Diehard Eddie plots Tangerines’ downfall
SAYS AIRDRIE BOSS EDDIE WOLECKI BLACK
LIVING a stone’s throw from Tannadice in the 1980s, Eddie Wolecki Black grew up in a golden era to be a Dundee United fan.
He was there for all the magical moments as Jim McLean steered the previously unfashionable corner-shop club to the Scottish league title, domestic cups, and the 1987 UEFA Cup Final.
Wolecki Black would later become a coach and scout at Tannadice, where he was privileged to learn at the feet of the maestro they called Wee Jum.
Now fate has conspired that when struggling United travel south for a banana skin of a Scottish Cup tie at Excelsior Stadium on Saturday, it will be the man from Stobswell who will be plotting their downfall in his role as head coach of Airdrieonians.
Wolecki Black’s coaching future was shaped by the Tangerines’ glorious past and, indeed, McLean’s influence was not hard to find yesterday as the 50-year-old sat down with Sportsmail for an interview in chief executive Iain King’s office while his own was being repainted. ‘Jim McLean was a huge influence on me — in particular his standards,’ said Wolecki Black.
‘I remember the first time I was invited to go with the Dundee United first team, it was an away game against Celtic and the team stayed in the Westerwood Hotel in Cumbernauld. There was a smudge on a bit of cutlery and Jim McLean asked for it to be replaced. That was how meticulous he was.
‘And when a young United team opened a new football pavilion in Perth, it was lovely and well decorated but Jim noticed straight away that the sinks were dirty.
‘With Jim, it was all about standards. No matter what part of the club it was, he demanded high standards.
‘It’s something I’ve tried to copy in my own career. It’s the reason we are in this room just now. My own office was dull, dismal. It needed brightened up. I want standards to be as high as possible all around this club.’
Wolecki Black was a youth player at Tannadice before being let go by McLean but he was invited back in his mid-20s. After two successful trials, he was told to report back for pre-season training the following summer.
However, a broken leg sustained on his 25th birthday put paid to his dreams of wearing his beloved tangerine. Instead, he turned out for Montrose, Deveronvale and Huntly while going down the coaching path. He still recalls the bittersweet moment when, years later, McLean informed him as they worked together that releasing him as a young player had been one of his rare errors.
‘It was a European game, I think against Trabzonspor, and it was just him and I in the stand,’ he recalled. ‘We were talking about the need for Dundee United to get in the best young talent. He told me in all his years in the game he had only made a mistake on one player and added: “Don’t you make the same mistake I made with you.”
‘As I walked home that night, I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.’ Wolecki Black went on to steer Lochee United to a Scottish Junior Cup Final before taking over allconquering women’s football side Glasgow City. A brief spell in charge of the Edusport Academy preceded his arrival at Airdrie as youth academy director of coaching, before he replaced head coach Garry Bollan in December. He recalls his formative coaching days at Tannadice under the formidable McLean as a priceless education.
‘Jim McLean would go to every training session and stand in the same spot on his own,’ he recalled. ‘I’d go round and listen to what he was shouting and ask questions when possible. It was an incredible experience for a young coach.
‘I knew United were a passing team and one day I tried to impress by shouting: “Pass, pass, pass” when he called me over and asked what I was doing. ‘I replied: “Coaching.” ‘He asked me who the best player in the world at that time was and I replied: “Maradona”. He told me what made Maradona the best player in the world was that he could beat a man — and what would happen to our game if we coached that out of players. ‘The lesson was, if you’ve got people with talent, don’t coach it out of them by telling them to pass. It was a simple but great lesson and it’s stuck with me ever since.’
Regardless of how Airdrie get on this weekend against United, Wolecki Black has already had his moment in the Scottish Cup spotlight. Unfortunately, it was one he wished had never happened.
‘My last ever game as a player was for Huntly against Falkirk in the Scottish Cup at Brockville (in January 1999),’ he smiled.
‘Kevin McAllister beat our whole team then dinked the ball into the net for a brilliant goal.
‘The goal was on television every week after that. I was the first guy he beat and him making an absolute fool of me was always on the opening credits to Sportscene so I tried to avoid them…’
On Saturday, Wolecki Black will be hoping to write a more memorable chapter for himself in Cup history when his League One side host a United team 11 points adrift at the foot of the Premiership following a derby loss to Dundee last weekend.
By contrast, Airdrie’s late win away to their own rivals Albion Rovers has fired up Wolecki Black’s men ahead of a game he views as lacking in pressure for his underdogs. And, despite his fond memories supporting United in the glory days, he would love to see them suffer fresh misery.
‘I was there for the good times in the 1980s, like winning the league at Dens; winning the League Cup at Dens and retaining it there, too. I followed the team all the way through to the UEFA Cup Final and I was at the Final against Gothenburg at Tannadice.
‘I’ve been to many Scottish Cup Finals to see United, although they weren’t always great experiences. I was also at the League Cup Final last year when they lost to Celtic and when Celtic knocked them out at Parkhead in the Scottish Cup.
‘I’ve still got many friends up at Tannadice and I know Mixu Paatelainen very well from his time at Cowdenbeath. Mixu is a great coach and I’m convinced he can get United out of trouble. But, on Saturday, I will have no allegiance towards United. I’ll be doing my very best to get Airdrie through.
‘We are underdogs for a reason. It’s a full-time club against a part-time club; a Premiership club against a League One club.
‘If United play as well as they can, we will be out. But anything is possible in football. You never know...’
It was that kind of attitude that served United well under the legendary McLean in the 1980s. Could it be the troubled Tannadice team’s downfall on Saturday?