Hard-as-nails gaffers like Stein were kings you didn’t dare cross
Jock Stein, Willie Waddell, Jock Wallace and Eddie Turnbull were at the peak of their powers when I took my first tentative steps into the world of national newspapers.
If I’d known beforehand what lay ahead, I would have walked away there and then.
Besides all being outstanding managers, they were hard as nails and difficult to deal with.
The quartet ruled the roost and manipulated the press with the threat of expulsion from the inner circle if you didn’t play by their rules. They were kings and their subjects – the press – usually took the knee!
Stein was the Godfather.
Eight years before I came along he had led Celtic to European Cup glory. I first encountered Big Jock in 1975 while working as a freelance. I can still picture the scene, waiting on the Celtic Park steps for an interview.
I was nervous – and it showed. Allan Herron, the Sunday Mail’s former chief sportswriter, sensed my discomfort and offered a sound piece of advice.
“Don’t let him overwhelm you. If he senses a weakness, he’ll play on it,” Allan warned. Easier said than done. When I introduced myself, Stein told me he didn’t like my predecessor or my newspaper.
“Well, actually Mr Stein it’s not my newspaper. I only work for them as a freelance,” I replied.
Oops, big mistake. “Oh, really,” he fired back. “Think you’re smart, do you?”
After that he was never off my case, complaining about headlines or stories. It got so bad I could even tell his ring.
Eventually, a year into the job, I stood up to him. I was in Inverness for a friendly and
Stein commented on how miserable I looked. I shot back: “Well, Mr Stein, given how you treat me, is it a surprise?”
That was it. I had served my penance and from then on it was
“Jock” and the calls became less frequent. Not that we ever became close.
Waddell was different, in the sense that he cultivated me as a potential spy.
Over a drink in his oakpanelled Ibrox office he told me we could do business that would be mutually beneficial.
But what “The Deedle” wanted was information on Stein and Celtic.
I refused to play that very dangerous game. But it still didn’t stop Stein referring to me as “The Deedle’s pal”.
Waddell’s coach Wallace had been a jungle fighter in Malaya – now his enemy was the press and he didn’t take prisoners. Being “playfully” kicked off a bar stool was an e example of Jock’s id idea of a laugh.
Once he called m me about an in interview I did with w R former Rangers full-back Willie Mathieson W in which he had not n complimentary been at all about his former e employers.
Wallace delivered d chilling warning: a ““Remember, kid, y you need Rangers more m n need Mathieson.” than you
Turnbull was thet hardest of the hard men. One of Hibs’ Famous Five, Turnbull wasn’t a fan of my predecessor either so when I introduced myself I was told: “F*** OFF.”
It was a different story in 1979 when I tipped Hibs to beat Rangers in the Scottish Cup final – only for Gers to prevail. It didn’t matter to Eddie that I’d got it wrong.
At the post-match press conference he told my colleagues to “F*** OFF” – exclaiming I’d gone out on a limb so he’d only talk to me.
When Eddie left football we became reasonably close. I attended his funeral in 2011 – purely out of respect for one of football’s true hard men.
His influence extending to the back gardens of Thurso, the most northerly pat on the back. When somebody like town in mainland Britain, is a more Ronald de Boer or Alex McLeish says, surprising setting. ‘Aye, you’ve done well’, that is a massive
And yet the Dutchman is one in a long thing from a personal level. line of stellar names to have endorsed “Theo ten Caat, who used to play for the work of local coach Alyn Gunn. Aberdeen, got in touch with us as well.
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Covid-19 may have wreaked havoc in It is things you don’t expect to happen how coaching is delivered. But as the to a guy from Thurso.
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McDonald’s/Sunday Mail Grassroots “But the bigger picture is we’re putting
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Awards, in association with the SFA, it toward trying to get kids to participate have shown, it was never going to stop in football and that is the end idea here.
nc those who deliver it. “I ’ m a great bel iever in doing
As far as Gunn is concerned, not even story- telling football whether that a collapsed lung could stop him using be the Avengers or Spiderman – Peppa football to put a smile on faces. Pig if you have to. I do things differently
to try to catch the imagination of a dc young child. And if you catch them at a young age, hopefully that will progress into future international footballers.
“We started up the academy in 2013. Now predominately what we do is we’ll go into schools and coach ages from nursery right through to primary three.
“Then in the summer months and in the holidays we will run camps for five to 15-year- olds with var ious either pr o f e s s ion a l teams such as Rangers or we will bring up S imon Donnelly, Charlie Miller, Nacho Novo.
“Over the last year or so we’ve had over 250
With schools shut and pitches untrodden these past few months, his Thurso Football Academy sought to stop wee ones from three upwards being left idle too.
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Footballs and water bottles were issued free of charge to 25 youngsters along with a training drills booklet that uses superheroes to turn them into potential superstars.
The remaining 104 kids whose parents entered them into last month’s draw were still able to get a digital copy of Gunn’s Tiny Tacklers booklet for free.
De Boer and fellow former Rangers midfielder Pedro Mendes are among those to send on messages of support for what’s inside – Yogi Hughes, Alex McLeish, Ibrox coach Michael Beale and Celtic No.2 John Kennedy as well.
Gunn, who started coaching at 14, said: “It shows firstly we are on the right track with what we are trying to give to the children. And secondly, I see it as a children attend our camps in Thurso, which is fantastic for the area.”
Rangers Soccer Schools headed north last November. Gunn said: “We had an eight-year-old they thought stood out and they invited him down to their training centre. Now this guy is travelling every second week to Glasgow to train for three or four sessions.
“It shows the area has got talent. We’ve had players such as Gary Mackay-Steven come from Thurso, Shane Sutherland – who plays with Inverness Caley now – is from the Caithness area.
“We have potential up here – it is about getting it in the spotlight.”
Help from locals Robbie Fraser, Scotty Youngson and Wi l lie Lipka with sponsorship, plus Baillie Wind Farm Community Benefit Fund with a grant for the recent equipment giveaway, has kept Gunn going on top of his day job at Dounreay nuclear plant.
But the 35-year- old’s drive is all the more impressive after having to step away from coaching for most of a year following a health scare in 2016.
Gunn, father to Keira, 12, and Connor, 10, said: “It wasn’t a great time. To come away from coaching, it’s been my life – to lose that would be hellish. “You’ve got a kid with a smi le on their face and that is a reward there. “The e v en bigger reward is they are getting noticed by clubs and wouldn’t get that opportunity if we didn’t do what we’re doing.”