It is fair to say Steve Archibald has a CV which is the envy of many.
After all he has played in Scotland for several clubs, appeared at two World Cups and represented Spurs and Barcelona. No wonder he has been inducted into the Scottish football hall of fame.
But the former Aberdeen striker will always be grateful to Joe Harper for showing him what he needed to do to become a star in world football.
Billy McNeill’s decision to take Archibald to the Dons in January 1978 set Archibald down a path which took him around Scotland as well as having legendary stops at White Hart Lane and the Nou Camp.
But Archibald regards his Pittodrie education alongside the King of the Beach End Harper, the Dons’ all-time leading goalscorer, as having been invaluable.
He said: “I was fortunate enough to play up front with Joey Harper, who taught me a bundle of stuff.
“I’d score a goal and he’d say: ‘right, you’ve got to get the next one now.’
“When you score a goal, you might think your job is done, but it’s not. Joe taught me a lot of things.
“He was great to play with, he was a fantastic striker. His movement was fantastic. He was tough, he was solid.
“He was a little guy, but he could hold a big centre-back off and link the play. His finishing was excellent.
“It was fantastic to play with him and Gordon Strachan and other players in the team.”
Harper’s advice gave Archibald the confidence to play in Europe
Harper played the role of attacking mentor at Pittodrie, but it was the quality of the players he came to call his team-mates which Archibald credits for giving him the belief and confidence to broaden his horizons beyond Scotland.
He said: “Joe had been in England. He didn’t have a brilliant time down there, but he had that experience.
“He had a natural ability for scoring goals. He was an instinctive goalscorer.
“He said: ‘let’s try and play an over.’ I’d no idea what an ‘over’ was.
“An over is when the ball comes in, from say, the right-back, and we’re on the edge of the box. He puts the ball in on the ground to Joe on the edge of the box, I’m going to shout ‘over’.
“It sounds simple. He steps over and I just turn and play him in.
“It’s a straight forward thing, but my brain just wasn’t accepting it.
“I didn’t know how to do it, because I was so concentrated on everything I was trying to do because playing up front was new to me.
“I’d played at centre-back and all that at Clyde so it was difficult for me to do. He put all of these things into my head.
“Finishing as well, holding off players, all the intricacies of being a striker, he had them. Absolutely had them in abundance.
“He wasn’t exceptionally quick but the timing of his movement was everything. If you can combine that with pace, and I had pace, then it was a potent combination.
“Then you’ve got to have desire and determination. It was just a fantastic learning process for me with Joe.
“To take that down south, it was really important to have that experience, to have actually scored the goals and played with him, Willie Miller, Alex McLeish and Gordon Strachan.
“The whole thing was fantastic preparation for the world of football.”
Why Lewandowski is top of Archibald’s list of current strikers
As a striker of some repute himself during his prime in the 1980s, Archibald, who spent four years with Barca, remains a cult figure decades later.
He also has strong views on the quality forwards plying their trade today.
A keen follower of the game, Archibald, 65, has no doubt which of the current attackers gracing the international arena he would choose if he was a manager with a blank chequebook.
He said: “The age factor has to come into play.
“Karim Benzema is pushing on, Harry Kane is nearing 30 and Robert Lewandowski is someone I recommended to clubs when he was in Poland.
“For quality, I would take Lewandowski without a shadow of a doubt.
“His experience, his touch, his knowledge, cleverness, link-up play, he is the complete striker.
“He’s getting older now, but all of them at the same age, I would take him.
“Kane has developed into a different type of player now.
“I spoke to his father a while back and I said to him I don’t know how Harry scores goals.
“The reason is the way the possession game is now, Spurs take it to the edge of the box and Kane has to somehow score a goal.
“If I am a striker and I don’t get the ball when I want it, I would be very upset.”
- For tickets to see An Audience with Steve Archibald in Aberdeen at the Tivoli Theatre on Wednesday or An Audience with Steve Archibald at Easter Road Stadium on Friday 18 March, both hosted by David Tanner, visit headlineevents.online/events.
