More Than Argentina , livre ebook

Pitch Publishing Ltd - Ronnie McDevitt

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215 pages

English

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Generally remembered only as the manager of Scotland's national football team during the ill-fated trip to the 1978 World Cup, Ally MacLeod was a colourful character who in fact gave far more to the Scottish game. From Third Lanark to St Mirren, Blackburn Rovers, Hibernian and Ayr United,, Ally was a successful player and campaigner in the abolition of footballers' minimum wage. His managerial career with Ayr United, Aberdeen, Airdrie, Motherwell and Queen of the South is also assessed with contributions from his family, supporters and former players. Which of the Old Firm clubs approached him shortly after he was appointed manager of Scotland? What drove him to the brink of resignation prior to setting off for Argentina? Did he really underestimate Peru and why did he not travel to watch them play? How did one of Scottish football's oldest trophies come to be discarded within the MacLeod household? And why didn't he select Andy Gray for Argentina and not play Derek Johnstone? If you think all there was to the man was Peru and Iran, think again and read the truth about Ally MacLeod.

Informations

Publié par	Pitch Publishing Ltd
Date de parution	05 juin 2014
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781909626812
Langue	English
Poids de l'ouvrage	1 Mo

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0500€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

Extrait

First published by Pitch Publishing, 2014
Pitch Publishing
A2 Yeoman Gate
Yeoman Way
Durrington
BN13 3QZ
www.pitchpublishing.co.uk
Ronnie McDevitt, 2014
All rights reserved under Internationaland Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been grantedthe non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No partof this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or storedin or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express writtenpermission of the Publisher.
A CIP catalogue record is available for this book from the British Library
Print ISBN 978 1-90962-631-7
eBookISBN: 978 1-90962-681-2
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Contents
Introduction
Preface
Foreword
1. Young MacLeod
2. Alistair the Third
3. Briefly a Buddy
4. Ally the Anglo
5. Noddy Goes to Wembley
6. A Capital Captain
7. Back to Cathkin
8. An Honest Man
9. Bouncing Back
10. Full-time Boss
11. Mr Ayr United
12. A Citizen of Ayr
13. Top Ten Target
14. A New Don
15. The King of Aberdeen
16. A Wembley Winner
17. On the March
18. The Summer of 78
19. Argentina
20. Retention and Resignation
21. The Fir Park Experience
22. Life with the Diamonds
23. Home Again
24. Somerset Sunset
25. A Dumfries Swansong
26. A Commercial Opportunity
27. The Final Whistle
Postscript: Blackburn Revisited
Photographs
Introduction
T HE seed for this biography was sown when the retro football magazine Backpass accepted an article of mine reflecting on Ally MacLeod s career and crucially chose to feature the subject on the cover of its spring 2013 edition.
This prompted an e-mail to the editor from Ally s eldest son Andy asking him to pass on his thoughts to me. After the exchange of a few messages I decided to broach the idea of a more in-depth study of what I could already see was a fascinating story.
Andy was enthusiastic although I stressed it had to be an honest account which would likely include some criticism. I wouldn t expect anything less than a balanced view, that s why I m quite happy to get involved, was the welcome reply and on that we had the basis of a good working relationship.
Following Pitch Publishing s positive response to my proposal, we arranged a meeting in Andy s son Ryan s flat in Glasgow, which was between our homes in Ayrshire and Fife, to check through Ally s own scrapbooks and other memorabilia.
Ryan s flat-mate Ellen is from Ireland and was curious enough to ask, Was he a bit of a character then? The three of us just sat there in silence for a few seconds, looking at each other before laughing.
Over the next few months the project was a pleasure with days spent in the library or at my laptop more of a joy than a chore.
In some respects Ally was ahead of his time in that he was one of the first tracksuit managers who would take training while many of his contemporaries rarely left the office.
One of the things that came out of the dealings with his former players was that he was a master of motivation who knew how to get the best from footballers.
Some of those players concede he was not a great tactician but times were different then. When Ally started out in management most teams had a similar philosophy of concentrating on their strengths and scoring more times than the opposition.
Blackboards and positional strategies were things of the future and the abilities of his own team the main focus for a football manager. In this respect the master Jock Stein and the underrated Eddie Turnbull were ahead of the game as far as Scottish football was concerned with Jim McLean and Alex Ferguson following them in later years.
Eccentric? Sure Ally was eccentric but this did not inhibit his motivation of players. Other successful managers such as Bill Shankly, Tommy Docherty, Brian Clough, Jock Wallace and Martin O Neill were known to have their eccentricities but they all used this to their advantage. Equally men like Wallace and Willie Ormond were not considered to be master tacticians but they knew how to get the best out of players and enjoyed considerable success.
