McGrain’s wise words contributed to Flannigan’s tale of the unexpected
CRAIG FLANNIGAN went from signing for Rangers and reaching a World Cup Final to finding his level on a red blaes training pitch at Clydebank.
The fall might have finished the average teenager’s career, but Flannigan credits the advice of a Celtic legend for providing the timely words of wisdom that sustain him to this day.
Flannigan has returned to Ibrox as the club’s new Head of Performance and Preparation and will be based at Murray Park, a training facility beyond anything he could imagine when he departed the club in 1992.
Although his remit will include all aspects of the players’ physical wellbeing, he maintains that attitude remains the most important factor in a footballer’s armoury.
‘I always remember going to Clydebank and the facilities were really poor,’ he said. ‘Danny McGrain took the full-time players and he said: “You can go one or two ways”. He taught us that it was about hard work and ethics. That’s not changed.
‘Danny was a great player, a world-class fullback. He said you can say everything about facilities and the food that you don’t get, but it’s down to your hunger and desire.
‘I’d come from Rangers where we thought we had good facilities. We had Adidas Tangos to train with but at Clydebank there were two balls that actually had leather on them.
‘Every day I trained with Jim Gallacher on ash and I prospered as a player. In my first season, I scored 25 goals in the First Division. I was playing my best football and got back into the international scene.
‘It’s not about facilities. It’s about making the best of what you’ve got.’
For a while, it looked like Flannigan might go all the way to the top. Craig Brown listed him at No9 in the Scotland Under-16 squad that made the Final of the 1989 World Cup.
He played just once, as a substitute in the opening fixture against Ghana, and was on the bench as Saudi Arabia took the trophy after a penalty shoot-out in the Final. His club future seemed bright
when Rangers added him to their impressive quota of strikers and he arrived at Ibrox full of dreams.
‘When I signed for Rangers, I was expected to be good enough to go and play for the first team,’ he said. ‘Rangers only signed three players — that was the norm.
‘But then I found myself in the company of Mo Johnston, Mark Hateley and Ally McCoist, who were the first-team strikers. Also stifling me were John Spencer and Gary McSwegan, who were only two years ahead of me. Those two would have played in any other team at that time.
‘I had a false dawn when Gary broke his leg and John went to Hong Kong, so I played about 30 reserve games when I wasn’t ready physically.
‘In the third year I was playing regularly in the Reserve League West, which was effectively the third team. I had an opportunity to go and play for Clydebank’s first team. There was a realisation that I wasn’t going to be good enough.’
As well as Clydebank, Flannigan went on to play for Queen of the South and Partick Thistle before quitting in 2000 to concentrate on his career in sports science.
The 42-year-old has been operating as head of sports science at Rangers’ Championship rivals Hibernian, where he worked closely with manager Alan Stubbs.
Having installed Frank McParland as the club’s new head of recruitment, boss Mark Warburton sees Flannigan as an important figure in his attempts to rebuild the club’s infrastructure after years of neglect under successive ruinous regimes.
‘Craig is regarded as one of the best in Scotland and we wanted to combine our medical and sports science into one department,’ said Warburton. ‘He will work closely with our doctor, physios, masseurs etc. It demands communication and a constant thirst for improvement. Craig will oversee that.
‘Both myself and David know what we need and it’s about us being supplemented by their knowledge. We have to trust their judgment.’