Nesta Guinness-Walker on Aberdeen secret agent duo who pushed him to sign – and why he doesn’t get sick of questions about Star Wars actor great-grandfather

Aberdeen signing Nesta Guinness-Walker has revealed two former Dons helped push the club’s bid to sign him over the line.

Guinness-Walker, 26, joined Aberdeen on a two-year deal after leaving Northampton Town.

The left-back became “really close friends” with two Aberdeen youth academy graduates, Dean Campbell and Terry Taylor, during his two-year stint with the English side.

They gave him “nothing but gleaming reports” which convinced him to join the Dons. 

Taylor was just 16 when he was snapped up from Aberdeen by Wolves in 2017, going on to play for Grimsby Town (loan), Burton Albion, and Charlton Athletic.

Charlton loaned the midfielder to Northampton for 18 months before the now-25-year-old moved to Stevenage this summer.

Campbell, also 25, played 75 times for Aberdeen’s first-team and had loan spells with Kilmarnock and Stevenage before departing the Dons permanently for Barrow in 2023. The middle man has been with Northampton since last summer.

Guinness-Walker said: “Dean Campbell and Terry Taylor were teammates at Northampton and they were really close friends of mine as well.

“I really got on with them, so when I had the interest from Scotland, I spoke to them to give me their first-hand experience of it.

“They had nothing but gleaming reports to say about the club.”

He added: “They told me how big of a club it is and what an honour it is to play for Aberdeen.

“That was something that was a no-brainer for me.

“The conversations with Dean and Terry helped. It also sells itself, but that was kind of the final little bit that pushed it over for me.”

Robinson’s exacting touchline standards a ‘positive’ for Guinness-Walker

Guinness-Walker made his competitive debut for Aberdeen in the season-opening Premier Sports Cup group stage win at Highland League champions Brora Rangers last week.

Having played non-league football down south earlier in his career after stints with Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur’s academies, the conditions and “tough game” at Dudgeon Park were no baptism of fire for the new Don.

What Guinness-Walker will have to get used to are the exacting standards of his new boss Stephen Robinson – who could be heard loudly urging the left-back to quicken his play and take fewer touches to hasten Aberdeen’s build-up against Brora.

Guinness-Walker says Robinson’s “expectancy and demands” are “part of the reason” he signed for Aberdeen, amid “a few offers from a variety of leagues” this summer – including from Premiership returnees St Johnstone.

He said: “It’s definitely a positive.

“That (touches) is something that he wants me to improve and that’s the conversation that we had before I came in, is that he thinks that he can really help me.

“In general, I think you can always look at your own game and see where you can improve defensively, in attack, positionally.

“There’s all types of things I’m just trying to tidy up in my game and really take it to the next level.”

Guinness-Walker wants to face Queen of the South and nail down Dons left-back berth

With Guinness-Walker also playing in Saturday’s 2-1 group win over Championship Queen’s Park at Pittodrie, Robinson has implied the left-back could be rested for Wednesday’s long League Cup odyssey to face Queen of the South in Dumfries.

Guinness-Walker isn’t overly keen on the rest, saying: “I feel fit, I feel strong.

“It’s been straight into games and stuff like that, but that’s what you want as a player – you want to be playing games, you want to be competing, especially in these games where it’s a competitive match.

“I’ve really enjoyed it.”

With injury-ravaged Emmanuel Gyamfi struggling to overcome a thigh complaint and speculation around youngster Mitchel Frame’s future, it feels like Guinness-Walker has a real opportunity to make the Reds’ left-back berth his own early in his Pittodrie career.

He added: “Whenever you get an opportunity to play, it’s an opportunity to showcase yourself to the manager, to all the coaches, and I’m definitely trying to do that every time I start.”

Aberdeen know they need to compete this season

Guinness-Walker was named Northampton’s player of the year last season, in an otherwise difficult campaign where the Cobblers were relegated to England’s League Two.

Aberdeen, he is determined, will have rosier campaign – with the Premiership action set to start at home to Hearts on Saturday, August 1.

On his aims for this term, attack-minded Guinness-Walker said: “I just try and focus on game by game and performing at my best every time I get the chance to put the shirt on.

“But I think as a group there’s a real expectancy at the club to achieve and be competing. That’s what we should be doing this year.

“I think last year we all know it was a bit below par and this is the chance to put it right and improve.

“I think that was something that drew me to the club. I thrive under that pressure.”

Nesta Guinness-Walker on great-grandfather Alec Guinness and Star Wars

One inevitable point of intrigue since Guinness-Walker signed for Aberdeen is contained within his name.

To those curious, his first name Nesta is a reference to the middle name of Jamaican music icon Bob Marley (and not legendary AC Milan and Italy defender Alessandro Nesta).

But it is, of course, the part of his surname handed down from his great-grandfather – late, great Oscar-winning actor Alec Guinness – which has been the focus.

Despite it “usually” being a topic of interviews when the left-back joins a new club, he insists he “is definitely not sick” of questions about his forebear, who, among a host of roles, played Obi-Wan Kenobi in Star Wars.

Guinness-Walker said: “It’s not something as a family or me as a person we shy away from.

“He did amazing things in his career and was a real idol in our family for how successful he was and it’s something you can take inspiration from.”

Guinness-Walker – who joked, if football doesn’t work out, he won’t “become an actor any time soon”  hasn’t quite got round to watching every one of his great-grandfather’s movies, adding: “I don’t know about every single one. He had quite a big catalogue, but I’ve definitely watched a few of his films.

“Star Wars (is my favourite) – I’m a big fan of Star Wars myself as well, and it’s one of his most famous pieces of work, so it was good to enjoy that when I was a kid.

“I think Star Wars is a bit of a timeless franchise at the minute, so it’s always nice to have a relation to that.

“I don’t have any of his memorabilia, but we have pictures and stuff at the house of him with our family and everything.”

[Source: Press and Journal]