That Ally played for Blackburn in the FA Cup Final, won the League Cup with Aberdeen then promised he would bring the World Cup home to Scotland pretty much sums up the popular opinion of his time in the game. He is perceived as a court jester who fooled a gullible public and it is commonplace to see mention of his name followed by the obligatory derogatory comment. But as the title of this book suggests his career spanned so much more than that.
As a supporter at the time I had always considered it a myth that he said Scotland would win the 1978 World Cup and other contributors such as Dick Malone and Davie Hay agree on that point. There was an often referred-to but never repeated quote about winning a medal which I was able to track down and have included within the text.
The chain of events which led to Ally s appointment as Scotland manager is fascinating. It commenced with Ayr beating Rangers on the same day Aberdeen lost to Celtic, forcing Jimmy Bonthrone s resignation at a time when Ally had not responded to the offer of a job outside of the game.
Again as a fan the three best Scotland matches I have ever attended came within four months of each other in 1977. When Scotland won in France in 2007 it was undoubtedly one of the best results in their history but as far as the occasion was concerned it could not hold a candle to the events of Wembley 1977 or Anfield.
With only 16 finalists Scotland did have a chance of winning the World Cup in 1978. The Dutch had an identical record of one win, one loss and a draw in the first phase and progressed all the way to the final itself.
I had always been puzzled as to why, having ridden the storm of Argentina, Ally then left to take over at a First Division club and departed the post after a matter of weeks. It is all much clearer now.
Ally did make mistakes but what manager didn t?
Andy MacLeod deserves full credit for conducting the interviews with Ally s old Blackburn team-mates, former Ayr players, Joe Harper and others detailed in his own preface although I did supply him with some questions. Andy also travelled to Manchester to speak with Sir Alex and arrange the foreword and I would like to extend my sincere gratitude to those contributors also.
I would specifically like to thank Davie Hay, Bobby Clark, Henry Templeton and Ian Clinging for sharing their thoughts with me, and also Chris Gavin of the Aberdeen FC Former Players Association for his help, plus Richard McBrearty at the Scottish Football Museum.
I was always keen to get the supporters angle on record and for this I am most grateful to the following for their time and contributions: Scott Bremner, Tommy Petrie, Jock Vila, Tommy Collin, John Grigor, Alan Roxburgh, Graham Barnstaple, John Kennedy and Geoff Nicholson. It was a pleasure to deal with you all.
Thanks also to Paul and Jane at Pitch for their faith and support and for accommodating the ever-increasing word count!
When I went to Ayr to meet Faye MacLeod, a lovely woman, she displayed her husband s sense of humour as I sat on the couch armed with 1,001 questions. I hope you re not superstitious as you re sitting where he was when he died! was one of the first things she said! Her contribution to the book, along with Andy s, is invaluable; likewise Faye s daughter Gail Pirie whose input was fascinating. It was a pleasure speaking to you all.
It was interesting to hear both Andy and Gail refer to their father by his christian name which is how they and everyone else knew and remember him, a name which did not appear on his birth certificate as I discovered. Had it not been for his mother s preference of Alistair we may all have been on the march with Sandy s Army in 1978.
People spoke warmly of Ally and although it would be wrong to say he never made any enemies in the game (players he moved on for example) he clearly got on with most people. He was revered wherever he went, says Craig Brown.
It is the family s belief that his playing career has been overlooked and they were also very keen to stress that his sense of humour was one of his most endearing qualities.
I hope I have been able to deliver adequately on both. It is also the MacLeods wish that one day Ally will be inducted into the Scottish Football Hall of Fame where he surely merits a place.
One other consistent theme throughout his life was Ally s loyalty to those he valued, something which may have cost him during his time in charge of the national side.
This is perhaps best summed up by Davie Hay to whom he gave his first role in management, As well as being a loyal person, he was a decent person as well.
Ronnie McDevitt
May 2014
Preface
O VER the last few months, researching and collaborating on this book with Ronnie on Ally s career and life has, for me, been a labour of love. There was always more to the man to those of us who genuinely knew Ally compared to those who only remember him from those Argentina days and formed an opinion of him based on that time of his life.
Ally breathed, ate, lived and slept football with a passion; a humble, fiercely proud and yet shy person who took on this outgoing personality to overcome his shyness. He was a loving husband, father, grandfather, brother and son; a loyal caring person who possessed a wonderful sense of humour.
Ally was extremely protective of his family and his players. Players became family - he would look after them, protect them and believe in them. He was also a clever, intelligent and inspirational man who had an unending belief and desire to win.
I d like to take this opportunity to thank Ronnie McDevitt for his foresight, time and p