George Young - Scotland's greatest captain
SIXTY years ago today, on 19 May, 1957, George Young,
one of the greatest – I would say THE greatest Scottish football
captains played his last game of football. He went out at the top,
captaining Scotland to a 2-1 victory over Switzerland, in Basle's
Sankt Jakob Stadion, in a qualifying game for the 1958 World Cup
finals. This win left Scotland on the cusp of qualifying for those
finals.
The game was Young's 54th for his country,
his 48th as captain, and it saw his Scotland career come
full circle – it had been against the Swiss, at Hampden, back in
1946, that he had began his official Scotland career.
TODAY, 60-years after that final match as a player,
20-years after his death, Young, the first Scot onto the SFA's Roll
of Honour of players who had played in 50 internationals, who is
still Scotland's most-experienced captain – having led-out the
national side a record 48 times, and who was during his career
Scotland team manager in all but name, is almost forgotten in
Scottish football..
George Lewis Young was born in Grangemouth in October,
1922. He was always a big lad, winning Scotland schoolboy honours in
1937. Leaving school, he went to work in a local ship repair yard,
playing football for a local Juvenile side, then for Kirkintilloch
Rob Roy. Even as a teenager Rangers were watching him, encouraging
him to join “the Rabs” before, in 1941, signing the 18-year-old.
Willie Woodburn, was on active service, Young was in a
reserved occupation in the ship yard. At six foot two inches and over
14-stones, he was already a giant and within weeks of signing he made
his first-team debut, in a war-time Southern League match, against
Hamilton Academical, on 8 November, 1941, in a 3-2 Rangers' win at
Douglas Park.
Young managed `28 games that season, helping Rangers win
the Southern League, the Southern League Cup, the Glasgow Merchants
Charity Cup and the Summer Cup (on the toss of the coin after they
and Hibs had finished the final tied 0-0 on goals and 2-2 on
corners). The following season, and for the remainder of the war
years, he was first-choice centre-half, although, significantly, when
Woodburn was available, he and not Young played at centre-half. After
Woodburn was demobbed, Young was switched to right-back, where he
would play until Woodburn's controversial sine die suspension in late
1954, whereupon he moved back to play-out his career at centre-half.
Willie Woodburn
In April, 1943 the 20-year-old Young made his debut in
the Scotland side for a war-time international against England, at
Hampden. England's won that Hampden match, 4-0; but the young Ranger
was described by one Scottish football writer as: “the only one of
the three Scottish debutants to look the part”, and he was retained
at centre-half for the next game, at Maine Road, in October, 1943,
which England won 8-0.
Tommy Lawton gave his young opponent a torrid time,
scoring four of England's goals and Young was not called on again for
another war-time international.
He continued to learn with Rangers, and, when Scotland
faced Switzerland, at Hampden,on 15 May, 1946, Young made history as
the first Scotland substitute, coming on at half-time for Morton's
Billy Campbell, in a 3-1 win. This was the first of his 54 games for
his country, although, he would be long retired before the SFA gave
the match official international status.
When the Home Internationals resumed in the autumn of
1946, Young wasn't selected for the opener, a 3-1 loss to Wales in
Wrexham, but, Scotland captain Jimmy Stephen of Bradford Park Avenue
was dropped after that disaster and Young replaced him at right back.
Young played five straight games, before injury kept him
out of the team to play Wales, at Hampden, on 12 November, 1947. But,
in April, for Scotland's next international, the Hampden clash with
England, Woodburn was carrying an injury, and Young was switched from
right back to centre-half. He was also named as captain for the first
time and would not miss another Scotland game for nearly seven years,
putting together a record run of 34 straight internationals, before
injury kept him out of the game against England, in April, 1954.
Back in the 1950s, football was different. This was
before the era of the all-powerful track-suited manager. The
international selection committee picked the squads. In Northern
Ireland, Scotland and Wales and most-certainly with Scotland, the
national captain – Young, was more akin to a cricket captain in the
managerial powers he held.
Walter Winterbottom was England team manager, although
the selectors still picked the side. The SFA's selection committee
picked the Scotland team, but, they were less willing than their
English counterparts to cede control of the chosen team to a
professional manager. So, when he became Scotland captain, Young had
a big say in tactics and training. Indeed, when Scottish football
writers raised the possibility of Scotland appointing a team manager,
Sir George Graham, the martinet Secretary of the SFA replied: “We
don't need one – we've got George Young”.
