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When exactly did the tide go out for Scottish football managers? Was it when Alex Ferguson finally stood down after 26 years as manager of Manchester United (following eight glorious years at Aberdeen)? Or was it when his anointed successor David Moyes conspicuously failed to match his gargantuan feats?
As recently as the start of the 2011-2012 season there were six Scottish managers in the English Premier League. This season there will be none. And as Scottish football kicks off this afternoon onethird of the managers are Northern Irish.
How times change. In the 1960s and 70s Scots dominated British football. From Jock Stein to Matt Busby, the voice of the game came with a Scottish accent.
And then there was Ayrshire’s Bill Shankly, the man who transformed Liverpool FC from mediocrity to superiority. Without Shankly’s foundations Liverpool could never have dominated European football the way they did for so long.
“What cannot be argued is that there is no more important Liverpool manager, perhaps even no more important in post-war English football,” writes Daniel Storey in Portrait of an Icon.
Shankly is just one of the managers profiled in Storey’s new book, which also contains distinctive portraits by artist Stanley Chow. Money raised from the book will go to the Sir Bobby Robson Foundation.
So, as the optimism of the season leaks away (by about 5pm this afternoon for some of us), here’s a chance to remember a time when Scotland ruled the touchline.