Читать книгу Craig Brown - The Game of My Life - Craig Brown - Страница 15

AFTER OUR VISIT to Highbury there was newspaper talk of me signing for Arsenal. Ian Ure and myself were both in the frame, it seemed. I felt that I had performed well against the Gunners, but I could not imagine that they were seriously interested in me, although I could clearly see why they would be keen on big Ian. As it happened, I was officially told that there had been some interest in me, but as I had no wish to leave Dundee and the club were not particularly keen to unload me, I stayed where I was.

Dundee, like most clubs at that time, were in good financial shape. Players were earning nothing like the astronomical figures of today, and I believe it was to use up some surplus cash before the end of the financial year that the club would take us away for training. We were told that we would be staying at a pleasant hotel in Crieff or Pitlochry, and we would look forward to going because we would train in the mornings and then have the afternoons free for golf or some fishing. It was no more exciting than that because we were never taken to places famed for their nightlife.

On those trips, therefore, we had to amuse ourselves. Some players liked to play cards – but not as many as you might think, or even as many as nowadays. So we used to have a bit of a singsong in the evenings, and the old folk who would be staying in the same hotel as ourselves loved it. We would get round the piano and sing all their favourite songs. One or two of the guys were quite musical. Alex Hamilton played the piano, Hugh Robertson played the guitar, and a couple of the others could sing very well, and so we would stage an impromptu concert around that old piano, doing all the old-time songs as well as a few Beatles favourites.

As I said, the other people at the hotel would enjoy this immensely – and so did we. It was good fun and gave a great boost to our camaraderie and team spirit. I would like to think that it went a long way to helping Dundee to be successful on the pitch. After all, team harmony has often been the secret of many a club’s successes. It is something that I have always tried to foster in my various roles as coach, club manager and national team manager. It has always been my objective to make sure that there is a good relationship amongst my players.

So, there we were singing our heads off each evening, until gradually it developed into six of us becoming a singing group. A local musician, a guy called Johnny Battersby – who had a sixteen-piece orchestra in the JM Ballroom in Dundee – asked us if we would go into the ballroom and sing as a special attraction. We thought it might be a bit of fun, and someone wrote a couple of songs for us. It was hardly the start of any threat to Frank Sinatra, but it was certainly the start of an interesting diversion.

Murdoch Wallace Junior was the local businessman who ran the JM Ballroom, and he was in the process of forming his very own recording company. The pop business was really booming at the time and Murdoch was keen to have his share. We were becoming quite well known for our singing group, led by Alex Hamilton, but, really, we only thought of it as another way of amusing ourselves. We had started by singing in the bath, then progressed to the hotel lounge, and now the JM Ballroom. We had no plans for going any further than that – but Murdoch Wallace had other ideas.

Alex involved Kenny Cameron, Alex Stuart, Andy Penman, Hugh Robertson and me. For engagements we wore the club blazer and a bow tie, but it was a bit of a mouthful to try to introduce us all individually and so we became known as Hammy and his Hamsters. The gigs came flooding in and we could probably have taken up many more offers but, after all, we were essentially professional footballers just out for a lark!

All this was developing in the 1963/64 season. By now we had lost Ian Ure, who had fallen out with the club. He had refused another contract and attempted to go on the dole, before being given a sales job by John Bloom, the famous washing-machine tycoon – who was a keen Arsenal fan – and eventually signing for the Gunners just after the start of the season for what was then a record Scottish fee of £62,500. We missed Ian on the pitch and also away from it because he was always a good leg-pull. In digs, we tormented him constantly.

He was a very clever guy with an excellent education record at Ayr Academy. He had a wealth of general knowledge and liked to tax his mind with crossword puzzles. Each night in digs we had a crossword competition. We would each get a copy of the Dundee Evening Telegraph and, starting the puzzle together before our evening meal, we would see who could complete it first – or who had filled in the most before our landlady called us down for the meal. Doug Houston, Tommy Mackle, George Ryden and I were the others involved, and of course Ian was always the best at it, so we hit on a scheme to wind him up a little bit. The four of us took to buying the early edition of the paper and getting the crossword mastered among ourselves – then we would go through the motions in the evening, taking it in turns to be the winner for the night. The big man, Ure, used to rage because we would keep an eye on him and, just as he was about to fill in the last answer, our ‘winner’ would say, ‘Aye, that’s me finished.’

