A NEW firm club looking infirm, a once great Scottish football name so much on its uppers that their supporters were on a permanent downer.
This was Aberdeen six years ago. Never mind the great times, the okay days had faded, gone forever some said, as a team once crowned the best in Europe found themselves also-rans in their own domestic league.
At least they were in the top division, which is more than can be said for old friends Dundee United, now about to enter their four season in the Championship.
Mark Reynolds joined Aberdeen in 2013 at a time when the club was going nowhere. Derek McInnes arrived, and in the words of the manager, Aberdeen became relevant again.
Reynolds is now a Dundee United player, the captain and at 32 one of the most experienced players at Tannadice, a go-to man for Robbie Nielson over the next campaign which must end in promotion.
READ MORE: Gary Caldwell goes back to where it all began in search of another new beginning for Partick Thistle
The defender lived through a rebirth in the North East and believes that can happen again down the east coast.
Reynolds said: “I think we are in a better place and that was certainly what the club was sold to me on, that they were going places. Aberdeen were in a similar position – albeit in the Premiership – when I joined them. They were bottom six but everything was in place for them to kick on and do well.
“The new manager has come in, new owners have taken over and invested in the infrastructure as well as bringing in the right kind of players and the fan base is there as well; this is a big club.
“We want to go up but we have to put in the performances to do that – no-one deserves to win promotion because of their size or their history. You have to earn it but all the building blocks are there. Maybe previous United teams had the excuse that things weren’t right in the background but that’s no longer the case.
“That’s all been taken care of and it’s now down to us, the players, to do our jobs.”
United take on Inverness Caledonian Thistle this afternoon, a team which hope to be a promotion rival, and the two clubs share at least one thing in common. That they both need to get back to the Premiership for financial reasons.
Three play-offs have ended in defeat for Reynolds' team, including last season on penalties at St Mirren, but this time, seriously this time, United need to finish top.
READ MORE: Hearts owner Ann Budge sets manager Craig Levein European target
Reynolds admitted: “That’s fair to say but I believe it’s that mindset which has hampered them in previous seasons, all that ‘We don’t belong here’ and ‘We’re better than this’ probably held them back. It’s not about where you think you should be or what your stature is – you need to treat this division with respect.
“Ultimately, it comes down to results and we’re feeling strong. We know it’s going to be a challenge but the squad looks strong and deep and we have cover for most positions, which you need for a sustained promotion bid.
“I arrived midway through last season, when we were a fair few points behind Ross County. There was still a feeling that we could go up but the long-term plan was to come up this season. It wasn’t expected to happen straight away, although we tried our best. The expectation was that we’d go up this year and that’s our ambition.
“Whether we do it or whether we don’t is down to us. Losing in the play-off final to St Mirren in May hit me hard and that went for all the players and staff – after that game was probably the worst I’ve ever felt.
“There aren’t too many penalty shoot-outs which finish 2-0 or 3-0 so that was pretty embarrassing. We had the chances to win it during normal time but we didn’t convert them and that’s always hard to take.
“But we now need to use that defeat and that disappointment to spur ourselves on. We spoke about that during pre-season training, while we were putting in the hard yards. We’ll use that to push on this season.”
So, what would it mean to the skipper to lead United out of the Championship?
He said: ““The pinnacle of my career has been the League Cup win with Aberdeen, while I’ve also played in Europe and been involved in the international set-up. Winning the Championship would be up there with the added bonus of being captain. It would be huge for me.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here