What Jock achieved will not be done again. Ever
I asked about picking the team. ‘Aw no, son, that’s my job’
IF you could listen in to one conversation about football, a seat at the table with Sir Alex Ferguson talking about his great friend and mentor Jock Stein would be the place to be. Imagine being given the opportunity to hear the secrets of the mighty Lisbon Lions, 50 years after the team packed with local Celtic boys defeated Inter Milan 2-1 to win the first European Cup for a British team. Not to mention how such glory inspired Ferguson to win trophies galore of his own in the years that followed.
Ferguson and Stein, two brilliant and remarkable Scotsmen, worked together for the national side — Stein as the studious manager, Ferguson as his fledgling No 2. You can hear the respect when Sir Alex recalls those days.
‘The great value was in the Saturday nights we met in the hotel at home or when we were abroad,’ says Ferguson of his duties as assistant to Stein during Scotland’s qualifying campaign for the 1986 World Cup. ‘It was fantastic. He was not a great sleeper so he would have you still up at three or four in the morning with (masseur) Jimmy Steele making pots of tea.
‘I would say to him, “Jock, we need to get into our beds now. I am taking training in the morning”. He would reply, “You will be all right, son. You will get a sleep in the afternoon. Steely! Get another pot of tea on”.
‘He was one of the greatest managers of all time. Without question. He did something that has not been done before and will not be done again. You cannot overstate that. This is what makes him unique.
‘It is what Alexander Fleming did when he discovered penicillin in a wee laboratory. It is what Alan Turing did when cracking the Enigma code. That is one standard of greatness and Jock met it.
‘The Lisbon Lions were brought up within 30 miles of Celtic Park. That was never done before Jock. It will never be done again.’
The relationship had been forged some years earlier in meetings at the Beechwood restaurant in the south side of Glasgow.
FERGUSON
and his wife Cathy lived in Simshill and would go to the local restaurant where Jock and Jean Stein and Sean Fallon, assistant manager at Celtic, and his wife Myra had a regular Saturday evening dinner date.
‘Inevitably, I would get a table beside them,’ says Ferguson. ‘It was great to have a chat with him but, remember, I was a player then and I would never at that stage be too forward.
‘I would never ask how his game went that day or anything like that. I would never be that familiar. You were not at the level to ask such questions. He was a top manager at Celtic and I was a player at Rangers, totally different stations in life. But he was always really good to me.’
As the friendship deepened, Stein and Ferguson talked every week on the phone. It was no surprise that Ferguson invited the manager who won the European Cup in 1967 to Gothenburg, where Aberdeen would defeat Real Madrid in the European CupWinners’ Cup final in 1983.
‘He was brilliant, never intrusive or overbearing. He told me, “I am not going to get in your road. Get on with your business. If you need me, you know where I am”.’
Ferguson acted on two pieces of advice from Stein. ‘He told me to make sure we took the second training session at the stadium on the night before the game,’ recalls Ferguson. ‘Jock said that Alfredo di Stefano, the Real manager, would think we would have watched his session and might be unsettled by that.
‘Jock also bought a bottle of, I think, Black Label and he told me, “Give that to Di Stefano as he comes off the pitch after the training session”. I said, “Why?” Jock replied, “He will think you are a wee guy from Aberdeen, that you are dancing to his tune, lying at his feet”. I gave him the bottle of whisky and he did not know what to say to me. It was a sort of mumbled “Gracias, gracias”. I caught him on the back foot.
‘It may have gave him the impression that we were a wee club from Aberdeen and we had no right to be playing Real Madrid, that we were just grateful to be there.’
He adds: ‘It seems like a superficial thing, but it was profound.und. Clever.’ Aberdeen won 2-1.
Soon Ferguson and Steinn were working for Scotland in the successful campaign to qualify for the 1986 World Cup, although he admitted he felt ‘apprehensive’ about working with someone of Stein’s stature.
‘You are working with someone who has won the European Cup, nine championships in a row. But I wass starting to do well at Aberdeen. When he offered me the job I jumped at it. It was a boost for me at that time inn my career. I was basicallyy learning all the time and keen n to do so. It was an honour first st of all. But what an opportuu nity, the chance to learn from someone like Jock Stein.