George Young and old friend Billy Wright lead out the teams in 1956
Eric Caldow, who succeeded Young as Rangers' right back
when Young moved to centre-half to replace Woodburn, when he was
banned from the game in 1954, is in no doubts about Young's quality
as a manager.
“With both Rangers and Scotland,” says Caldow, whose
40-cap Scotland career overlapped Young's and who was himself a
distinguished national captain. “'Big Corky'” could come in at
half-time and give a terrific in-depth critique of how each player
had played. He had the authority to change things on the park while
he laid down the tactics we would adopt – he was, for both club and
country, but more-so for Scotland once Scot Symon took over at
Rangers, a player-manager”.
Young never played in the World Cup finals. The SFA
turned down a “wild card” to compete in the 1950 World Cup in
Brazil. They did qualify for the next World Cup, in Switzerland in
1954. However, Young knew he would not be going, since Rangers were
committed to a tour of North America and would not release him to his
country. So, he missed the absolute disaster which the Swiss trip
became.
He was restored as Scotland captain for the two autumn
1954 Home Internationals, but he was left out of the team to play the
legendary Hungarians of Puskas and Co. in December 1954. This was the
only occasion on which Young was ever dropped from the national side
since his first start in 1946.
The Scottish team – including Young - which had
scraped a 2-2 draw against Northern Ireland in November had been
roundly trashed by the critics. Remarkably, the dropping of the
national captain and most-capped player attracted very little comment
on Scotland's sports pages.
The Hungarians won 4-2. but, since Scotland had scored
“a moral victory” - by losing to that great side by fewer goals
than England had, the men in possession by and large received a vote
of confidence from the selectors, when they sat down to pick the team
to face England, at Wembley in April.
A 7-2 defeat showed that confidence had been misplaced,
so, when it came to picking the squad for a busy May, 1955, in which
Scotland were scheduled to face Portugal at Hampden, before
travelling to Europe to face Yugoslavia, Austria and Hungary, Young
was back as centre-half and captain.
He was injured in the tour opener against Yugoslavia,
Bobby Evans of Celtic switched to centre-half for the next match, in
Vienna, with Hibs' Gordon Smith taking-on the captaincy. Young,
however, was very much the man in charge and at a pre-game team
meeting, in Young's hotel room, in Vienna, the tactics which gave the
Scots one of their best-ever wins, a 4-1 defeat of the team which had
finished third in the World Cup less than a year previously, were
laid down by the injured captain. Fit again, Young would continue as
centre-half and captain until his retirement, at the end of the
1956-57 season.
Scotland beat Spain 4-2 at Hampden in their opening
qualifier for the 1958 World Cup finals, Young's final game at
Scotland national stadium. The Scots then moved on for their second
World Cup qualifier, against Switzerland, in Basle. From Basle, the
Scots moved on to play World Champions West Germany in a friendly in
Stuttgart, with the selectors who travelled with the players, opting
to rest the two veterans, Young and Gordon Smith. Evans again moved
to centre-half for Young, with Tommy Docherty taking over the
captaincy.
Bobby Evans and Young training with Scotland
Scotland won 3-1 and, when they moved on to prepare for
the return game with Spain, in the Bernabau, Young suddenly
discovered that some of the mundane jobs of captaincy, which he had
done since 1948, were being given to Docherty. Then, when the team
was announced, Smith was restored to the right wing, the young Dave
Mackay was preferred to Young's Rangers team mate – and future
Scotland manager – Ian McColl, and there was no place for Young.
This caused a major “stooshie”, because, back in
April, Young had announced he would be retiring at the end of the
season, and that the game in Spain would be his last. The press was
in uproar, that the national captain had had his plans snubbed by the
selectors.
There were suggestions that some selectors had felt
sidelined by the close relationship between Young and Sir George
Graham. They felt the skipper had ignored their suggestions regarding
tactics for matches and Young's absence from the Stuttgart game,
which had been won well, gave them the opportunity for pay-back, by
scuppering Young's wish to dictate his own departure from the
Scotland team.
There were whispers that the manner of his being denied
his grand finale in football would be raised at the next SFA meeting,
but, the matter was quietly dropped. Scotland had, after all been
hammered 4-1 in Madrid and nobody wished to reopen still fresh
wounds.
George Young was now an ex-footballer. He was already
running a successful hotel in the Clyde Valley, near Lanark. He and
Rangers goalkeeper George Niven opened one of Glasgow's first coffee
bars, in Renfield Street in the city centre, while he immediately
popped-up as one of the first football talking heads on BBC
Scotland's Sportsreel programme.
