The Big Yin helped me tame Gazza

WALTER SMITH has worked with Jock Stein, Jim McLean and Sir Alex Ferguson. But it was Billy Connolly who gave him the key to handling Paul Gascoigne.

‘I was in Glasgow one day, about 20 years ago, the first time I was at Rangers,’ says Smith. ‘I met Billy and he asked me: “How are you getting on with Gascoigne?”.

‘I said: “Fine but there’s always a wee problem here and there”.

‘Billy smiled and said: “Always remember this, Walter. You will always have to live with the genius. The genius will not live with you”.’

Smith realised that he had to embrace the brilliance Gascoigne had to offer with his boots on — and deal with everything else when the boots were off.

‘There is an element that you have to put up with genius,’ he says. ‘Sometimes, you have to take action and rein the personality in. But you have to accept foibles. You have to accommodate them.

‘I hear people in football talking about everybody being treated the same. They are lying. The majority of guys in a football dressing room know that the ones who are the exceptional players will be allowed a bit of laxity.

‘With Gascoigne, I had to sit down with the whole dressing room and tell them: “This is what we have here. We have a boy who will win us games. So we all have to handle him”.

‘You have a standard. If there is a problem with maintaining that standard, playing-wise or private life, then you have to deal with it.

‘But this aspect of treating everyone the same… it’s impossible. I would like to think I treated every player with a level of decency. But it’s not fair to say everybody gets treated the same.’

The specialist subject of the day is genius. How to recognise it, how to work with it and how to learn from it.

Smith, a two-time manager of Rangers, an assistant to Ferguson at Manchester United for four months, a manager of Everton, and a Scotland boss has a profound experience not only of winning, but working with winners.

He regards his playing career with a frank self-deprecation. Yet he managed to play professionally, mostly for Dundee United, from 1966 to 1980. It gave him an ability to appreciate greatness in others.

‘There is a range of attributes that make up genius,’ adds Smith.

‘Gascoigne and (Brian) Laudrup were great but they were different.

‘Gascoigne didn’t know what he had. He knew he was good. But he hadn’t a clue about being asked to do something or another. He didn’t want to know about tactics.

‘He played in midfield. That was that. He didn’t have a further thought. He had the genius for it, though, and that was what Billy was talking about.

‘The team and I had to work with that. You have to put up with genius. You can become frustrated. And then he wins you a game.

‘Brian was totally different. He knew where he wanted to play. He told me that before I signed him and I had no problem with that. He repaid that trust. All he wanted was an environment he enjoyed for him and his family. He wanted where he lived to be right, the schools to be right. ‘He had a great footballing brain and he developed a wonderful knowledge of the game, where to go and what to do. ‘Again, the players would respond to that. They would allow him the wee bits of laxity in terms of at times not working defensively. He was a serious boy. A good boy.’ Smith emphasises that greatness does not require flamboyance or even flair, saying: ‘The impression now is that when I came to Ibrox with Graeme (Souness), there was a revolution with a huge influx of players.

‘But here’s what happened. That close season we bought Chris Woods, Terry Butcher and Souness himself was playing.

‘We bought Colin West, but he got injured after two games. The rest of the team were there already: a Rangers team that had not won a league for nine years.

‘So what did they bring apart from obvious footballing ability? They brought a winning persona.

‘Butcher and Souness were simply winners. This is an overused term but when you see it you know how powerful it is. Those two changed the dressing room. Changed the standards.

‘Butcher was not just a fantastic player but he grabbed the game and other players by the scruff of the neck. You knew that if you were in Terry’s team you had to win, even at fives.’

THAT element of toughness, determination, and powerful will was also witnessed as Smith took training at Manchester United, where he joined his friend Fergie for a brief spell in 2004.

‘I was out of work and I knew it was going to be a short-term thing,’ reveals Smith. ‘I wouldn’t have gone as an assistant to anyone else but I enjoyed it.’

The exposure to the United players of the era galvanised Smith, who had been wearied by his experience at Everton and the subsequent time away from the game after his sacking.

‘There was an extraordinary

level of player. (Ryan) Giggs, (Paul) Scholes, (Roy) Keane… every one of them winners,’ he says. ‘Their ability in training was wonderful but it was their dedication that I respected. They worked hard in every session. Everything was done properly with the proper effort, the right tempo.’

