JOCK STEIN DEBUNKED - Leggat

[ian1964 10,565]

HE has been dead for over a quarter of a century, but still Scottish newspapers seem to be running scared of Jock Stein. Or at least, the ghost of Jock Stein.

 

 

Or maybe even the statue of Jock Stein.

 

Who knows what it is which has the media in such a tizzy, but it sure is something to do with mentioning Jock Steinâ??s name in anything other than awe struck tones.

 

 

And it would appear Jock Steinâ??s name must never, never ever, ever, ever, be written in association with failure. Even when the facts tell us that Stein failed.

 

 

That much was clear to see in yesterdayâ??s Daily Record when the newspaper carried a story which attempted to put into context the recent run of Scotland competitive matches without a victory.

 

 

We have already heard that Craig Leveinâ??s record, when it comes to crunch clashes, is worse than that of even the hapless Berti Vogts and the slightly fey George Burley.

 

 

But now we are told that if you delve into the record books and go back a wee bit further you will uncover a period of competitive matches during which Scotland went on an even worse run of failure than they have done under Craig Levein.

 

 

The period covered the aftermath of the 1982 World Cup Finals in Spain, when Scotland approached their next target and flopped miserably in their bid to reach the finals of the 1984 European Championships.

 

 

That campaign in a four-team-six-match section kicked off with a 2-0 win over East Germany which was followed by a failure to win any of the five remaining matches.

 

 

The Scots lost 2-0 in Switzerland and 3-2 in Belgium, before drawing 2-2 with Switzerland at Hampden and 1-1 with Belgium at Hampden, followed by a 2-1 defeat away to East Germany.

 

 

The run of failure upon failure encompassed seasons 1982-83 and 83-84 and included the old Home Internationals in the spring of 1983 when the Scots lost 2-0 to England, drew 0-0 with Northern Ireland, but at least managed to beat Wales 2-0.

 

 

And the manager during this period when Scotland were on the road to oblivion?

 

 

Thatâ??s right, Jock Stein.

 

 

During the period under Stein, Scotland scraped into the 1982 World Cup Finals in Spain, where his record of won one, drawn one and lost one was exactly the same as the record for which Ally MacLeod was vilified four years earlier.

 

 

Then came abject failure in Steinâ??s efforts to qualify for the European Championships, with the added misery of Scottish ignominy in the Home Internationals.

 

 

During that spell Stein, as was his wont, spun the fairytale that Scotland did not have the resources to qualify for the World Cup and the European Championships and that he needed to use the Euro games to prepare for the more important World Cup qualification campaign.

 

 

Yet Jock Stein had a golden generation of Scotland stars at his beck and call. Willie Miller, Alex McLeish, Graeme Souness, Andy Gray, Steve Archibald, Gordon Strachan, Richard Gough, Alan Hansen and John Roberston, to name a few.

 

 

And this myth, which Stein sold to a nation which hung on and believed every word of this fairytale, was debunked by the next two Scotland managers, Andy Roxburgh and Craig Brown.

 

 

Roxburgh took Scotland to the 1990 World Cup Finals in Italy and followed that by steering the Scots through the next qualification minefield to place in the Swedish European Championships in 1992.

 

 

Then, after Craig Brown qualified Scotland for Euro 96 in England, Broon marched the Tartan Army down the Champs-Elysees by booking a place in the 1998 World Cup Finals in France.

 

 

But when Roxburgh pulled off that feat and when wee Broon repeated it, nobody made the point that Jock Stein said it could not be done.

 

 

Just as nobody will now name the man with an even longer run of competitive failure than the abject and out of touch Craig Levein... Jock Stein!