Ian would jump up and shout, ‘Och, ye so-and-so!’ He got really mad about it. It was a long time before he realised the secret of our ‘success’.

Another of our little games with Ian Ure was to tear a piece out of the sports pages of a newspaper that he didn’t have and, when he asked us what it was, we would casually say, ‘Oh, it was just a piece about you going to AC Milan or somewhere. We tore it out to give to you in case the paper was lost.’ We would then discuss among ourselves what had been done with the cutting, each one saying that the other had put it for safe-keeping somewhere. Eventually one of us would go off to pretend to look for it, only to return with a shrug of the shoulders, apparently unable to find it. By this time the big man would be beside himself and would jump into his car and go off and tour the newsagents until he found a copy – only to discover that he had been conned again. He fell for that one only once. It is no reflection on his mentality that he did so – he was just far too trusting. We even used to get people to put on foreign accents and phone him, pretending to be from top foreign clubs like Juventus or Barcelona, and ask him if he would be interested in joining them. Yes, we certainly missed Ian Ure, who was a great guy and a wonderful defender for his clubs and his country.

Despite the loss of Ure and one or two other comings and goings, our season was going well. We recorded some very big scorelines and kept pace with the leaders, Kilmarnock and Rangers. Alan Gilzean was still finding the net regularly and, by the end of the season, he had broken Alan Stott’s record League goals tally in a season, which had been standing for nearly twenty years. Gillie scored 52 in the League that season and we had some great results, including a 9–2 home win over St Mirren and a 6–1 victory over St Johnstone. We scored a total of 92 goals in 36 league matches and, had our defensive record been a little better, we would surely have finished higher than the sixth place we finally occupied at the end of the season.

The biggest excitement was probably in our Scottish Cup campaign. We began by knocking Forres Mechanics, a very good non-League side, out of the competition with a 6–3 away win. Next we were drawn to play Brechin City away and we beat them 9–2. Our third-round tie was against Falkirk, at home for once. We defeated them 6–1 and were thus in the quarterfinals, having scored 21 goals in three games. Motherwell were our opponents for the next round and they provided quite a test, holding us to a 1–1 draw at home. Four days later we played them again in the return match and beat them 4–1 at Fir Park.

The four semi finalists were Rangers, Kilmarnock (then managed by Willie Waddell), Dunfermline (who had Jock Stein in charge in those days) and us. Dundee were to play Kilmarnock on the neutral ground of Ibrox. A look at the scoreline now will tell you that Dundee won 4–0 – but that was not a true reflection of the game. The two sides were even in the first half and it was really only in the last quarter of the game that supremacy was gained by the Dark Blues.

April 25th was the Hampden date for Dundee to play Rangers in the final of the Scottish Cup, and the whole of Dundee was excited because it was the first final appearance for the club since 1952.

It was an exciting time for Hammy and his Hamsters too! Yes, while all that had been going on we were still making a name for ourselves. It was decided that we would record ‘My Dream Came True’ on the new JM Records label. The song was a romantic number and we were backed by the Johnny Battersby Showband, who provided a tasteful melody line. On the ‘flip’ side – you see I was even into the pop jargon – was a much more up-tempo number with a great beat. It was entitled ‘She Was Mine’.

The recording session was held in a studio in Edinburgh and it took a lot of rehearsals and takes before we finally got it ‘in the can’. Murdoch Wallace knew his way around the publicity machine and the record was given a lot of exposure – especially since it was released just four days before the Scottish Cup Final. Although we were called Hammy and his Hamsters, everyone knew that we were Dundee players so, in a way, it was probably the start of the tradition of footballers recording songs before major events like cup finals, World Cups and so on.

