I wasn’t ready to be a manager when I took the Killie job. I struggled to adapt and it zapped my energy
WORKING AWAY FROM SPOTLIGHT WITH NEILSON AT HEARTS SUITS McCULLOCH JUST FINE
DOWN and drained after his short spell as Kilmarnock manager, Lee McCulloch received a pick-me-up from an unlikely source. ‘Brendan Rodgers phoned and said: “I need you to come up to Lennoxtown”,’ he recalls. ‘I had to be there at 9am, we had breakfast and I watched the team train.
‘We then sat there till three in the afternoon just talking about football.’
The irony of a former Rangers captain being invited into the inner sanctum at Celtic is not lost on McCulloch. But then his whole foray into the front line at Killie always did have a surreal feel. Installed as caretaker after Lee Clark suddenly quit to take the Bury job in early 2017, McCulloch fell into the Rugby Park role almost by accident.
For five years he has said little on the matter but in a rare interview he reveals the simple truth that he never harboured ambitions to be a boss in the first place. Now happily employed as an assistant to Robbie Neilson at Hearts, that remains the case. McCulloch explains: ‘To be honest, the Kilmarnock board were at me to take the job. But I didn’t
want it. I was privileged
McInnes said ‘Everybody at Killie goes on about your recruitment’
to be asked and Billy Bowie and his directors were brilliant with me.
‘But I made the wrong decision. It wasn’t a burning desire of mine and I was not ready. Plain and simple.
‘I hadn’t been out of the game, I hadn’t stopped playing long enough to go and learn the basics. And so I just found myself in a situation where I really wasn’t enjoying it.
‘That’s why I spoke to Billy. I went to him and said: “It’s zapping my energy, zapping my family time. It’s actually not good for me. I think you’re maybe better looking elsewhere”.
‘He was amazing with me. There was no ill feeling, nothing untoward. It was just one of these things. We both left it amicable and even now I still speak to him on the odd occasion.’
Painful at the time, the episode turned out to be mutually beneficial. When McCulloch returned to the game it was in a left-field role away from the limelight as assistant to Adam Owen, formerly Rangers’ fitness coach, at Polish club Lechia Gdansk.
The experience was brief but it allowed McCulloch to simultaneously move out of his comfort zone, learn and make mistakes away from the glare of publicity before taking some much needed time out.
Meanwhile, Killie turned to Steve Clarke, who took the team to third place the following season, a feat rewarded with the Scotland job.
McCulloch may have left the club winless after the opening eight games of the 2017-18 league season but Clarke’s achievements would not have been possible without the stellar recruitment work carried out by McCulloch during his only summer transfer window.
Alan Power, Chris Burke, Kirk Broadfoot, Stephen O’Donnell, Eamonn Brophy and Stuart Findlay were all pivotal under Clarke, the latter three ascending to international honours.
‘We played against Kilmarnock a couple of weeks ago and Derek McInnes told me: “Everybody at the club still goes on about your recruitment”,’ says McCulloch. ‘I did put a lot of time into that side of the job, finding out about the players and what they are like.
‘Obviously, you can watch them and see how they perform but I was desperate to find out what they were like off the pitch. Try and get into their mindset and mentality.
‘Power was captain at Lincoln and I remember watching him against Arsenal at the Emirates in the cup. He turned out to be a good one.
‘I loved that side of the job, I really did, managing up and down between the board and the team. Funnily enough, I now have a Masters Degree in Sport Directorship...’
McCulloch speaks enthusiastically of his academic endeavour but the new qualification — commenced during his time assisting Neilson at Dundee United — was not easily acquired.
He explains: ‘I should have graduated a year and a half ago but Covid put paid to that, so I went down to Manchester earlier this year and got the hat and gown on. It’s funny because I wasn’t really academic at school.
‘The relief when I handed in my dissertation and got my mark back… I was lucky enough to get a distinction, too.
‘The manager was great with me. I’d be leaving at 5:30 in the morning for training with United and I found it difficult.
‘But I could go to Robbie and tell him if I felt under pressure with a 3000-word assignment due in. He would say: “Fine, I’ve got you”. He is doing it now, too.’
Tynecastle sporting director Joe Savage needn’t be too worried just yet. Invested in improving the team’s on-field performance, there is a clear hierarchy in Hearts’ coaching staff in which McCulloch and Gordon Forrest provide tight support for Neilson.
The three first joined forces at Tannadice and helped the club to promotion before repeating the trick with Hearts a year later.
‘I was in a couple of Scotland squads with Robbie, I played against him a few times and he has really good ideas,’ adds McCulloch.
‘We all muck in and complement each other. That’s almost four years we have been together with Gordon, so we know each other’s strengths and weaknesses.
‘It’s about challenging each other. Each day we have a meeting before training then one straight after, a debrief to see what we could have done better.
‘Gordon and I will put our opinions across and the manager will then siphon things out. Robbie has the final call on everything.’
As McCulloch watches Neilson lead, does he never get envious and hanker for a return to the frontline?
‘It’s not something that is anywhere near my radar right now,’ he says. ‘I have never had that thought once in my head.
‘We are getting a bit of success, so it would be crazy to look to change that. And I’m happy.
‘It would be easy to sit and say I wish the Kilmarnock job had never happened. But, actually, I’m glad it did because of the experience I got from it.
‘Sometimes I can put myself in the manager’s position and empathise with him. I’m maybe a better sounding board for the players too in terms of explaining decisions.
‘When you’re sitting in that seat it’s a whole different world.
‘It’s good to be able to tap into the experience of guys like Alex McLeish, Billy Davies and even Paul Lambert. Brendan, too. When he went to England, I lost contact a little but I dare say I would be able to pick up the phone if I had any major issues.
‘It’s a credit to Brendan and Celtic that they welcomed me with open arms that day. Going up there for the day as the ex-captain of their biggest rivals, it was a bit different, but the boys were brilliant.
‘I am pals with big John Kennedy and I also knew Stevie Woods and wee Broony (Scott Brown), who I’d played with at Scotland, a lovely guy.
‘You can only learn when you are sitting round experience. Brendan’s journey, working with the kids all the way up to first team, it was great to tap into that. And he was always supportive of me. Even before I left Kilmarnock, he’d give me a phone, send me texts.’
As a player, McCulloch benefited from playing the long game. After breaking through at Motherwell as a striker, he transferred to Wigan in 2001 and, during the club’s rise from England’s third tier to Premier League, cultivated a role as a wide midfielder, playing the position aerially and aggressively.
Capped as a late substitute in Berti Vogts’ final match in charge of Scotland, he made his first start for his country in Walter Smith’s maiden game in charge away to Italy. Later Smith would sign him for Rangers, who he helped to the UEFA Cup final in his first season and contributed to three title wins.
One of few players to stick around at Ibrox after the club’s financial collapse, he captained the team during its rise to Championship level and had retreated to the role of centre-back before departing in 2015 and joining Killie, where he made just one appearance before his reluctant move into management.
A shapeshifter on the field, McCulloch’s credited Bikram yoga with helping extend his career. Now 44, he’s more likely to be found in the boxing gym these days but he remains flexible; that degree might just allow him to move in another fresh direction when the time is right.
He says: ‘I’m happy to roll with it and see where we can actually get Hearts to because I think there is more to come.
‘I’m at a massive club with a great, demanding fanbase. The grass isn’t always greener.
‘It all comes down to the question of whether you are happy in your job.
‘I can honestly say yes, I am.’