‘To be honest with you, I bombarded him with a million on questions every time I was in his company. It was just foottball, football, football.
‘But I learned, too, about the he power of information. He was saa great networker, knew everything that was going on. He used to phone me on a Saturday night and tell me all that was happening in the game.
‘He was sharp. He would tell me on Scotland duty that such and such a club official would be phoning in later to tell him that certain players had pulled out. And it would happen. He was always prepared for it.’
What did the young Ferguson provide for Stein? ‘My energy was important,’ says Ferguson, now 75 but in his forties when working with Stein. ‘He had health problems and he maybe saw me as a driver on the training field.
‘I remember when he was offering me the job he told me I would do the training. I said, “What about picking the team?” And he replied, “Aw no, son, that is my department. I will discuss it with you. You will be helpful in that area and don’t be afraid to give your opinion, but that is my job”.’
Ferguson learned another lesson th that t hash accompaniedi d himhi throughth h life. ‘ There was a great level of trust in me. There was respect,’ he says. ‘I appreciated that. I have learned that when you pick an assistant the first thing, the most important thing, you need to look at is, “Can I trust this man?” He got trust from me. I idolised him.’
Stein, he says, was a man of ‘extraordinary intelligence’, adding: ‘ He made it his business to find out everything. I was working with him with Scotland and he asked me to accompany him to the press conference. I told him I was taking one of the players to the gym. He said, “No, come to the press conference, you will learn something”.’
Ferguson adds with a chuckle: ‘Sitting outside the press confer- ence, he would tell youy something about each and eve every journalist: who liked the bookies too much or the drink or women, or whatever. He knew everything about them.’
This knowledge stretched into every area. ‘You knew he knew everything,’ says Ferguson. ‘So when I became a manager I would tell him everything. You were frightened he would catch you out.
‘He would phone me every weekend. I would say something like, “I have made a bid for Billy Stark”. He would say, “Oh, that’s a good move, he will be a good signing for you, I like him myself”. Or I would tell him I thought one of my players was ready to leave and he asked me what I was thinking about in terms of replacing him, and would ask, “What are you thinking about and have you thought of this or that?”’
Ferguson transformed all the clubs he worked for but his major impact was, of course, with Aberdeen and Manchester United — where he won a glut of European and domestic trophies.
‘I always believe I should address matters straight after the game,’ says Ferguson. ‘But Jock was different. He always said it was better to leave it to the Monday, when everyone had calmed down a bit. He said, “You will have a clear mind yourself and that helps”. He was right for most people but that was not my nature. My nature was to get it all out the road and start afresh the next day.
‘His advice was great to hear but he was very understanding of my character, too. He understood that people would like to do things their way and he would help individuals match their character to a good way of working,’ explains Ferguson, who recalled Stein’s immediate and dramatic impact at Celtic.
‘The size of the revolution was incredible. He took over a Celtic team in 1965 who were far from world-beaters. Two years later — with the addition of Willie Wallace and Joe McBride — he took them to the European Cup final and victory against a very good Inter Milan.
‘Think about it. It is astonishing. How did he do that in terms of changing not only personalities of the players but the very character of a team?
‘He recognised greatness when others could not. He saw potential when others missed it. For example, I played against Bobby Murdoch in reserve matches in the early 1960s and he was an outside right. All of a sudden he is playing centre midfield. He was the fulcrum for Celtic, hitting those long, diagonal passes or the short incisive pass or striking from outside.
‘I think Celtic had two world-class players who would have graced any team at any time. One was Bobby, the other was Jimmy Johnstone.
‘Bertie Auld was nearly in that class, too. The rest were very, very good players but Jock transformed them into perennial winners.
‘Big Billy and John Clark were not the quickest but they never got caught out. They dropped off, never leaving space behind. Billy would win everything in the air, John would pick up second balls and cut off space. It was simple but very, very clever.
‘He basically always played with two wide. This left the opposition with a dilemma. In the cup final of 1965 I remember thinking, “Do we push our full backs right on top against their wingers?” ’
His overwhelming sense is that he was blessed to have known Stein. ‘Every Celtic fan will have that sense of gratitude. It was an incredibly exciting ride for the club. And don’t I know it. I had to suffer it for some time as a Rangers player.’
I’d tell him everything. You were frightened he’d catch you out