It was a very busy time for us because there were the record promotional events as well as preparations for the Cup Final. Even on the day after the Cup Final – Sunday, 26 April – we were due to appear in a special show at Dundee’s Green’s Playhouse. Others in that show included Harry Douglas and the Deep River Boys, Stratford Johns, the actor, Eileen Keegan, compere Charlie Sim and the Johnny Battersby Showband. It was a great show and we enjoyed it – although we were not in the best mood for fun as Rangers had won the Scottish Cup by beating us 3–1. It was heartbreaking to see our opponents score twice in the last 90 seconds when it had looked as though a replay might be on the cards. The rain-soaked crowd of some 120,000 had enjoyed a thoroughly entertaining afternoon, and I don’t think our side let their fans down in any way. A lapse of concentration at the very end proved to be fatal.

Some consolation was provided by the fact that our record sold well and, even though we were losers on the pitch and Rangers had completed a clean sweep of the championship and both major cups, we were not down-hearted, because Dundee was still there among the top clubs in the country. Besides, if all else failed, we knew we could earn a living busking on street corners!

Dundee was at that time a fine example of how a football club should be. I believe that it was the best footballing side I’ve ever known, and the harmony among the players was exactly how I like my teams to be. There were stars, but not one of them ever elevated himself above anyone else. Even those, like myself, almost permanently on the edge of the first-choice eleven were considered to be a part of the team. You expect that these days with substitutes and a squad mentality – but in those days it was much more rare, and a credit to the manager and his coaching team.

It would be remiss of me if I did not give a further mention to Gordon Smith, who was a hero of that side and a famous outside right who, as I said earlier, had already won the championship with both Hibs and Hearts before doing the same with Dundee. He was a terrific example of fitness, and of courtesy. Bearing in mind that he was the wrong side of his mid-thirties when he was performing for Dundee, he was truly outstanding in every respect.

Gordon was also very encouraging to the younger, less experienced players like me. When we were on that trip to Iceland he gave me a lot of tips to improve my game, but he also weighed in with one or two other items of advice. He once asked me what kind of shaver I used.

‘I’ve got the very best kind of electric shaver,’ he told me – and, indeed, he had a top-of-the-range Ronson which, I have to confess, I admired.

‘Some day, when you’ve had a really good game, I’ll buy you a Ronson like this,’ he told me. I must admit that I didn’t take him too seriously and soon forgot all about it. Some time later, we were playing alongside each other against Kilmarnock. He had the No. 7 shirt and I had the No. 6 – which meant that we were next to each other in the dressing room. It was quite a good game and I managed to give a reasonable account of myself. A few days later we were at home to Rangers. I arrived at the ground and went to my place in the dressing room. There at my seat was a box – and in it was a brand-new Ronson electric razor, together with a note that read simply, ‘I thought you had an outstanding game last week.’

Gordon had not forgotten what he had promised, even though I had, and it was a magnificent gesture which was so typical of the man.

These were the halcyon years of Dundee and, in my present job, the experience that I gained with that club at the time has proved to be invaluable. The European experience and the coaching, preparation and methods were an education to me that money would have been unable to buy. Yes, of course, I would have liked to have been one of the regular eleven who were constantly at the forefront of the manager’s plans, but I was, after all, in the top fourteen, and therefore always involved in some way with everything – and I’m extremely grateful for that.

I was still teaching through those heady days as a Dundee ‘star’ and a ‘pop icon’, but I continued to have trouble with my knee. I decided, after I had been at the club for about six years, that I would pluck up the courage to ask the manager if I could go part-time officially. I explained that, with my knee still giving me problems, I was not expecting to have a very long playing span, and I wanted the insurance of my teaching career. He agreed with me and I was allowed to do my training with Hamilton Academicals. I continued to play for Dundee, but mostly as a reserve player with just the occasional first-team excursion. Meanwhile, I was gaining experience in my teaching work.

It was around 1965 when Falkirk, at the bottom of the First Division, made an approach for me. I talked to Bob Shankly, who was still Dundee manager, and asked for his advice, because I was due a benefit payment from the club. He looked me straight in the eye and said, ‘Son, I’m getting the hell out of here – and I would advise you to do the same!’

I think he had fallen out with the chairman by this time, but I took his advice and agreed to join Falkirk. I had been the first signing that Bob Shankly had made when he joined Dundee, and I was his last transfer away from the club before he left. It was the end of a great time for the club and for me personally.

