Interview: Terry Butcher, manager of Inverness Caledonian Thistle FC

Terry Butcher tells Stephen Halliday why managing Inverness is the most fulfilling job that he has had in a career that began as a player 25 years ago when he became part of Graeme Souness’ Ibrox revolution

IT DOES not take long in Terry Butcher’s company to understand why he has a spring back in his step these days.

It’s not just because of the operations which have straightened the posture which for a while made him appear far less than his full 6ft 4ins, although that has certainly helped.

“This one was done in 2008,” he says, pointing to his still scarred left knee, “and then the other one in 2010. I used to wake up in pain in the morning and walk about bandy-legged, like an old man. But it’s been fantastic since the surgery, I can stand tall again.”

But it’s not only in a physical sense that Butcher is rejuvenated. For in Inverness, he has discovered a precious level of contentment both on and off the field which perhaps eclipses any he has experienced elsewhere during his itinerant career.

“I have the best drive into work of any football manager in Britain,” smiles Butcher. “I travel along the western shore of Loch Ness every morning. It’s sensational, like nowhere else. It gives you a warm glow living and working here.

“I don’t need to listen to the traffic reports on the car radio any more, because there’s no traffic between my house and Inverness. The rush hour here lasts from 5pm to 5.01pm.

“I just love the area. It’s so relaxed, a great way of life. I love the club too. On a professional basis, it’s probably the most fulfilling job I’ve had.”

Butcher’s affection for Inverness Caledonian Thistle was reciprocated recently by the club’s board of directors who gave him, and his assistant Maurice Malpas, new contracts which run until 2014.

Having agonisingly failed to spare the club from relegation following their appointment in January 2009, Butcher and Malpas oversaw the emphatic return to the SPL at the first attempt and then last season’s impressive seventh-place finish in the top flight.

Both men have encountered difficult times when branching out on their own as managers but appear to bring out the best in each other as a partnership.

When Butcher welcomes The Scotsman into the small office they share in the bowels of the Caledonian Stadium, Malpas offers his hand in greeting then gets up to leave. “I’ll let you get on with the interview,” he says, “I have to listen to enough of him every day as it is.”

After an exchange of expletives between the pair, which Butcher confirms are an every day occurrence, Malpas makes his exit. But there is soon no doubting the esteem the manager has for his right-hand man. They became friends when Butcher joined Dundee United as youth coach in 1998 and Malpas was club captain at Tannadice.

“When I needed an assistant at Motherwell, Mo was my first choice,” Butcher recalls. “We had a great interview, we got absolutely smashed. I can’t remember my questions or his answers, but he passed and got the job no problem. He is remarkable and should be a manager in his own right. I hope he is again one day, because he deserves it. We have a great understanding and we have a good feeling at this club, the same as we did when we were together at Motherwell.

“We have a vision here at Inverness now, a purpose. We know where we want to go and how we can get there. Relegation was a real low point for us at the start, then the pruning of the club which followed and saw us lose a lot of good people. But the high point has been the fightback, the way we won the First Division. We have put our mark on the club and everyone knows what we want.

“I can trust Mo with my life. He also calms me down when needed and has stepped in a few times to keep me away from potential flashpoints with refs or whatever.”

Butcher has never been a man who has found it easy to keep his emotions in check but the manner in which he wears his heart on his sleeve is what endears him to so many. Last season, at the height of the debate over potential league reconstruction, he earned widespread acclaim from supporters of many clubs when he launched an extraordinary tirade against the SPL hierarchy’s desire to return to a ten-club top flight. Butcher went as far as to accuse SPL chief executive Neil Doncaster and his fellow board members of not wanting Inverness to be part of their set-up.

“It came from the heart that night,” recalls Butcher. “I’ve spent so much of my life in Scotland now and I’ve seen the league structure change and develop. There are a lot of good young kids getting a chance now which they wouldn’t do if we went back to a ten-team league. I’m still in favour of 12, unless they come up something which will clearly be better.

“I think Neil Doncaster dreads a call from me now but I quite like him actually, even though he’s a former Norwich City man. We all have crosses to bear. He’s trying to make an impact, trying to bring about change, but it’s not easy to do in Scotland. I was really angry when I had a go at the SPL that night, because there has been an attitude towards Inverness of ‘well, they shouldn’t be in the league, look at their crowds, it’s a horrible place to get to.’ As Mo keeps telling me, we can’t change that perception of the club because we are geographically out on a limb here.

“But I see us as the Beverly Hillbillies. We won the jackpot, we moved into the SPL and we are here to stay. If it upsets you, tough. It just inspires us to try and bloody the noses of the bigger clubs.

“No matter who you are, where you are or what size you are, if you have a team that plays good football and wins games, then you belong in the league.”

It is now 25 years since Butcher took his first step into Scottish football, his move from Ipswich Town to Rangers representing the most dramatic statement of intent in Graeme Souness’ revolution at the Ibrox club. As a captain of towering influence and outstanding ability, Butcher bought into a siege mentality quite different from the one he now happily nourishes at Inverness.

“When I was at Rangers, I was convinced everyone else in Scottish football was out to get us,” he admits. “Graeme stoked that up, mind you. Long before Jose Mourinho came along, Graeme was the expert at that kind of thing.

“But when you are with a smaller club in Scotland, then you become convinced the Old Firm clubs get everything going for them and you get nothing. That’s the perception and you buy into it. But the truth is somewhere in between.”

Butcher’s views on football are seldom dull and regularly sought after. Having endured his share of setbacks in his managerial career, at locations as diverse as Sydney FC and Brentford, it would have been no surprise had he been tempted to earn a full-time living from media work. But although he still offers trenchant views on English football for the Daily Mirror and BBC, he is happy to leave the punditry on the back burner.

“I worked for Setanta on their SPL coverage for a year with John Hartson and we had a great time,” he says. “I can talk rubbish for Britain and get paid for it. Seriously, I know I could try to work in radio or television but, much as I enjoy it, it can never replicate the thrill you get from being in the front line of the game. I’ve cut down on the radio and TV stuff now. Basically, I just don’t want to give up time to being away from Inverness for long.” Butcher’s media portfolio does now include a weekly column for the Inverness Courier and he has been happy to embrace local issues such as the controversial proposals for a wind turbine development which would have scarred the landscape around his home in the tiny village of Abriachan. It is another example of how settled Butcher is in a place many in his profession would simply consider as a staging post.

“People might say ‘is that the limit of your ambition?’,” Butcher reflects. “But, hang about, with all due respect this is a fabulous place to live. Why would I want to work anywhere else when I’ve got what I have here?

“I’ve got great control over the playing side of the club and a great relationship with the board. I get on well with the fans and the people in the city. It takes time to develop that and once you have it, you don’t give it up lightly. For the first time, I think I’m able to say that if a certain club came in for me, I’m not interested. It would have to be something special to take me away from here.”

He jokes that he is effectively homeless, he and his wife Rita currently living in the club rented property on the western shores of Loch Ness after what has been their 13th relocation of his career.

“We can look to buy a place now, what with the security of the new contract,” he says. “So much is up in the air when you work in football, you never know where to buy. My dream was always to get a place in Ipswich, buy some season tickets and go to Portman Road every second week with my grandchildren. But who knows where I’ll end up?”

In truth, Terry Butcher has never looked so at home as he does now.