‘Unknown’ enforcer still wins admirers
ALEX Neil had been at Hamilton Academical for just three months when manager Billy Reid presented him with the captain’s armband.
Neil was shocked. Incumbent Marvyn Wilson, a hardas-nails midfielder from Bellshill, was 32, eight years his senior and a decade more calloused.
Reid, though, had no doubts. “His leadership qualities were obvious,” said the 54-year-old, now assistant at Swedish side Ostersunds.
“Alex had this steeliness, even at 24. He’s the type who would stand his ground on anything. If he thought something was wrong, he’d be first to stand up and say it. He was small in size, but you wouldn’t want to mess with him.”
Childhood
Over the course of a 15-year playing career, few did. By his own admission, Neil was technically and physically limited.
Present in abundance, however, was aggression, intelligence and self-belief.
It was there in his childhood, kicking a ball against the garden wall of neighbour Peter Hetherston in the Lanarkshire village of Coatbridge.
“He’d be there hour after hour,” said the former Raith and Sheffield United midfielder. “It drove my wife mad. She’d get me to go and tell him of, but Alex would just say ‘I have to practice if I’m going to be a footballer’.”
It was there that he told his parents he was ditching school at 16 to join Dunfermline. There, too, at first club Airdrieonians, when Neil – prematurely thrust into action due to the club’s financial meltdown –used his 16 games to earn a £25,000 move to Barnsley.
If a midfield needed organising, Neil would bellow and bawl. “That was his real strength,” said Frankie McAvoy, Hamilton’s youth coach. “Leading and organising on the field. If he had more pace, he would have played at a higher level because his reading of the game was magnificent.”
Likewise, if an opposition winger needed ‘reducing’, Neil’s stud marks would be imprinted on his shins. This is a man who freely admits that the introduction of mandatory cards for professional fouls hampered his game.
“Off the pitch, he kept himself to himself,” said former Tyke Darren Barnard. “On it, he was a typical fiery Scotsman. He did the dirty work, which made pretty boys like me look good.”
Reid had signed Neil from Mansfield in 2005, tipped off by McAvoy who’d heard that the young Scot was eager to return. Neil penned a contract, assuming he’d spend “a couple of years” at New Douglas Park. A decade later, he was still there.
Unsavoury
From the start, Reid saw Neil as more than a player. More, even, than a captain. “He was my fixer, my enforcer, my eyes on the field,” says Reid.
“Behind closed doors, we had a few unsavoury words and arguments. But we worked together for almost ten years and got on great. Towards the end of my time at Hamilton, when I didn’t have an assistant, Alex was the guy I’d lean on for advice. He helped me a lot.”
Reid recognised early that Neil’s true value lay in his brain rather than his boots. He tasked his de facto deputy with mentoring James McCarthy and James McArthur, who would both eventually play in the Premier League.
Later, when injuries began to bite, he got involved with the Under-17s and Under-20s. “He was excellent,” said McAvoy. “He had that steel and authority – and he was desperate to do well.” Yet, if Neil was a tough nut on the pitch, he was no sergeant major on the sidelines. Throughout his time at Hamilton, Reid praised Neil to the rafters, defending every red card or mistake. “Billy used to tell me I was the best player in the SPL,” said Neil in 2016. “And, in return, I’d put my body on the line for him.” So, when Neil was asked to replace Reid – initially as player-manager – at the age of 31, those holistic lessons had been learned. For Neil, there was no carrot and no stick, simply a human who had to be understood. He got to know the players’ children and partners. Dropped himself for big games. Once, after being sent off, he apologised by taking the entire squad for a three-course meal. “His biggest asset is his strength of character,” said former Hamilton keeper Michael McGovern. “He’s got no fear of telling people they’re wrong or out of line. But he is also a deep thinker and very observant of players and their feelings.”
The personal touch worked. A Hamilton side full of Neil’s former youth charges won promotion to the SPL in 2014, then rose to within four points of the summit. Their budget was the lowest in the division.
Norwich City took notice and, in January 2015, lured Neil away. He was such an unknown quantity that security refused to let his family into Carrow Road, yet five months later, they were celebrating promotion to the Premier League at Wembley.
Honesty
The rest is recent history. Neil was relegated then sacked amid poor results, allegedly due to a disagreement over the appointment of a sporting director.
Neil once described his aggression and honesty as “my biggest strength but also my biggest weakness – I’ve got involved in things I maybe shouldn’t have.”
In this case, it certainly worked against him. Yet those same principles now see Preston scaling rare heights, playing the kind of flamboyant football that ultimately attracted such criticism at Norwich.
“Alex’s greatest asset is his honesty and ability to inspire players,” says Hetherston. “Those qualities will get you through anything in this game.”