The deal went through and I did get my benefit payment, plus a little bit, which enabled me to buy a new car and still have some left over. I was also pleased to hear that Doug Baillie, with whom I had been at Rangers, was also joining Falkirk from Third Lanark the same week.

As I said, Falkirk were bottom of the table when we joined, but we managed to get some good results in the last weeks of the season and successfully steered the club to the safety zone away from the threat of relegation. I had been nursing my knee and disguising the fact that I was really only performing on one leg. I had been playing as sweeper, and I enjoyed myself because I found it a simple position in which to play.

Our last home game of the season was particularly memorable because we were visited by Celtic, and we delighted the Brockville Park crowd by beating them 6–2. It was an important end to the season for us because the club wanted to show its supporters how much it appreciated their loyalty when relegation was looking to be a certainty. There is no better way to send a crowd home happy than to give one of the biggest clubs in the game a real thumping.

I had three managers while I was at Falkirk. The man who signed me was Alec McCrae, and then he was sacked and replaced by Sammy Kean. That was bad news for me because Sammy had been the trainer at Dundee and, while there was no problem between us on a personal basis, he knew all about my injury problems. I remember that when we turned up for pre-season training, our coach – the excellent Willie Ormond – brought him into the dressing room to introduce us. We were all sitting around in our brand-new tracksuits and I was the first person that he clapped his eyes on.

With no hesitation, Sammy borrowed Bob Shankly’s name for me and said, ‘Christ Craig, you’re not a full-timer, are you?’

I replied, ‘No, boss, I’m only here during my school holidays.’

He said, ‘Thank Christ for that!’

The players all laughed, and they knew that I wasn’t going to figure too prominently in the forthcoming team selections. To be fair, Sammy was not an unreasonable man and I did get into the side. Unfortunately, he was later sacked and replaced by a well-known manager called John Prentice – one-time Scotland manager.

John Prentice had been an impressive manager in his day and was actually in the Falkirk side that won the Scottish Cup in 1957, so you can imagine that he was a very popular manager for the club. He had a tremendous knowledge of the game and the respect of everyone. By the time he arrived I was really struggling and spending nearly all my time with the second team. In fact, in the programme notes for first-team games, references to me usually said something like, ‘Craig Brown, the “Auld Heid”, is doing a great job in the reserves.’

I was still only in my mid-twenties but I was already classed as an ‘Auld Heid’! I was captain of the reserves but I was still struggling, and it was quite good news for me that substitutes were to be allowed for the first time. I was now able to start a game and then, when I could not go on any longer, I would put up my hand and my replacement would be prepared to take over. Before the advent of substitutes I would either have not been able to play or been something of a lame duck during the latter part of the game. If substitutes had been allowed some years earlier, my playing career might have lasted much longer.

I had another knee operation when I was at Falkirk which slowed me down again – and then came the moment that every player dreads. I was told that I was being freed by the club. I was very disappointed that the news was given to me by Gibby Ormond, the reserves’ coach and brother of Willie. He handed me an envelope. Inside was a letter that said that my services were no longer required.

It hurt that the manager had not told me face to face, and I learned another lesson. Having suffered the ignominy of being given a free transfer, I would never do the same to someone else without talking to him in a direct fashion, face to face, man to man! The letter I received was just a brief note thanking me for my services, which were no longer required. It went on to tell me to make sure that I only took one pair of boots with me! The letter came after a reserve game against Rangers at Ibrox, and I did feel that I had been treated rather badly. It wasn’t the matter of being freed, but the manner in which it was done. I have never knowingly treated any player in my charge in such a fashion, and I never will.

So, Falkirk didn’t want me any more. I thought long and hard about my situation and decided that my playing career was over. The knee was still playing me up and I felt that I was enjoying my teaching career enough to be able to turn my back on the game as a professional footballer. While at school I was coaching youngsters and so I was still involved in a very pleasant aspect of the game – giving tips to boys who might well turn out to be the stars of tomorrow.

