TALKING RANGERS
AS ASSISTANT manager to Walter Smith as Rangers equalled Celtic’s record haul of nine consecutive title wins, Archie Knox’s place in the Ibrox club’s history is forever secured.
And there is little doubt his influence over the side during their period of domination in the 90s was integral to their success. His scouting missions and recommendations shaped that Rangers side and the club legends who were born from it.
Indeed, the course of history at the Ibrox club may well have been very different had Knox ignored his hunches, and nowhere more so than when he decided to steer manager Smith towards a certain brother of the player he had been sent to cast his eye over.
And Brian Laudrup, the man who headed the crucial goal at Tannadice to seal that historic ninth title in a row, might never have been a Rangers player.
“I actually went to watch his brother, Michael,” said Knox.
“When I came back I said to Walter; ‘We’ve got people who can play in his position but we don’t have people who can play Brian’s position.’ And that’s how we got him.
“It was the same with Marco Negri. Sven Goran Eriksson was with Parma at the time and I went to watch his training and told him I was going to look at Filippo Maniero at Verona. I said, ‘We’re looking for a goalscorer.’
“Eriksson recommended Negri at Perugia and told me they had the goalscorer we were looking for, better than Maniero. So, we went and got him.
“Negri scored a barrowload by Christmas and it was phenomenal stuff. He was a centreforward who scored goals and that was it.
“I remember giving him a rollicking at half-time during a game. I said: ‘for f*** sake Marco, when we are attacking you need to run the channels now and again.
“Marco said: ‘Archie have you watched me play? You must know I don’t do this.’ And that was fair enough!”
Knox was speaking as he launched his autobiography, ‘The School of Hard Knox’, and any player who has been under his charge would struggle to describe his style any more fittingly.
It is a retrospective look at his wildly successful spells as No 2 at Aberdeen, Rangers, Manchester United and Scotland, with Knox proclaiming himself to be the luckiest man in the world to have amassed the memories contained within its pages.
“The ones that stick out obviously are the Cup Winners’ Cup with Aberdeen, the FA Cup with Manchester United, winning nine in a row with Rangers, although I was only there for seven.
“And I was in charge at Dens when Hearts lost the league on goal difference in 1986. What people don’t realise is that Dundee were trying to get into Europe. Rangers were playing Motherwell and if they had drawn or lost, we would have been in the Uefa Cup.
“Albert Kidd went on with six minutes to go and scored two goals. Albert won about 10 Celtic Player of the Year awards. He still comes over for them. Unbelievable – and he never kicked a ball for the club!”
Much may have changed at Ibrox since Knox’s heyday with the club, but he says that one thing will always remain.
WHILE wins might not come as regularly these days, the demand to win – and to do it in style – will forever be the burden of whoever is in the dugout.
“I tell a story about coming out of Ibrox after we beat Hibs 7-0,” he said. “I always came out with Ally McCoist because when he left everybody surrounded him so I could make a quick getaway.
“That day I heard the voice: ‘Hey Knox! Hey Knox!
“There was a guy running along the road beside me and he was pointing the finger at the park and he screams: ‘That was ridiculous, you allowed the players to take their foot off the pedal, it should have been 10!
“You can’t win. We played Kilmarnock in the first game of the season after nine-in-a-row and a boy appears at the dug-out after 17 minutes – ‘Hey Knox, this is s****!”
“I told him there was a long hard season ahead.”