THE past few months will have felt like something of a novelty to Derek Young.
Having spent almost three-quarters of his senior career at Aberdeen – his 11 seasons at the club spanned two spells – a vagarious stint in the wilderness will have been as alien to the midfielder as the interior of a home dressing room at a ground other than Pittodrie.
Following his release at the end of last season, Young became almost ambulant. Allowed to leave by Craig Brown – a decision which still vexes the 32-year-old, having been praised by the Aberdeen manager for his displays in the preceding weeks – clubs in England were sounded out, before a conversation with former Pittodrie team-mate Robbie Winters prompted a brief move to Grindavik in Iceland.
Financial restrictions at clubs, as trite an assertion as that has become, prolonged his unemployment when he returned to Scotland, where he has since joined Morton until January – a move almost identical to that made by his brother, Darren, at the same time last season. Even then the move was not completed without a couple of detours along the way. Young was left frustrated as he awaited international clearance from Iceland – “We were waiting on them getting their finger out but they seemed to be making a hash of it,” he said, before later learning that he was required to serve an outstanding one-match suspension.
Those tribulations were not quite how Young had envisaged his first few weeks with the first division side, but the move will likely prove to be a prudent one. His club were attracted as much by his extensive experience as his modest financial demands, while the chance of competitive action fulfilled the midfielder’s needs.
With Michael Tidser likely to be out until Christmas after a knee operation, Young will probably get his chance.
He made his debut on Saturday – playing for the whole of a 1-0 win over Ayr United – and is revelling in a return to a more familiar routine during the week.
“I went over to Norway and I was kind of doing my own pre-season, but I hadn’t played any games,” he said. “Robbie Winters was there and he said to me about going over in August. I thought ‘why not? I may as well’ as I hadn’t played for about two months.
“I went down to Partick Thistle for two or three weeks as well. But it got to the stage where I couldn’t depend on other people to find me a club and the way Scottish football is at the moment it’s tough for everybody.”
Young was well disposed to cope with such frustration, though. His second spell at Aberdeen began brightly – there were European trips and all – however, it steadily soured. The sacking of Jimmy Calderwood, who Young had previously worked under for three seasons at Dunfermline Athletic, began a darkening of the mood at the club which is yet to lift.
“The frustrating thing about Aberdeen was that everything was going well under Jimmy Calderwood,” he said. “But he got sacked and I think a lot of the boys in the team thought that was the wrong move at the time. Then things didn’t work out under Mark McGhee – and he didn’t enjoy his time according to the papers the other week – so it was a bit of a frustrating time in the last couple of years. Going from fighting for Europe every year to fighting relegation was a horrible situation.”
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