Smith also has a unique insight on a Manchester United legend.

‘Wayne Rooney was at Everton when I was there,’ he says. ‘The first time I saw him play, I was wearing a towel.’

An explanation is required. ‘Colin Harvey, the former Everton great, was running the Under-19s and said he was going to play Rooney in that team,’ adds Smith.

‘The lad was only 14 and let’s say I was sceptical. Colin was adamant. The coaches all said he was unbelievable but I told them to be careful with him.

‘Archie (Knox, Smith’s assistant) and I used to come in early on the Saturday morning to do a bit of fitness work. The window of the manager’s office looks out on to the training pitch and I was in a shower when Archie shouted: “There’s the boy coming on as a sub”.

‘I pulled on a towel and came out just in time to see Wayne control the ball in his own half, turn and volley it. The goalie just manages to touch it over the bar. I turned to Archie and said: “The boys are right”.’

The Scot could not give Rooney a first-team debut because the prodigy was still at school.

‘One of the first things I told Davie (Moyes) when he took over was that he had someone who was a level above,’ says Smith.

This advice passed on from the older manager to the younger was franked in spectacular style. It offers the opportunity to ask Smith what he learned from the great managers he accompanied on to the training pitches.

His first experience of coaching was under McLean.

‘Football first, football last, that was Jim,’ he says. ‘He was modern, ahead of his time. His training was innovative, he developed a youth policy, he worked with individuals. He would always make demands. But those demands are what made Dundee United and the players.

‘I learned a great deal about setting up training sessions and how to work on match situations. I worked with him for seven seasons and nobody could have had a better upbringing.

‘Yes, he was hard. He was hard on everybody but he was hardest on himself.’

Working with Souness at Ibrox was different, Smith revealing: ‘Graeme tells a great story about his debut at Liverpool. He sees his name on the team sheet and he asks Ronnie Moran (one of the coaches): “What do you want me to do?”.

‘Moran replied: “I don’t know. Just what do you do?” And walked off.’

This, says Smith, influenced Souness heavily, giving him the belief that good players should be given great responsibility.

‘He would know a footballer,’ says Smith. ‘He said to me: “Put Cammy Fraser out on the right”. I told him that Cammy was a good footballer but couldn’t run as a winger should.

‘Graeme replied that he would give us balance and would pass well. He did, he played great there.’

The spell with Ferguson at United was illuminating. Smith had worked with him at the World Cup in 1982 but the short stay at Old Trafford was revelatory.

‘The first, most important aspect of Alex is that he is highly intelligent. Everything flows from that,’ adds Smith.

‘He knows what he wants and how to get it. The hair-dryer stuff? I never saw any of it. I am not saying it didn’t happen but every day at training everybody gave 100 per cent. He didn’t even take training.

‘He would walk about, look at everything, everybody. The commitment by the players was total. That’s down to the manager. It’s about respect. Alex was methodical but inspirational. He made it look easy. He made managing Manchester United look easy. That’s genius.’

SMITH points out that Ferguson worked closely with sports science at the club and also had coaches deliver dossiers on opponents.

‘He had all the information,’ he adds. ‘But he only passed on to players what was important. His ethos was for Manchester United to impose their way of football on the opposition.

‘He would study other areas of life, too. He was always reading: lives of businessmen, political leaders, whoever. He was always moving forward, always learning.’

Smith’s experience of working under Stein was brief but instructive.

‘You have to realise that I was intimidated by his reputation,’ he says. ‘It was an honour to work under him with Scotland but he was brilliant. He said: “Call me Jock”. But I couldn’t. I still can’t.’

Indeed, Smith references ‘Mr Stein’ as he recalls one conversation with the great manager.

‘I was taking the Under-21s,’ says Smith, ‘and Mr Stein told me that Davie McPherson would fit in at right-back. I said: “Mr Stein, he’s a centre-half”. He replied: “No, he will play at right-back”.

‘I wanted to work up the courage to argue, but he played at rightback. I brought Davie back to Rangers in 1992 and he played at right-back. Mr Stein was well ahead. The greats always are.’

It is one of the lessons Smith has learned from working with geniuses. And of listening to Billy Connolly.