REGULAR followers of this blog might be aware, I have, for several years past, been Scotland's leading writer of sporting obituaries. When he decided to stop writing obituaries, the late Bob Crampsey did me the considerable honour of suggesting me as his replacement to those serious Scottish newspapers who carried sporting obituaries.
It was indeed an honour to be passed the torch, and I hope I have kept it lit. However, such have been the changes in newspaper practices over the past year or so, I decided, shortly before Christmas, I would no longer submit sporting obituaries to these newspapers.
If they could no longer be bothered treating the lives of prominent Scottish sportsmen and women with the seriousness they deserved, I felt I could no longer play their game. So, no more obituaries from me.
However, this leaves me free to write obituaries in this blog, and that is something I intend doing – staring now.
Jim McLean
Jim McLean – who has died, aged 83, following a lengthy fight against Dementia is right up there on the topmost shelf of Scottish football managers. He deserves to be ranked alongside Maley, Struth, Symon, Stein, Busby, the Shanklys and his contemporary and great rival Alex Ferguson as an absolute master of the art of man management in football.
Indeed, the fact he achieved his fame and success with the relatively small-time Dundee United, along the way overturning the balance of football power in Dundee, makes his achievements all the greater.
Like so-many greats of Scottish football, Jim was a Larkhall boy, raised in the outlying village of Ashgill. His parents, Tom and Annie, were members of the ultra-strict Plymouth Bretheren and their sons, Willie, Jim and Tommy, all of whom went on to play football professionally and become managers, had a strict religious upbringing.
Jim, like Willie before him, left school to become an apprentice joiner and play for Larkhall Thistle, for whom his father and maternal grand-father William Yuill had also played, and from where he went senior with Hamilton Academical in 1956.
From Accies he moved to Clyde in 1960, then, in 1965 Dundee paid £10,000 to take him to Tayside and in the process, aged 27, he became at last, a full-time footballer.
His next stop, in August, 1968, was to Kilmarnock, for a fee of £3000 – where he played alongside younger brother Tommy.
Jim McLean hung up his boots in 1970, switching immediately to coaching, back at Dundee. He served an 18-month “apprenticeship” in coaching at Dens Park, before surprisingly moving the 250 yards down Tannadice Street to succeed Jerry Kerr as manager of rivals Dundee United.
He began his career by signing some very-experienced players, but, he had a long-term plan – to recruit the best of Scotland's young players and mould them into a pattern of play which would bring results.
It took him a year or two to get the required pay-back, but, in 1974 he led United to their first Scottish Cup Final, which they lost to Celtic. Then, when re-organisation of the leagues followed in 1975, the turn-around in positions within the city of Dundee was complete, with United snatching a draw with Champions Rangers on the final day, to stay up in the Top Ten, and relegate Dundee instead.
The youth policy he had instigated began to pay-off. He sold the teenaged Andy Gray for £110,000 to Aston Villa in October of 1975, but, he kept hold of the likes of Maurice Malpas, Paul Sturrock and David Narey, all of who had, like Gray, come through the youth ranks.
After that narrow squeak from relegation in the first season of the Premier Division, United began to be regulars in the top half of the table, with the press dubbing the challenge of McLean's United and Ferguson's Aberdeen to the long-established Old Firm duopoly – the rise of the New Firm.
He tasted League Cup success in 1979, and again in 1980. There was another Scottish Cup Final appearance in 1981. The exciting brand of football he espoused also began to bring success in Europe.
He led United to a first Scottish League win in 1983 and the following year he guided the team to the semi-final of the European Cup, where they lost to Roma, in Rome, in controversial circumstances. It later transpired, the Italian club had bribed the French match referee to win.
That was not his last taste of European glory, in 1986, beating the likes of Barcelona home and away, then Borussia Mönchengladbach, along the way, United reached the final of the UEFA Cup, where they lost to IFK Göteborg.
As United manager, he never finished outside the top half of the league between 1976-77 and 1992-93, however, the Scottish Cup continually eluded him. He managed United in six finals, all of which they lost – most-pointedly the 1991 “Family Final,' held at the end of the week in which his father died, and in which Jim's United were edged-out in extra time by Motherwell, managed by younger brother Tommy.
He had been voted onto the United board in 1984, and become Chairman and Managing Director, as well as team manager, in 1988. He had rejected the chance to manage Rangers in 1983.
He remained as Chairman, until stepping down after famously thumping BBC Scotland reporter John Barnes, live on air, when dismayed by Barnes' line of questioning.
He severed all ties with United in 2002. During his managerial career he had been Jock Stein's assistant with Scotland, notably during the 1982 World Cup Finals in Spain. In 2005, he was inducted into the Scottish Football Hall of Fame, and in 2015 into the Dundee United HoF.
