern players. He is one of their own, a leader and a legend, and the Granite City may not see his likes again for some time.

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