It turned out that my playing days were not entirely over, however, when I had a surprise approach from Stranraer Football Club. They asked if I would be interested in trying to resurrect my career. I thought about it again and decided to have a go. I received a small signing fee and turned up for work. I started to train at Shawfield Stadium, the home of Clyde, where the physiotherapist was Lawrie Smith, who had been the first person to identify my knee problem when I was at Dundee. Lawrie was now at Clyde where the manager was Davie White, who later went on to manage Rangers.

So I trained at Clyde and began my Stranraer career with a friendly match against Larne, the Irish team. I was delighted, because I found that football at that level was very comfortable and I had high hopes of a good season with Stranraer. I should have known that it was all too good to be true. During training I received yet another knee injury, and I went to the Law Hospital in Carluke where I saw the surgeon, Mr Garden. He was a top man who knew his job, and he gave my knee a thorough examination, inside and out. Finally he came and talked to me with a very serious expression on his face. I could feel the tension rising within me as I waited to hear the result of the exploratory operation.

‘I’m sorry, Craig, but your knee is a mess. It will not withstand any more wear and tear – and it is arthritic. I have cleaned it up the best I can but you have a condition known as exostosis, a bone problem. The truth is, you will have to give up playing.’

I swallowed hard. I had been expecting something like this but it was still painful to hear. Was that it? Never again to be able to kick a ball in anger? It was a bitter blow, but I knew that there was no point in arguing. The medical facts were evidence enough that my playing career was over – this time for good. I did not dwell on feeling sorry for myself. I felt bad for Stranraer. It was now August 1967 and the season was underway. They had paid me a signing-on fee and had started to pay wages. I felt that I had given nothing in return, and I well knew that for clubs like Stranraer there was a constant financial struggle. They had been good enough to offer me the chance of getting my career back together and it had not worked out. I knew they needed every bit of cash they could muster, and that was why I spontaneously paid back all they had given me. I felt that it was wrong for them to be out of pocket for something that was not their fault. For me, it was bad enough being told that I would never play again, but I would have found it very difficult to live with myself if I had gone out of football with the feeling that I had taken money under false pretences from such a friendly club as Stranraer.

Unlike many players, I had no need to worry about where the next penny was coming from or, indeed, what to do with my time. I would now have more time to devote to the teaching profession. While undergoing various courses during my Dundee days, I also attained my Scottish FA coaching certificates, my preliminary badge and my ‘A’ licence badge at Inverclyde, Largs, so I was already qualified enough for professional coaching had I chosen to pursue this option. If I might just give a bit of advice to today’s players, it is a good idea to take your coaching certificates while you are still playing, because you have both the time and the money to invest in your future. In Scotland, the Professional Footballers’ Association, whose dedicated secretary is Tony Higgins, is a big help, because it contributes two-thirds of the cost, which I believe is a very generous way of giving players extra options when they find it is time to be hanging up their boots.

I could name many among today’s top football management and coaching staff who took the trouble to take their coaching courses quite early on in their playing careers. Men like Sir Alex Ferguson, Alex Miller, Walter Smith, Archie Knox, Jim McLean, Alex Smith, Jimmy Bone, Tommy McLean, Murdo MacLeod, Alex McLeish, Andy Watson, Tommy Burns, Paul Sturrock, John Hagart, Billy Davies, Sandy Clark, Billy Kirkwood, Jimmy Nichol, Donald Park, Tom Hendrie, Gordon Strachan, Willie Miller, Mark McGhee, Dave Moyes, Roy Aitken, Craig Levein John Blackley, Terry Christie, Jim Leishman, Bobby Williamson, Billy Stark, Alex Wright and Wilson Humphries. Some of today’s younger managers have followed the same pattern, planning well ahead for a continuation of their football careers. We are very proud in Scotland that virtually all the managers in senior football have taken their coaching courses at Largs and hold the ‘A’ or ‘B’ badges of the SFA. We encourage that, and we are also moving on to the higher course for a European pro licence which is co-ordinated by UEFA. It is a very good course at Largs, and we continue to promote it, both for the good of Scottish football and for the good of those players and others who want to coach at the highest possible standard.

For me, the summer of 1967 proved to be the twilight of my playing career. I had my championship medal, my youth and school caps, and many adventures and experiences to treasure. Now, it seemed, I was destined to be a schoolteacher who used to play football.