Football has perhaps always been taken more seriously in Scotland than in England, where the game is chiefly about fun, ritual and glamour. Think of Shankly’s most overused quote: “Some people believe football is a matter of life and death. I’m very disappointed with that attitude. I can assure you it is much, much more important than that.” Those lines make the most sense in their Glaswegian context. Their ethos was above all anti-individualist. A manager and his players had a duty to their club, not to their own careers or bank accounts. The Glaswegian managers aimed to stay at their clubs for a long time. They wanted to rise with the club rather than alone without it. Ferguson found United a drunken mess in 1986, Shankly found Liverpool in the second division in 1959, Busby encountered a bombsite and Moyes inherited Everton in 2002 when the club seemed headed for relegation. They all triumphed. From their first day in the office, these men identified with the club’s history, with its lowliest employees and with its fans. Busby said, “From the start, I tried to make the smallest member think he was part of the club.” Ferguson at United would spend hours on the phone chatting to fan leaders. Team meetings at other clubs rarely last more than 10 to 15 minutes. Under Moyes, Everton’s meetings were longer, more frequent and more effective. A player might receive briefings on his opponents throughout the week before a game. More than at rival clubs, Everton’s players took the field with quite complex guidelines for what to do. Brown said: “It’s definitely been noted to me by players who have left Everton that the level of detail, of preparation, has been missing at other clubs.” Glaswegian managers know that hard work wins matches. These men aren’t merely a tradition; they are also a network, a sort of macho support group. They learned from each other, and helped each other. When Busby retired as United’s manager in 1969, he offered the job to Stein, but the “Big Man” was reluctant to uproot his family. Only when Ferguson arrived at Old Trafford in 1986 did Busby finally find his perfect Glaswegian heir, just as Moyes is intended as Ferguson’s Glaswegian successor.
Posted on: Sat, 10 Aug 2013 23:03:06 +0000
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