Glenn Gibbons: Erecting statue to Stein is a Celtic tribute long overdue

Published on Friday 19 March 2010 22:19

NOBODY could reasonably quibble with the decision to erect a statue to Jock Stein at Celtic Park – except, perhaps, on the grounds that the plan appears to have been determined by timescale rather than merit.

As overdue projects go, this one makes the Edinburgh tram system look like a contractor's dream.

The 25th anniversary of his death surely has an appealing ring to those behind the scheme, but others will recognise a discomforting truth: Stein was that genuine rarity, a colossus who would not only have warranted immortalising in marble or bronze while he lived, but while he still worked.

The problem at the time of his departure from Celtic in 1978, of course, was that he had left in bitter circumstances, sacked by a board of directors who had seized on his diminishment – both physically and in mobility – by the car crash that had almost taken his life in 1975.

The team had certainly declined – Kenny Dalglish had left for Liverpool in 1977 and moderate Rangers sides had won trebles in '76 and '78 – but, when I asked him in a quiet moment after the uproar had settled, Stein at the time confided another, more sinister, reason for his dismissal. "It's the same the world over," he said. "Directors don't like a manager who becomes too powerful."

Only those who were familiar with the unchanging nature of British football – it had been largely static for almost a century – could have any idea of the revolutionary impact Stein had on the game. He had a vision, intelligence and charisma unmatched before or since. These qualities were never more appropriately defined than they were by his natural successor, Alex Ferguson, in a conversation a couple of years ago.

The Manchester United manager was reflecting on his relationship with Stein, cemented during his time as the big man's assistant with the Scotland team who went to the Mexico World Cup in 1986.

"I would have happily stayed Jock's assistant for the rest of my life," said Ferguson. "I mean that. Those were the best days of my football career, absolutely no question of it. The Scotland team would assemble on a Sunday, but Jock and I would meet up at the hotel on the Saturday night.

"He would have me up most of the night, with the great Jimmy Steel, the Celtic masseur, bringing pots of tea, and Jock just talking and me learning everything I could want to know about the game. About three or four in the morning, I'd say: 'Jock, I have to get to bed', and he'd come back with: 'Ach, you can have a sleep in the afternoon, after training.' I never wanted those days to end."

Ferguson revealed that he had first become aware of the man the late Bob Crampsey called "the most powerful intelligence I ever met" when Stein was the reserve team coach at Celtic in the late 1950s.

"I would meet the Celtic boys like Billy McNeill, Paddy Crerand and Mick Jackson at the dancing on a Saturday night," he recalled. "They'd tell me about this coach they had, Jock Stein, who was doing things nobody had ever heard of. They sound absolutely basic nowadays, but you have to remember that they didn't exist back then.

"Jock started such things as erecting a defensive wall at free kicks. Big Frank Haffey, the Celtic goalkeeper, laughed when Jock told him what he wanted, but he didn't laugh for long. Jock also had overlapping full-backs, actually attacking and scoring goals. It was no wonder, when he got the job at Celtic, he left the others behind. He was already in a different era to the rest of them."

It is a measure of the depths of his veneration of Stein that, if asked, Ferguson would probably pay for the statue.

Enhancing officials fails to enhance this league

THE primary function of the Europey League seems to be to illustrate the difference in standards between an ersatz European tournament and the real thing. Football aficionados from countries with no teams involved in the secondary competition find it about as engaging as a cold-call sales pitch. In an attempt to give the event some kind of restorative, Uefa this season introduced an additional phalanx of referee assistants behind each goal, with a view to eradicating the mauling inside a penalty area that has become one of the game's most hideous disfigurements.

This held the promise of at least witnessing a series of footballers conceding penalty kicks and then taking a walk, all displaying that look of bemusement peculiar to those who have been escaping punishment for so long that they have forgotten a law even exists which prohibits and punishes the offences of which they have been guilty.

But, as the ever-reliable Craig Burley highlighted during Fulham's victory over Juventus on Thursday, the officials remain so lousy at their job that there has not been the slightest reduction in the incidence of misbehaviour because there is no increase in the number of penalty kicks awarded and cards issued. These auxiliary linesmen are as useless as the tournament itself.