STAR PROFILE
In-depth look at Sunderland’s new boss Jack Ross
CHEAP booze, grotty flats, three-month holidays – most of us remember our student days with misty-eyed nostalgia. Not Jack Ross.
Back in the early Nineties, the 41-year-old was on the cusp of fulfilling a childhood dream. A Dundee supporter who’d sold programmes as a boy, he’d joined the Dark Blues at 13.
Then, just a year after turning pro, Ross was released. Visions of flash motors and luxury living had become a bed at mum and dad’s.
And instead of making glamorous trips to Ibrox and Parkhead, the teenager was starting a four-year economics degree at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh.
“The best way I could describe myself during Uni was as a miserable sod,” he says. “I just didn’t want to be there. I was standoffish, went to lectures, did what I had to do, and went home again. I had a chip on my shoulder, because I thought I should still be playing football.”
Ross never did abandon hope, playing for a string of amateur sides before returning to the full-time game with Clyde at the age of 24.
And just as he’d resolutely evaded the 9-5 treadmill as a youngster, so the intelligent and multi-skilled midfielder would cling to football after retirement. Ross was 35 when a solid but unspectacular career with Clyde, Hartlepool, Falkirk and St Mirren drew to a close.
“A good player but a great leader,” was the verdict of former Clyde boss Alan Kernaghan. “He was the type of guy that other players would seek out for advice.”
Such qualities did not escape the attention of the Scottish PFA. Already chairman of the organisation as a player, Ross joined full-time on his retirement and headed up initiatives around gambling, mental health and drug use.
Values
“He was organised, intelligent, motivated,” said Fraser Wishaw, the PFA chief executive who appointed Ross. “He could have had a very successful career as a football administrator.”
Or, perhaps, as an author. In his spare time, Ross was busy penning a series of successful children’s books with titles like Alfie the Adventurous
Winger or Calum the Courageous Keeper.
“I’d seen football attract so much negative press and I just wanted to show that our sport could teach basic values,” he explained in 2012.
“With Alfie, the school menu changes from burger and chips to healthy food and he’s really miserable. But then his parents explain that the reason he’s such a good winger is that he isn’t afraid to try new things on the park. Alfie then applies that logic to food and becomes healthier.”
Never, though, did the smell of grass and liniment lose its allure. When he wasn’t writing or working, Ross was assisting Alan Adamson at part-time Dumbarton, where he briefly became caretaker manager.
“He’s the best coach I’ve ever worked with,” said Walsall full-back Nicky Devlin, who spent two years at Dumbarton. “When you’re part-time, the boys finish work and just want to enjoy themselves. Jack made sure that happened – but he had a knack of getting out what he wanted.”
Those who have worked with Ross – and indeed the man himself – attest to the fact that he usually does.
For all the personal skills –a legacy of his father Stewart, who runs a business – Ross can be both forthright and belligerent. “I’m a bit like the tin man from Wizard of
Oz,” he once said. “A little bit inflexible.”
Wishaw adds: “He was always a good people person. He’ll care for players, help them out. But he can be hard too. He and I had many conversations and we didn’t always agree. He was very opinionated.”
As a player, that was infamously evidenced when he abandoned Hartlepool after a fall-out with the chairman, vowing never to return “even if they are in the Champions League”.
Ambition
As a manager, too, he once waded into the crowd to confront booing fans – eventually inviting the offenders to training so they could see the work he put in.
And while Ross had never revealed exactly why he departed his first full-time coaching position at Hearts in October 2014, it seems clear that sporting director Craig Levein’s vision for the club was incompatible with Ross’ soaring ambition.
“I am strong in my own beliefs in my ability,” he said. “I am not arrogant but I feel that you have to have the courage of your own convictions. And I never saw myself as a coach. I saw myself as a manager.”
As usual, Ross would get his wish. Appointed by Alloa in 2015, he rebounded from relegation to finish second in League One. Then, at St Mirren, he dragged a side winless in eight and rock bottom of the Championship to safety in his first season and promotion in his second.
Now, after resisting the overtures of Ipswich Town and Aberdeen, he is the new manager of Sunderland – and arrives with a string of endorsements.
Praise from Brendan Rodgers. Comparisons with Alex Neil. A reputation for fluid football. That mix of compassion and conviction.
“On a personal note, you won’t hear anyone say a bad word about him,” said Jim Goodwin, a player at Alloa. “It tells you everything that even lads who aren’t in the team sing his praises. He gets people.
“But what really stands out is his coaching. A lot of young coaches and managers tend to just recycle training sessions and come out with the same cliches that they’ve heard from managers they’ve worked with down the years.
“They don’t freshen things up or do a bit of research. With Jack, there’s always something new to stimulate the boys’ brains. I said back then that he’d get a top job and do well in it – and I still believe that.”