Robbie Ure is still getting used to the heat in the frying pan of Spain. But he won’t be the first Scot to find himself in hot bother in the Andalusian pressure cooker. We’re only a month away from the clocks turning back yet the mercury is still creeping towards 30 degrees in the Sevilla striker’s new home. In summer, temperatures seldom sink below 40 so it’s no wonder the La Liga outfit’s first tartan import in almost four decades is taking time to adjust to his sweltering surroundings.
And it barely needs saying that new Scotland cap Ure would be well advised to avoid the off-field activities that previously left Ted McMinn sweating in the city. The former Rangers winger became just the second Scot to pull on Los Rojiblancos’ famous white jersey when he followed Jock Wallace from Ibrox to the Estadio Sanchez-Pizjuan in 1987. This summer’s £7.8million signing Ure is now the third - also following in the footsteps of Duncan McVean Thomson, who became the original Caledonian Nervionenses when he featured for the club over a century ago.
McMinn's Sevilla experience
But McMinn certainly hopes the 22-year-old frontman gets an easier ride than he did. Be it pressure from the press, local language barriers or his penchant for a pint, the Tin Man regularly found himself melting under the Spanish spotlight. Yet for all that scorching scrutiny, McMinn still cherishes his eight-month stint in Seville.
He said: “I can tell you this, the young lad will love it. It was a completely different world when I was there. The language was obviously a huge barrier. Jock and I could walk around Seville and not speak to anybody. I would go to games at the weekend and barely speak a word to my teammates because they couldn't understand me. I live in Derby these days and it's bad enough trying to speak with the English. They can’t understand me so you can forgive the Spanish lads!
“I’m originally from Dumfries. I started out in a council estate and found myself running out at the Sanchez-Pizjuan, which was incredible. Imagine you’re a Glasgow boy from Castlemilk or the Gorbals and find yourself playing against Barcelona, Atletico Madrid, Real Madrid. It’s just a dream.
“But Robbie has already done that. He started against Barca the other week. I think they’ve got a game against Real coming up soon. He’ll be in a better position than I was for sure. He's went to Sevilla for a lot of money. There will be a lot expected of him - but not as much as was expected of me! In my days, La Liga would only allow two foreigners to play. So all the pressure was on you to perform.
“And you felt it if you didn’t. You got slaughtered if you played badly. I got that and so did our other overseas player (Pablo Bengoechea) - he was Uruguayan but at least he could understand what the press was writing. I had to get an interpreter to read the interviews.
“He’d say, ‘Well Ted, they thought you were beep, beep, beep…!’ He’d say, 'It’s your fondness for cervezas (Spanish for beer)! They say your going out a lot.' But I had nobody to talk to so I wasn’t just going to sit in my apartment. It wasn’t like I was doing it the night before a game - more like the morning of a match! No seriously, life was completely different then.”
Pressure and advice for Ure
McMinn hadn’t even signed up for his move to Seville before he found himself feeling the strain. In December 1986, he was involved in an altercation outside an East Kilbride nightclub alongside Ally McCoist and Ian Durrant which resulted in all three ending up in the dock. And the stress of the night followed him all the way to Spain’s southern coast.
“It was hard for me,” he recalled. “I'd left Rangers under a big cloud. I went over there to sign but they said if the East Kilbride court case goes against you, we can sack you. It stemmed back to a night out with Coisty and Durranty. There was one punch thrown - but no-one would own up to that punch. There was only one person who did it … and it wasn’t me!
“Who was it? Who do you think? F**king Golden Balls! (McCoist was eventually fined £150 after being convicted of assault, with not proven verdicts returned against McMinn and Durrant). But I had that hanging over me. Thankfully after a three-day trial at Hamilton Sheriff Court, I got off with it. But that just added to the pressure I felt heading to Sevilla. We did have some huge results. We beat Barca and Real Madrid during my time there.
“But when you have your bad games, you’d pick up the press - and you've only got three papers over there, Marca and two others - and they’d be saying this and that about McMinn. Even the referees would call you a bastard! It was wild but a great experience.”
Former Rangers academy kid Ure - who made his Scotland debut in Saturday’s goalless draw against Slovenia - has so far managed to avoid that kind of bother in his new patch. But if McMinn has one piece of advice, it’s avoid the Spanish papers - and fans of local rivals Real Betis.
“Seville is a brilliant place to go,” he insisted. “When I was at Rangers, you lived for the European nights. The Scottish league was your bread and butter. But when I think back to the games against the likes of Borussia Monchengladbach or Osasuna on a Wednesday night under the lights, there was nothing better. You had a similar feeling playing in La Liga.
“So Robbie is going to sample that going over there playing against all these huge sides in Spain. I wish the lad all the best as that club is special. Do I have any advise for him? Don’t read the papers! The criticism over there is on another level. There's only three newspapers but what they write, people believe. If someone got murdered, that news wouldn’t make the front page if Seville had got beat the night before.
“There could be a big story going on but I’d find my face on the front page because we’d had a bad result against Real Betis. I remember the first advice big Jock said to me, ‘If anyone says anything to you about Betis, just reply: ‘Verde blanco caca’.
“That means green and white s***e! So I’m walking around all the bars when I see Betis tops going, ‘Verde blanco caca’. Then the barmen would tell me to get out! Listen, I was there for a year. Was it successful? I’ll let other decide that. Did it make me a better player? Definitely. And it will do the same for Robbie. Playing against that level of opposition will drive you to improve.”
International hopes
Ure’s switch to Spain has been enough to convince new Scotland boss Sebastien Pocognoli to give him a chance, calling him up for this month’s Nations League fixtures. But McMinn’s move didn’t lead to international honours. And for a man who would in later life go through the agony of losing part of his leg following a mystery infection, he admits that disappointment stung badly.
“Back then you really had to be playing in Scotland or for a big side in England to get picked for the national team,” he said. “Andy Roxburgh did take more of an interest in me when I moved to Derby in 1989, just before the 1990 World Cup.
“I was very close but then I snapped my knee, a bit like Durranty, and did my cruciate and medial ligament. Roxburgh said if I’d got myself fit by April, he’d take me to Italy. But it didn't happen. I ended up out for 14 months. I’ve had a few blows in my life. Obviously losing my leg is the biggest. But that was a sore one I must admit.”
