Football Crazy

For the past half century, Scottish managers have dominated British football. Men like Matt Busby, Bill Shankly, Jock Stein, and Alex Ferguson. They all came from very ordinary backgrounds, felt privileged to have found a career on the football field rather than in a factory, down a mine or in the shipyards like the rest of their friends and families. They became impresarios of sport, choreographing high drama in theatres of dreams every Saturday afternoon.

The first, and arguably the most successful, was Sir Matt Busby. It is a testament to his achievements at Manchester United that even given the trophy haul of Sir Alex Ferguson, it is Busby who is thought of as the greatest manager in the club's history. Under his direction Manchester United became one of the greatest sporting institutions in the world. He created the dazzlingly talented "Busby Babes", a team cut down in its prime when eight of the players died when in a plane crash fifty years ago. A nation mourned then. The world has remembered since. This year, memorial services have been held across the country, not just at Old Trafford, to mark the Munich Air Disaster of 1958. Ireland has even issued a commemorative stamp.

Busby was born in the mining village of Orbiston in North Lanarkshire. For him it was the pit or the pitch and fortunately Busby had enough raw talent to go on to play for both Manchester City, where he won an FA Cup winner's medal, and then Liverpool.

Busby surprised many when, his playing days over, he rejected a coaching role at Anfield. His reasons typify the man's character. He wanted responsibility for the playing side of the club, a job that was traditionally reserved for the secretary. The Liverpool directors would not budge and nor would Busby. He left for Manchester United, a team then languishing in the lower reaches of the First Division and trophyless for more than thirty years. Busby got to work. In his first season he led United to second place in the league, in 1948 they won the FA Cup and four years later the championship.

But Busby's enduring legacy to Manchester United was the side he created after this one. Instead of luring big names to the club, he gradually replaced the older stars with young and very gifted players, some only 17 or 18 years old. The Busby Babes won the league title in 1956 and 1957 – and but for the Munich Air Disaster they would have dominated the domestic game for years. Busby himself was so badly injured in the crash that he was twice given the last rites. But he not only recovered, he rebuilt Manchester United. Further league and FA Cup trophies were secured and in May 1968 United became the first English side to lift the European Cup, defeating Benfica 4-1 in a thrilling final played at Wembley. Busby retired as manager the following year but continued as a director and then club President.

A statue of Sir Matt was erected outside Old Trafford shortly after his death in 1994. Fans' websites refer to him yet as "Mr Manchester United" and further memorial events are being planned to mark the centenary of his birth in 2009.

Another Scottish manager who made it big with an equally unfashionable provincial English club was Bill Shankly. He also came from a mining background where football was a near religion. Shankly was one of 49 locals from the Ayrshire village of Glenbuck who made it as a professional footballer, plying his trade with Carlisle and Preston North End.

Like Busby, Shankly's playing days were cut short by the Second World War. He then spent ten years managing a succession of clubs before joining second division strugglers Liverpool in 1959. The job didn't offer great prospects, but Shankly was given free reign to do as he pleased. And that was what he wanted and needed.

He introduced fitness training and diet plans, almost unheard of in those days. The training sessions were tight and focused, with the emphasis on skill and creativity. Above all Shankly built a team that trained, played and worked for each other. It was soccer socialism. Shankly said that if any of his players were having a poor game their team mates had to help them out, in the same way the men covered for a colleague down the mine back in Glenbuck.

Crowds soared and success followed. The First Division Championship in 1964, the FA Cup in 1965. This was the era of the Beatles and the Mersey Beat. The Kop resounded to "You'll Never walk Alone." More titles followed and in 1973 Liverpool lifted the UEFA Cup, their first piece of European silverware.

A dark shadow was cast over Liverpool when Bill Shankly died in September 1981. At the first game at Anfield following his funeral, a banner was unfurled which read, quite simply, "Shankly Lives Forever". An eight foot bronze sculpture was later unveiled outside his beloved Kop. The plinth inscription said it all. "Bill Shankly – he made the people happy." How fitting that as Liverpool hosts European City of Culture 2008, one of the centrepiece events will be a one man play – 'An Audience with Shankly.'

While Shankly and Busby were managerial giants in England, only one name dominated north of the border: Jock Stein. Another product of the coal mining communities that scarred and shaped Scotland, as a young man Stein supplemented his footballing wages at Albion Rovers by continuing to work down the pits.

Stein was an uncompromising centre half. But he was an outstanding manager. He took over as Celtic boss in March 1965. The Glasgow giants had won nothing in eight years. Stein delivered a then world record nine-in-a-row league titles along with a clutch of domestic cups. But the pinnacle of his achievement was when Celtic became the first British side – indeed the first team from Northern Europe – to win the European Cup, beating the Italian footballing aristocrats, Inter Milan, in 1967. Bill Shankly told him "John, you're immortal now." Celtic, and Stein's feat was all the more remarkable as it had been achieved with a squad of players all born within a thirty mile radius of Glasgow.

In 1978 Stein answered the call of his country and took over as Scotland manager in the wake of the disappointing performance in that summer's World Cup Finals in Argentina. As he had done with Celtic, he instilled pride and passion in the players and led Scotland to the next World Cup in Spain in 1982. Stein had a sharp eye for talent and appointed the young Aberdeen manager Alex Ferguson as his assistant during the campaign for the following tournament in Mexico. With qualification all but assured, the Big Man suffered a fatal heart attack at the end of a crucial match against Wales in September 1985.

Alex Ferguson assumed the role of caretaker Scotland boss, but the lure of managing a major club in England drew him south. Ferguson, who had transformed the fortunes of Aberdeen, winning the European Cup Winners Cup in 1983 against Real Madrid, took over the helm at Manchester United in 1986. The first three years were barren and there were frequent calls for him to be sacked. But an FA Cup win in 1990 signalled the return of happy days to Old Trafford. The first of Ferguson's nine league titles to date was secured in 1993, while in 1999 Manchester United won the English Premiership, the FA Cup and, after scoring two goals in injury time in the final, also became champions of Europe.

Busby, Shankly, Stein and Ferguson are managerial greats. But as at Liverpool's Kop, they do not walk alone. Scotland continues to churn out coaches who are well regarded, dynamic and, above all, successful. Walter Smith, Graeme Souness, Kenny Dalglish, Alex McLeish, David Moyes, and the new Scotland boss George Burley are, or have, all been at the top of the game.

And as George Burley considers his future tactics, he might consider calling on David Duke. Because Duke, formerly homeless and with a serious drink problem, is also a World Cup winner. Three years ago with apparently nothing to live for, he got involved in the Homeless World Cup. Football for David Duke became, as it had been for his heroes like Stein and Ferguson, a way out. Last year he became manager of Scotland's Homeless Team and led them to victory in the World Cup in Copenhagen. Now settled in his own home, David helps others to turn their life around, just as he has done.

If you can play football, play. If you can manage footballers, manage. But the enduring appeal of the game on the national psyche is such that Scots are even adapting football to art and technology. Take artist and film-maker Douglas Gordon's work "Zidane: A 21st century portrait" or the technical wizardry of Gary Paterson. Unknown to most, Gary's work with EA Sports means millions worldwide can play, manage and experience the thrills of the world's greatest game on their x-box or play station.

As Bill Shankly once said, "Some people say that football is a matter of life and death. I can assure you that it is much more serious than that."