The New Wave
How “the New Firm” rivalry of Aberdeen and Dundee United had a rebirth
During the 1980s, Scottish club football enjoyed a renaissance period as the Old Firm teams of Celtic and Rangers were briefly toppled. Back then, the New Wave music of Midge Ure and Gary Numan was the latest sensation to sweep the nation, but Aberdeen and Dundee United would be football’s New Romantics as they established a new order that would alter the image of Scottish football. The Dandies and The Tangerines would regularly top the Scottish charts and enjoy the sweet dreams of European football. Aberdeen would win the European Cup Winners’ Cup and European Super Cup in 1983 and Dundee United reached the 1987 UEFA Cup Final after being controversially ousted from the European Cup semi-finals in 1984.
Sir Alex Ferguson and Jim McLean were the bandleaders of Aberdeen and Dundee United respectively and both men’s clubs would benefit from the boom economy in north-east Scotland at the time due to the rising oil and gas industry in the North Sea. However, after Ferguson’s career-defining departure to Manchester United and McLean’s retirement, both clubs entered into a long period of malaise through the 90s and early 2000s. Fortunately, the simple minds running the Old Firm would open an opportunity for “the New Firm” to begin their resurrection in the 2010s. Rangers would fade to grey due to financial mismanagement and Celtic just can’t get enough new managers. In the late 2000s, the Dandies and Tangerines began to build good sides to take advantage of this window of opportunity.
Aberdeen’s new director of football, Willie Miller, had been the captain and icon of their 1983 European Cup Winners’ Cup winning side and he believed Dunfermline Athletic’s Jimmy Calderwood was the man to get the Dons back to their glory days. Calderwood had some success at Pittodrie as he, alongside club captain Russell Anderson, guided the Dons to a third place finish in 2006/07.
Goals from striker Lee Miller, when he wasn’t showing off his backside to fans, helped Aberdeen reach the knockout stages of the following year’s UEFA Cup, where they earned a creditable 2–2 draw against German giants Bayern Munich before their eventual elimination. Calderwood departed the club “by mutual consent” in 2009 and the Dons turned to Motherwell for a successor who could continue to build their rising platform.
After a brief and unsuccessful flirtation with Mark McGhee, another 80s icon from Aberdeen’s past who would lead the Dons to a club record 9–0 defeat against Celtic, Craig Brown was lured away from Motherwell to take over the Dons. Brown, who had now replaced McGhee twice, found himself tasked with the same objective at Pittodrie that he had been following at Motherwell’s Fir Park, namely to keep up the club’s momentum and forward progress.
With increased investment from club chairman and housebuilding businessman, Stewart Milne, Aberdeen began to rebuild a more competitive side under Brown. Success under Brown though would be in short supply as he failed to match Calderwood’s accomplishments in the league or in Europe. The Dons would, however, find their form in domestic cup competitions as Brown led them to the semi-finals of both the Scottish Cup and League Cup in 2011. Chairman Milne, however, wasn’t satisfied and Brown would be relieved of his duties, with the consolation of a club ambassadorial role, as the Dons searched for a promising successor.
Meanwhile, at Tannadice, Dundee United began their own rebuilding project under former Hearts manager, Craig Levein. With the assistance of striker Jon Daly’s front-line production, the Terrors reached the 2008 Scottish League Cup Final, which they lost on penalties to Rangers. Levein, with the further assistance of his academy coach Iain Cathro, led the Terrors to second place in the league before the Scotland national football team came calling for him midway through the 2009/10 season.
Peter Houston, Levein’s successor, would guide the Terrors to a third place finish in 2009/10 and Cathro’s academy talents, such as striker David Goodwillie, helped Dundee United win the 2010 Scottish Cup after beating Ross County 3–0 in the final.
Houston led the Terrors to three consecutive Europa League campaigns between 2010 and 2012 before leaving Dundee United “by mutual consent” midway through the 2012/13 campaign. Both “New Firm” clubs were now looking for a manager at the same time with the ambition to take advantage of Scottish football’s power vacuum.
