EUROPEAN ROUND-UP
lose players in the dressing-room if you’re hard on them. I’ll say ‘you might as well lose them because they’re no’ very good’.
“I heard Conte at half-time in the Italy dressing-room when we played them in Malta in May. Woah, I’ve never heard anything like it in my life. It was Fergie stuff. He cleared the dressing room and got right into it. And Klopp’s the same.
“It’s gone from your Arsenes and Svens where you had to be the professor, back to screaming and shouting.
“There’s no one way of managing. What am I? As an international manager I’ve got a Conte seething underneath but you can’t use it because these players turn up for nothing.
“If I was paying these guys 50 grand, 100 grand, I could demand. But they give up their time so it’s hard to be brutal.
” You have to send them back to their clubs feeling as good about themselves as they did when they turned up.
“I’ve played at international level and know what it’s like to go from feeling great about yourself to crawling home thinking ‘I’m the worst player in the world’.
“All you can ask is that good players and the right types turn up and give it their best shot.” FIFA World Stars v The Americas: July 1986, Pasadena Rose Bowl.
“It wa s a charity match for UNICEF but I treasure the stories more than the strip.
“Maradona’s minders – guys with guns– stopped me wanting to know what I was doing. I said ‘I play’! They just laughed.
“Franz Beckebauer was our manager and we drew 2-2. I scored in the penalty shoot-out with Paolo Rossi and Soren Lerby but we lost in the end.”
Aberdeen v Real Madrid: European Cup Winners’ Cup Final, 1983.
“I’ve many memories from that night but you recall the laughs and jokes best.
“I just look at that strip and think about cutting my hair before the game.
“I couldn’t see through my fringe so I chopped it off with the scissors!
“I gave my wife a piggy back to bed af ter the party and recall watching Mark McGhee fall in the swimming pool.”
Leeds United, 1991/92 First Division title winners.
“The strip was from the year we won the title. It was never planned. Leeds told us get us promoted or we’re kind of knackered.
“I scored a goal that got us promoted against Leicester and in that moment, it a l l came together.
“I’ve never been more tired but it was a special mission. I don’t need a memento of that, it is in my head.”
Scotland v Finland: Hampden, March 25, 1992.
“That’s the strip f rom my 50th cap, when I captained Scotland.
“When you were a kid you never thought: I’ll play for Scotland. My only great plan was scoring for Hibs – and I never achieved that so I am a failure in life!
“I played a testimonial for Hibs when I was assistant at Coventry.
“Coventry were 1- 0 up and I scored a penalty. Big Ron Atkinson didn’t speak to me after that!”