He also wrote three well-received football books,
before, in December, 1959, he returned to the game as manager of
Third Lanark.
At the end of the 1959-60 season the Hi-Hi finished 12th
in the 18-club First Division. The following season Thirds finished
third, behind Rangers and Kilmarnock, the club's best finish since
they had occupied the same spot in 1905, having won their only league
title the previous season. In addition, that 1960-61 team's legendary
forward line of Jimmy Goodfellow, Dave Hilley, Alec Harley, Matt
Grey and Jimmy McInnes had contributed the bulk of the 100 league
goals Thirds scored during the campaign.
Track-suited manager Young takes Third Lanark training
Such success for a small Scottish club always has an
immediate effect, the English come calling and in jig time
Goodfellow, Hilley, Harley and Grey took the high road south and
financially safer but talent poorer Third slumped to 11th
in the table in 1961-62.
Worse, a shady businessman named Bill Hiddleston took
control of the club and Young, still just 40-years of age, quickly
tendered his resignation. It took Hiddleston five years, but, he ran
the club into the ground, by which time Young had long gone.
Young concentrated on his businesses, turning his back
on football. Then, in the 1970s, when former team mate Willie Waddell
became Rangers manager, Young began to be whitewashed out of Rangers'
history. This is down to two things – the jealousy of former team
mate Waddell and the craven conspiracy of those who failed to hold
Wadell to account.
In writing his obituary, following Young's death, aged
74, in 1997. MP Tam Dalyell revealed how Young had become a
non-person around Ibrox. Apparently, when both were still playing,
Young had expressed his view that Celtic's Jimmy Delaney – later to
become a key player in Matt Busby's first great Manchester United
team – the 1948 FA Cup winning one – was a better outside right
than Waddell.
Ill-health blighted Young's final years. He was reduced
to a wheel chair, all but forgotten by Scottish football. Waddell
never forgave him for the slight regarding Delaney and, when a
Scottish journalist arranged a testimonial dinner for the ailing
Young, shortly before he died, in 1979, Rangers took a table, but
left it empty on the night.
The slights continued, when the Scottish Football Hall
of Fame was inaugurated in 2004, Woodburn was one of the 22 founder
members, Young had to wait until the following year for his
induction. Lesser Rangers players had been honoured with stands and
hospitality rooms named after them at Ibrox, there is no George Young
room or stand.
The statistics demonstrate the influence he had on the
national team. In Young's 54 internationals, Scotland won 30, drew 11
and lost just 13 – giving them a 56% winning average with him in
the side. In all his international career stretched over 68 Scotland
games, of which they won 34 – 50%. But, of the 14 games in that
period which Young missed – Scotland won a mere four, 29%.
He formed a stellar back-three plus goalkeeper unit with
Morton's Jimmy Cowan and his Ibrox team mates Sammy Cox and Woodburn
in the 3-4-3 formation Scotland favoured. They played together in 15
internationals, of which Scotland won 11. He also played 22 games
for the Scottish League XI, while he captained Scotland on their tour
to North America in 1949. He was a regular pick for the long-standing
Glasgow v Sheffield games. He was also an accomplished cricketer and
golfer.
Cricket captain George Young with Thirds' players Alex Harley and Dave Hilley
His Rangers record is impressive. He played over 700
games for the club, winning six league championship, four Scottish
Cup and two League Cup winner's medals – plus a further eight
medals in war-time competition.
At the time he became Rangers captain, manager Bill
Struth was in poor health. He had to have a leg amputated and Young
would call on the Boss, every day to report on how training went and
to discuss how the playing side of the club should be run. Struth was
also vice-chairman of the club, so, Young was in effect, with the
authority of the board, player-manager at this time.
But, how good was he? The late Sir Tom Finney summed
Young up well: “A very difficult opponent, you thought you were
past him, then, he would stretch-out one of those long legs of his
and take the ball off you – I used to tell him,' you don't have
legs, you have octopus tentacles'”, said the legendary Preston
plumber.
Team mates for once - Tom Finney, Tommy Lawton and Young on the pools panel
Young was also the master of the long pass. It was said
that the Rangers' tactics were simple – Young would play a long
60-yard pass into the path of either Waddell, or the South African
outside left Johnny Hubbard, who would hit the by-line and cross for
Willie Thornton or Irishman Billy Simpson to head home.
And that “Corky” nickname. He always carried a lucky
champagne cork, allegedly given him by the wine waiter after the
first champagne bottle was opened as Scotland celebrated their
seminal 3-1 win over England at Wembley in 1949. He truly was, a
colossus.
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