In 2013, Derek McInnes and Jackie McNamara were hired to take over at Aberdeen and Dundee United respectively. McInnes, a former Rangers and Dundee United player, had shown promise as a coach after getting St Johnstone promoted to the Scottish top flight before moving down south to English side Bristol City. After struggling with Bristol City, McInnes looked for an opportunity back in Scotland where he could redeem his managerial credentials. Aberdeen would prove to be the perfect partner to match his ambition.
Excellent form from wingers Niall McGinn and Peter Pawlett combined with the leadership and experience provided by new signings, centre-back Mark Reynolds and centre-mid Barry Robson, led the Dandies to their first cup triumph since 1996. McInnes’s side dispatched St Johnstone, his former team, before beating Highland rivals Inverness on penalties to win the 2014 Scottish League Cup.
Pawlett and Reynolds would both appear in the PFA Scotland Team of the Year as Aberdeen reached the Scottish Cup semi finals and finished third, their highest finish since Calderwood, only missing out on the runners-up spot after a dramatic loss to Motherwell on the final day of the season. The arrival of a prolific new number nine named Adam Rooney would coincide with Aberdeen reaching another semi final in the 2015 Scottish League Cup, ultimately being knocked out by their “New Firm” rivals, and the beginning of a four year stretch of league runners-up finishes for the Dandies as they established their best of the rest status in Scottish football.
McNamara, a former Celtic and Aberdeen player, would be McInnes’s mirror man at Dundee United. The Tangerines turned to McNamara after he impressed with a promising Partick Thistle side that reached the final of the lower league Scottish Challenge Cup. McNamara took over a Dundee United side that was brimming with talented youth from their academy. Forwards Gary Mackay-Steven and Johnny Russell, midfielders Stuart Armstrong and Ryan Gauld and defenders Andrew Robertson and John Souttar would complement more experienced strikers such as Goodwillie and Nadir Ciftci.
McNamara’s youthful side became a cup specialist team as they reached at least one domestic semi final for four consecutive seasons. Sandwiched between semi-final appearances in the 2013 and 2016 editions of the Scottish Cup, the Tangerines would reach the final of the 2014 Scottish Cup and 2015 Scottish League Cup.
In 2014, Dundee United knocked out Inverness, with a convincing 5–0 win, and Rangers, with a 3–1 victory, before coming undone against McInnes’s former side, St Johnstone, in the final. In 2015, Dundee United lost the League Cup Final to Celtic but McNamara would earn bragging rights over McInnes after winning a “New Firm” derby in the semi final 2–1.
The Tangerines would finish as high as fourth in the league in 2013–14, just behind Aberdeen, and Ciftci, Armstrong and Robertson would appear in the PFA Scotland Team of the Year with Robertson winning Young Player of the Year. However, Dundee United wouldn’t enjoy the same sustained league success as their “New Firm” rivals as the young talent at the club was too attractive for big clubs to ignore any further.
Mackay-Steven and Armstrong both left for Celtic, Gauld would be linked to some of Europe’s biggest clubs such as Manchester United and Real Madrid before moving to Portugal with Sporting Lisbon and Goodwillie, Russell and Robertson were pounced on by English clubs with Robertson going on to lift the Champions League trophy as Liverpool’s star left-back. This exodus led to a nosedive in the Tangerines overall league performance and McNamara would be sacked before Dundee United were relegated in 2016.
The New Wave of Aberdeen and Dundee United couldn’t last forever but together they toppled the established order of Old Firm dominance in the early to mid 2010s. Strangely, it was a joint effort in more ways than one as there was frequent crossover in personnel between the two sides. Just as Midge Ure was in Visage and Ultravox and Vince Clarke was a member of Depeche Mode and Yazoo, many of the characters who came to define this era played for both clubs. Robson, Miller, Goodwillie and Mackay-Steven were important features at Dundee United before making their way to Aberdeen. Whereas, Pawlett and Reynolds would take their talents to the Tangerines after time spent with the Dandies. Not to mention of course the criss-crossing of the managers, Dundee United’s midfielder Derek McInnes and Aberdeen’s defender Jackie McNamara.
