The School of Hard Knox by Archie Knox with Roger Hannah

Author:Archie Knox with Roger Hannah
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Birlinn

CHAPTER TEN

THE CHAMPAGNE WARM DOWN

THE AFTERMATH of Gazza’s title-clinching hat-trick against Aberdeen was almost as memorable as the treble itself.

As Ian Durrant recalled, ‘We’d won the league but I think Archie had us back in the next day for a warm down. It became known as “The Champagne Warm Down”. Peter Kingston, who was chief of catering at Ibrox for many years, became heavily involved in this ritual. He’d secrete away bottles of champagne in each of the corners and would stash some plastic cups with them. We’d jog to the corner and have a cup of champagne, then jog to the next corner and have another one. It was a great jest.’

The architect of this unusual training session was, of course, Archie Knox. And he knew it would win universal approval among the Rangers squad. ‘After we won the title, I asked Peter to lay out ice buckets at the four corner flags of the pitch with the champagne in them. His staff were also to lay out a table with trays of glasses. I’m sure Peter and the girls at Ibrox thought I was daft.

‘We still had the Scottish Cup final to come so we needed a bit of a warm down. But the boys also needed to relax. When we reached the corner flag, we’d have a glass of champagne. Then we’d run between the goals to the next corner flag and have another one. The morning consisted of us going from one corner to another and sipping away at the champers. It was great.

‘It helped keep the atmosphere up at the end of a long season. But I’m not sure the likes of Brian Laudrup had ever seen players drinking while they were training – it was beyond belief.

‘We had some great times with Peter and his staff at Ibrox. I remember him coming in one day and asking if we could score a goal around five or ten minutes before half-time as it would mean increased sales at the kiosks of £5000 to £10,000. He was deadly serious.’

Unwinding was crucial for the squad as they sought to cope with the pressures of pushing towards Nine in a Row while again trying to make an impact on Europe. To that end, trips to the Plaice Café were viewed as almost as important as the hard yards at Bellahouston or West of Scotland Cricket Club. Even the long arm of Glasgow’s finest was employed to bring some levity at the end of a tough week for the Rangers squad.

Knox recalled: ‘If we were training at Bellahouston, we’d often go over to the Plaice Café on Paisley Road West for bacon rolls and tea. We were in there one day when two police officers pulled up in a squad car and came in for a cup of coffee. I don’t know who – but it was probably Durrant – sneaked up to them and asked if, for a laugh, they would pretend to arrest Davie Dodds. The idea was that they’d lift him for alleged non-payment of parking fines.

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