He accepted an honorary degree from the University of Dundee in 2011 and in February, 2020, Dundee Rep, produced a play “Smile” about his life. He also, for a time, wrote a hard-hitting column for the Daily Record.
His final years were blighted by Dementia, and he finally passed away on Boxing Day, 2020. He is survived by wife Doris and sons Gary and Colin.
Truly, Scottish football has lost a giant.
Davie Sneddon
Davie Sneddon, who died, aged 84, on Christmas Eve, will forever hold legendary status in Kilmarnock. Not merely because he scored the most-famous goal in the club's history – the second in their 2-0 win over Hearts, at Tynecastle, on 24 April, 1965 – the goal which clinched Killie's first and so-far only Scottish League title – but for his later service to the club as coach and manager.
A Kilwinning boy, Davie won Under-15 Scottish Schools honours in 1951. A year later he joined Kilwinning Rangers, going senior from the Buffs to Dundee in 1954. There he developed into a fine scheming midfielder, winning one Scotland Under-23 cap, against Wales, in December, 1958. That Scotland team had an interesting left side triangle, Sneddon and the Rangers pair of Jim Baxter and Davie Wilson.
Baxter and Wilson went on to become Scotland legends – Sneddon got a move to England, to Preston North End. In 1961, however, Killie paid £13,000 to bring him back home. These were golden years for Killie, who, along with Hearts, were Rangers' biggest challengers as the pre-Stein Celtic struggled.
That goal at Tynescastle has gone down in folklore, but, with manager Willie Waddell retiring to go into football writing the great team of the likes of McGrory, Beattie, McLean and Sneddon was allowed to break-up. Davie departed to play out his career with Raith Rovers, before cutting his coaching teeth at Hurlford United.
In 1972 he made the short move from Blair Park to Rugby Park, as Reserve Team Coach, then, in late 1977, he took over as Manager from Willie Fernie. He put everything he had into managing the club, but, with a weak board and dire financial conditions, in 1981 he was sacked.
He then had a three-year spell as Stranraer boss, before returning to Kilmarnock, as Chief Scout, between 1990 and 1994. Thereafter, he remained as a popular Match Day Host at the club.
His service to football was recognised by the award of the MBE, while his service to Kilmarnock was recognised when the entrance to the ground, off Dundonald Road, was named Davie Sneddon Way.
Davie's final years were blighted by Alzheimer's, but, his passing brought a genuine outpouring of love and gratitude from the wider Kilmarnock football family.
Davie Sneddon was in the best traditions of ball-playing Scottish inside forwards. Lesser players have won the Scotland caps which did not come Davie's way – which demonstrates the strength-in-depth we had in his position back then.
Tommy Docherty
THE BLIGHTED year that was 2020 finished on a typically low note, with the news, on Hogmanay, of the passing of “The Doc,” one of the true legends of the game, at the age of 92, following a long battle against illness.
Doc holds a unique place in the history of the Scottish game, as the first man to play for, captain, then manage the Scotland team. His was a career of ups and downs, of controversies, highs and lows. He was, never boring and whether playing, managing or in later life commenting on the game – he was entertaining.
A genuine Gorbals boy, he played junior for Shettleston, then, while doing his National Service with Glasgow's own HLI, he made it to the British Army team and on the strength of his displays there, he was signed by Celtic, the team he had supported since boyhood.
However, the young Bobby Evans was already staking a claim for a permanent place at right-half, and while Docherty had a memorable first Old Firm match, he was never able to establish himself in a struggling Celtic team and in 1949 he was transferred to Preston North End.
One great football legend has it that, prior to his debut, Bill Shankly entered the dressing room, handed the number four shirt to Docherty and said: “Her you are Son, you don't have to do anything, it will run around on its own.”
Sadly, that's a myth – Shankly had already left North End to begin his managerial career before Doc arrived, but, in many ways he was his successor – with the job of being Tom Finney's “minder.”
Docherty and Shankly would later clash as rival managers and it is said, just about the only thing they ever agreed on was that Finney was the Greatest player they had played with.
With 'Proud Preston' Docherty won the Second Division Championship in 1951 and the following season, in November, 1951, he won the first of an eventual 25 Scotland caps, when he made his debut in a 0-1 loss to Wales at Hampden.
That match was a portent of things to come for him – he was dropped for the next game – the home clash with England, in April, 1952. It was a constant soundtrack to his career, that if he played in a losing Scotland team, he would be one of the players dropped for the next game by the SFA selectors who picked the side back then.
