The Road to Lisbon by Martin Greig

Author:Martin Greig [Greig, Martin & McGarry, Charles]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 9780857901903
Publisher: Birlinn

“It’s a poisoned chalice, Jock.” So they all told me. Dunfermline, third bottom of the First Division with two months of the 1959-60 season remaining, relegation a very real prospect . . .

“Bide your time. Something better will come along.”

I went to the interview anyway, one of three candidates. They started the interrogation. But I had some questions for them, too. Soon, I was interviewing them. “What is the financial situation at the club? Who would I deal with about signing players? Would I have complete control of team matters? What were their ambitions for the club?”

I liked their answers. They knew where they wanted to be. The structures were in place. They just needed to sort out the football side, get the team motoring again. It made sense.

‘We’ll be in touch, Jock,’ they told me.

I phoned Jean immediately afterwards. “I’ve got it.”

Poisoned chalice, or the opportunity to make my name? I needed no convincing. My experiences with the Celtic reserves had stood me in good stead, but I needed a new test. I wanted to work with first-team players. I thumbed through my scrapbooks every night and wondered if anyone else thought about football as much as I did. I had ideas that no-one had even thought of, but I needed to know they worked. Now I was about to find out.

It was a curious twist of fate that my first game was against Celtic. Twenty minutes before kick-off and the dressing room resembled Sauchiehall Street on a Saturday afternoon. Directors, injured men, youth coaches; all hanging about, distracting the players.

“Right, everyone who is not in my first-team pool get the fuck out . . .”

They thought it was a joke at first. One look at my face told them how serious I was.

“I mean it. OUT. FUCKIN’ OUT. Every single one of you. And don’t come back. This is a place of work, not a social club.”

If the players didn’t know I meant business before, they knew then. I had given them their place, made them feel important. This was about them and their ability to perform. I wanted focus. I did not bombard them with tactics. I put it to them simply.

“I want you all to think about how it feels to lose, that feeling of trudging up the tunnel after another defeat. Think about the Saturday nights this season that have been ruined by a bad break, a late goal, an individual mistake, whatever. Think about the guilt and the disappointment. Think about those feelings and hold them for a moment . . . then banish them from your minds. Forget everything that has gone before. Think only about this moment. Think about your team-mates. Think about that patch of grass out there and think about what you are going to do on it, how you are going to express yourself. Think about how you will feel walking up that tunnel after beating one of the big boys. Think about telling your friends and family how you got one over on the great Glasgow Celtic.

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