Maurice Ross on how football dragged him to the brink
After Ibrox, Ross flatlined but vital signs are looking good again as he aims for a career in management
WHEN Maurice Ross reflects on his playing career he tells a tale that begins in glorious achievement at Rangers before descending into a spiral of bitterness and resentment. The classic story of the boy given too much too soon, Ross admits he allowed his frustrations to gnaw away at him to the point where his mother had to warn him that his mental health was in peril.
He insists he only levelled out after he quit playing.
For those reasons, he is determined that his managerial pursuits will follow a different path. Currently the head coach of Egersunds IK, a third-tier team in Norway, Ross has been back in Scotland this week working towards his B license through the auspices of the SFA.
The 35-year-old declares himself to be in no rush to make his mark on the world of management, viewing it essential that he makes his most basic mistakes away from the public glare. If and when he emerges on a high-profile level, he wants to be armed with the tools and the experience to succeed.
A break-out figure under Alex McLeish at Rangers, it was his good fortune to feature in a team featuring Barry Ferguson, Arthur Numan and Lorenzo Amoruso.
By his own admission a ‘link’ in the chain at Ibrox, he never needed to master the same levels of technique as his team-mates but he nevertheless came to view their proficiency as standard issue.
The notion worked against him when he alighted at Millwall in England’s League One.
‘You go into sport with great aspirations,’ says Ross, blooded young by Berti Vogts yet capped for the 13th and final time in a 6-0 thrashing by Netherlands aged 22.
‘I got everything quick. I had the best of everything at Rangers. I worked with the best coaches and the best players. Before I knew it I was at Millwall with not so good coaches and players but my head is still operating like I’m dealing with Jan Wouters and Ronald de Boer.
‘At Rangers, Numan would get the ball. It would be popped back to Amo. I already know Barry will half turn and play it first time. At Millwall, it goes into Marvin Elliott and I am already on the move.
‘He loses it because he is not as good as Barry Ferguson and I am 30 yards out of position. People think that because I was a Rangers player that shouldn’t happen.
‘But I wasn’t the type of player who could beat five men. I needed support and I didn’t have it anymore. I was a link in the chain at Rangers. I would show up well as the links around me were strong.
‘When I was going down south I didn’t have the ability to show I was brilliant. I wasn’t very good at adjusting and that becomes a problem. I had been used to a certain standard, but people were not interested. It didn’t help that I was so outspoken.’
When Ross left Rangers in 2005 it was for the English Championship and Sheffield Wednesday. After just one appearance, he was loaned out to Wolves where he found only reminders of the fact the same club wanted to sign him on far better terms a few months previously. ‘There was bitterness and resentment there and that all came from my mindset,’ he admitted. ‘I resented the fact Rangers pulled the plug at the last minute on my move to West Ham. ‘Then, when Jackie McNamara was about to join Wolves, my agent phoned and said Celtic were not going to let him go. He said that when it fell through they would sign me on a three-year deal on £9,000-aweek. ‘The deal goes ahead and it was like bang, bang, bang. I was like a basket case. I harboured all that resentment for years. I was frustrated every day and had a lot of pent-up anger. ‘It only stopped when I quit playing. I made a conscious decision of not getting into a rut where I had mental issues.’
Ross finally called time on his playing career in 2012 after spells at Aberdeen, Motherwell and Livingston and, with the help of his mother, found a routine that helped him forge a productive new path.
‘I didn’t get any treatment but my mum saw signs. She told me I needed routine and I needed to focus on something. I got up at 7am every day, had a shave and went to the coffee shop and studied engineering. I sat in Costa in Broughty Ferry for seven hours a day, five days a week. It helped me tremendously.
‘It was like a revelation for me. I loved it. It gave me focus again.’
Suddenly Ross found that setting a high standard could work in his favour. Naturally curious of mind, his qualification has allowed him to forge a career in parallel with his coaching endeavours.
His links to Norway stretch back to a short playing spell with Viking Stavanger and he is currently active as an account manager with Baker Hughes, an oil services company, a job he does full-time alongside his duties as Egersunds boss.
‘I’ve been in my current job since January but I started coaching with Sola four years ago. I was working with a group of guys who wanted to play football and we managed to win back-to-back promotions.
‘Then we made it to the Second Division and finished fifth. That was as far as we could go but I wanted to take the next step. I have now joined a club who finished second for the last couple of years.
‘It is a proper football club where they pay players a salary. They are comparable with say a Forfar. The town has 7,000 people and 15 per cent of them go to the games.
‘These players are different to the ones at Sola. They have ideas, opinions and have worked with good coaches before. I speak to them mainly in English but I have a decent grasp of the language.
‘My wife is Norwegian and whereas before they used to speak in Norwegian, they now know I can catch it, so they switch to German. When I hear that in the house I know I am in trouble or they are plotting something.’
While it used to seem like Ross was playing the game in a hurried fashion, in conversation the Dundonian has always cut an eloquent, even thoughtful, figure.
He is enjoying his coaching pursuits and, while he is setting a careful pace for his learning, his sights are ultimately set high.
‘I see myself as dedicated and motivated,’ said Ross. ‘I have submerged myself in it. I analyse every game I watch and my wife is demented with me.
‘I told her I could go to work every day as an account manager and be good at it but I want to be great. I will never be great as an account manager but I could potentially be as a coach or manager.
‘I work 12 hours every day but it is not a stress. We train five days a week and I love it. This is like an investment for me.
‘There is no comparison between selling equipment or being on a football pitch. People will look at this as an apprenticeship but I’m running this as if I were in the top league.
‘I have a good feeling about myself again and I have that passion back.’
I was a link in the chain at Rangers. I showed up well there as the links around me were strong