Craig Brown telegram gesture Pat Nevin won't ever forget: 'How many managers would do that?

I would never have been a professional footballer without Craig Brown. It really is that simple.

Craig persuaded me to return after I had dropped out to play boys’ club football. His wisdom and knowledge and the fact he had wider interests and was involved in education and lecturing meant that he knew I could study as well as play part-time, which is what I did at first at Clyde.

I was very fortunate to have him as my first manager. He was understanding of someone who wasn’t the same as all the rest. He was very cool with it and I felt very comfortable with Craig. The boss-player psychology did not really exist. He never spoke down to you. Instead, he spoke to you.

That’s one of the qualities that made him so special as a manager. He could lose his temper with some people, of course, but as a manager he had that brilliant ability to talk to you like a mate. It might have looked a bit odd to the Press. Maybe some wanted a more domineering figure. He had strength of character, no question, but he was also like a mate as well.

Clyde celebrate winning the 2nd Division title in 1981/82 under manager Craig Brown (5th from left top row). Pat Nevin is second from left in the front row

He wanted me to go to Dundee United, who were trying to buy me under Jim McLean. But Chelsea were also keen at the time and I went there.

He said he thought that Dundee United might have been a better step for me. He knew my strength of personality. There was never a bad moment about it. He was miffed because he thought Clyde did not receive enough money. But he was never miffed with me for a second.

When I played my first game for Chelsea away at Sheffield Wednesday there was a telegram waiting for me at Hillsborough from Craig. It was my first start. And there it was, a telegram. He had found out I was starting. And this was a few months after I left Clyde. How many managers would do that? Send a telegram and write a thank you message to a player who has left and who you had wanted to go elsewhere - and hoped to have got more money for!

He was still positive. I made my Scotland debut under Sir Alex Ferguson but I was a peripheral figure in the squad at first. I made my real breakthrough under Craig and Andy Roxburgh. I always think of them as Craig and Andy. I know Andy was gaffer and Craig was assistant, but it was Craig and Andy. It appeared very much like a partnership. It did not seem like one was particularly above the other when you were dealing with them. They were at ease with each other.

Pat Nevin celebrates with Darren Jackson after scoring in Scotland's 5-0 win over San Marino in a Euro '96 qualifier in 1995. Nevin was left out of the squad for the finals

I have written about it before, but there was a cliquey-ness about the Scotland squad when I first joined. It was not a spirit where I felt comfortable. There were fall-outs, a bit of bullying. But Craig and Andy were just not having that. They wanted to make sure the spirit was the most important thing. Look at what is happening now, and how far spirit can get you.

People like to put it into boxes - “the Roxburgh years”, “the Broon years”. But when Andy Roxburgh handed on to Craig, it just felt the same to me. They were a partnership. I think of it as the Brown-Roxburgh years, almost like Blair and Brown! It was one thing. It was successful over a long period of time. I am sure Andy would be the first to say how much he appreciated the help Broon gave him.

I was left out of Euro ‘96. Even then there was not a bad moment. There were no bad feelings. I wished I had been in it, of course, and I was playing well enough at the time. I was obviously close because I was playing in the Scotland team shortly before the tournament started.

Is there a tiny bit of annoyance towards Craig Brown? No, not even a smidgen. And he did not feel uncomfortable with me either

During France '98, when I was working for Radio 5 Live, he demanded that I come to the team hotel. He said: ‘you are one of us, you are one of the lads’. And I was sitting there in the room with the lads as if I was in the team. We truly trusted each other. He knew I would not stitch him up.

We were both working for 5 Live by the time of the next World Cup, in Japan and Korea in 2002. We sat together on the long journey out, just chatting. There was never any awkward silences.

I loved the fact he had such a way with words when dealing with players. He could adapt whatever the situation. I remember he said something to Robert Reilly, one of my teammates at Clyde. Reilly had scored a hat-trick and then been sent off. He just said: ‘Reilly, yer dad was a joiner and he made yer heid!’

Craig texted me recently to wish me all the best with my new book (Football And How to Survive It). One of the joys of the first book I wrote (The Accidental Footballer, published in 2021) was that I was able to say how much I admired him and how important he had been for me.

I am heartbroken today, but one consolation is knowing he knew how highly regarded he was by me. He sent me a message saying how touched he was. One of the best things you can do if you do adore somebody is write and tell them that. I was able to do this and that provides some comfort.