Mind you the selectorial merry-go-round worked in his favour in 1954, which was a good year for him and Preston, who reached the FA Cup Final, in which they lost to West Bromwich Albion. Dropped again, following a 1-2 loss to Sweden, at Hampden, in May 1953, he sat out the Home Internationals, before being recalled, to win only his fourth cap, in a 1-0 win over Norway, at Hampden. The selectors had panicked following a 2-4 loss to England and the team the Doc led had five debutants, with only Evans and Hibs' Bobby Johnstone having double figures in caps.
The Norwegians drew the return fixture in Oslo 1-1 and again the Doc was dropped, the captaincy falling to his Preston club-mate Willie Cunningham, who went on to lead the Scots into the World Cup finals and a 0-1 loss to Austria, followed by the calamitous 0-7 loss to Uruguay.
Docherty featured in both these games, famously quipping that it was so hot, his tongue was sun-burned as the vainly chased the shadows of the defending champions.
He played in three of the first four internationals of season 1954-55, but he was dropped following Scotland's calamitous loss to England, at Wembley. He scored perhaps the best goal of the nine, but, his 85th minute long-range pile-driver, into which he put all his anger and frustration at the game, only served to make the final score 2-7.
But, he was soon back in the national side and when George Young was not reinstated after missing a match during the 1957 end-of-season European Tour, Docherty succeeded him as national captain, playing a true captain's role in the Hampden win over Switzerland, which took him to his second World Cup final tournament.
Again he was dropped and relieved of the captaincy following the 0-4 Hampden loss to England, in April, 1958. He remained a squad member and travelled to Sweden, but, he never kicked a ball during the tournament, and his report, after he and Archie Robertson of Clyde were sent to spy on the Paraguayans against France, was ignored by the selectors.
In August of 1958, after 300-plus games for Preston, he was transferred to Arsenal, for £28,000 and Matt Busby, during his all-too-brief spell as Scotland boss, brought him back for the Home Internationals against Wales and Ireland.
Doc went on to take his caps total to 25, but was dropped for the final time after the 0-1 loss to England, at Wembley, in April, 1959.
He ran down his playing career ar Chelsea, finally hanging-up his boots, after 450 odd games, in 1962, he succeeded Ted Drake as Chelsea manager. It was the start of a managerial roller-coaster ride, which would see him have: “more clubs than Jack Nicklaus.”
Between succeeding Drake at the end of 1961 and 1988, he would manage or be assistant manager at: Chelsea, Rotherham United, Queens Park Rangers, Aston Villa, Porto, Hull City, Manchester United, Derby County, Queens Park Rangers (again), Sydney Olympic, Preston North End, South Melbourne, Sydney Olympic (again), Wolverhampton Wanderers and Altrincham.
In September, 1971, following the sacking of Bobby Brown, Docherty was made Scotland manager. He introduced a certain Kenny Dalglish to the national side, recalled Denis Law and brought new belief to the Scotland side. He took them on-tour to South America and got them off to a winning start in the 1974 World Cup campaign, with a 4-1 win over Denmark.
However, after a mere 14 months as Scotland boss, he accepted the job of Manchester United manager – a move he later said was his biggest mistake. He could not prevent a once-great squad growing old together from being relegated in 1974, but, he built a new young team and got them back to the First Division in one season, reaching the FA Cup Final, which they lost to Southampton, and finishing third in the league.
The following season, Doc and United were back at Wembley, beating Liverpool to take the FA Cup, but, the news of his extra-marital affair with Mary Brown, wife of the club physio saw him sacked by United. That FA Cup and the League Cup, which he had won with Chelsea in season 1963-64 were the only trophies he would win as a manager.
After management he became one of the most-outspoken and funniest pundits in the game. He was one of the top draws on the lucrative after-dinner speaking circuit, and he had a popular radio show on a Manchester local radio station.
His one liners were legendary:
“Jock Wallace says one million would not buy Derek Parlane, and I am one of them.”
“Somebody compared him to Billy McNeill – I don't recall Billy being crap.”
“Is the boy Beckham as good as Tom Finney – probably, but, you have to remember, Tom's 90 now.”
“What advice would I offer to a young manager – stay away from the physio's wife.”
But, controversy was never far from the Doc. He was famously charged with perjury after suing Willie Morgan, after the former Scotland winger had described him as “the worst manager ever.”
This case was known as “The Football Scotia Nostra falling out,” as Morgan assembled a star-studded team of players to discredit some of Docherty's management methods.
But, he survived and lived on to become one of the Grand Old Men of the game.
His affair with Mary Brown cost him his first marriage and he lost contact with three of his four children. He married Mary, and his second marriage lasted longer than his first, and was blessed by two daughters.
He was inducted into the Scottish Football Hall of Fame in 2013.
He was a controversial and at times divisive figure, but, one of the true greats of football.
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