You may not be familiar with the name John
Batters but we of the Celtic persuasion may owe the 98 year old a quiet word of
thanks. In the 1950s and 60s Mr Batters was the Doctor at Hibernian Football
Club when a certain John Stein was mulling over an offer from Bob Kelly to
become Celtic Manager. He asked John Batters what he thought he should do. He
could stick it out for a few years yet at Hibs who were starting to play some
excellent football or take a chance and return to Celtic where he made his name
as a player? Dr Batters was quite clear on the course of action Stein should
take and replied…’ John you’re a Celtic
man, you should go or you’ll regret it.’ Stein’s wife Jean was less sure
but the good Doctor persuaded her too that it was right for Stein to head west
to the club he had served so well as a player and which he clearly still had
great affection for. Once Jock had made his terms clear to Bob Kelly and the
Chairman had agreed to Stein having complete control over the team, Stein agreed
to take over at Celtic Park and the rest is history.
Jock Stein was not a man to be trifled with.
His hard life in the Lanarkshire coal mines taught his self-reliance, loyalty
but also the need to put his trust in others. He once said…’
"You go down that pit shaft,
a mile underground. You can’t see a thing. The guy next to you, you don’t know
who he is. Yet he is the best friend you will ever have."
Alex Ferguson recalled that during the miners’
strike of 1984 Stein saw lorry loads of ‘Scab’ coal on the move and stopped
them with the withering words…’I hope you’re
proud of yourselves, you’re doing people out of a living.’ Solidarity was
important to a man who knew the hardships involved in the mining industry. He
went out of his way to donate to the miners’ hardship fund as that bitter
strike of 1984 dragged on and Thatcher stopped any welfare relief to the families
of struggling miners. Jock’s whole working
life had been mining and football and both demanded teamwork and loyalty. He
also knew the pain of being snubbed as a younger man by people he had known for
years in Burnbank because they saw his playing for Celtic in the 1950s as akin
to treason. This increased when he became
Celtic manager and shattered Rangers domination of Scottish football. He would
shake his head at any pettiness or bigotry he endured and would mumble to Sean
Fallon his lifelong friend, ‘Fuck them!’
Jock had no time for bigotry, recognising that the miners who trusted each
other with their lives each day didn’t question your faith or politics. They
were all comrades and that’s what mattered if they were going to safely finish
their shift a mile underground and get home in one piece.
Jock was bringing all of those life
experiences and attitudes to Celtic Park in the early spring of 1965 at a time
when Celtic needed it. Billy McNeil, upon hearing that Stein was returning said,
‘Oh, that’s fantastic! Let’s see how this
will change now!’ Change it did as Stein made every player aware that
second best was no longer good enough. Unlike the gentlemanly Jimmy McGrory,
Stein was often in his track suit at training barking out orders, working with
the ball, demonstrating new routines for free kicks and new tactical
approaches. He was always inventive, always looking to improve the tactical
approach to the game. He had travelled to Wembley in 1953 to watch the
brilliant Hungarians destroy England 6-3 and his eyes were opened. Such brilliant
attacking play was the way the game should be played. Individual flair and
skill was blended into a flexible but essentially attacking team plan to great
effect. The stunned English team, convinced the Wembley drubbing was a fluke,
headed to Budapest the following year to seek revenge and were again destroyed.
This time by a score that would in later years have made Jock smile, it was
7-1. Stein had also watched Real Madrid rout an excellent Eintracht Frankfurt
team at Hampden by 7-3 in 1960 and again saw that the future of football lay in
attack. He once said that while it’s important to win a match, what was equally
important was the manner in which you win.’
"If you're ever going to win the European Cup, then this is the day
and this is the place. But we don't just want to win this cup, we want to do it
playing good football - to make neutrals glad we've won it, glad to remember
how we did it. We must play as if there are no more games, no more tomorrows…’’
By God they did
play as if there were no more games. Inter were destroyed that golden day and
Stein’s approach to the game vindicated.
Astute football fans the world over remember the great teams because
they played the game in the correct manner. Stein’s team stands tall among them.
He said in the afterglow of his Lisbon triumph…
"There is not a prouder man on God's Earth than me
at this moment. Winning was important, aye, but it was the way that we have won
that has filled me with satisfaction. We did it by playing football. Pure,
beautiful, inventive football. There was not a negative thought in our heads.
Inter played right into our hands; it's so sad to see such gifted players
shackled by a system that restricts their freedom to think and to act. Our fans
would never accept that sort of sterile approach. Our objective is always to try
to win with style."
Stein was
right of course, there has been since the earliest history of the club a
definable ‘Celtic way’ of playing the game. His team played football in the
best traditions of the club and McGrory, Tully, Patsy Gallagher or Willie Maley
would have approved. Jock Stein, the boyhood Rangers fan made the modern
Celtic. He forged the club an identity beyond Scotland which endures to this
day. It could be argued that along with Brother Walfrid and Willie Maley, Jock
is the most important figure in the club’s history. I leave the last words of
this blog to two men who wore the blue of our great rivals. Alex Ferguson, a
man who learned a huge amount from Jock Stein, said of him…
"I
am proud to say that I knew Jock Stein as a manager, as a colleague and as a
friend... he was the greatest manager in British football... men like Jock will
live forever in the memory."
Jock Wallace, a man steeped in
the traditions of Rangers FC, was also a man who recognised Stein’s greatness.
He had no doubt watched the Celtic manager help the dead and dying after the
dreadful disaster at Ibrox in 1971 and recognised his common decency and
humanity. He also had respect for Stein’s achievements on the field and said of
big Jock...
"Jock
Stein was the greatest manager ever to draw breath. There was no one who came
anywhere close to him."
Stein would no doubt smile at such praise and
point to the players who achieved the victories as the people due the praise,
but for all his modesty this astute and intelligent football manager was worthy
of all the praise heaped on him. The people who mattered to him were the
ordinary Celtic fans and he once said of them…’ "I'm happy where
I am, I like the people I work with, I like the players and the directors of
this club but most of all I like the fans and to see them happy makes me happy."
No one in the history of Celtic FC made the
fans as happy as Jock Stein did. The big Miner from Burnbank dragged the club he
loved from mediocrity and restored it to greatness. He did so without
compromising the principles of attractive attacking football the club had been
renowned for. Indeed, he took Celtic to new heights of brilliance and success and
for that we will be eternally grateful.
Doctor
Batters had urged Jock Stein to go to Celtic in early 1965 with the words… ’ John you’re a Celtic man, you should go or
you’ll regret it.’ Every Celtic fan is delighted that Mr Stein listened to
him and followed his dream of changing football forever. He changed Celtic
forever too and said once to Archie McPherson, ‘We all end up yesterday’s men in this business, all end up forgotten.’
Trust me Jock, as long as Celtic Football Club exists no one will ever forget
you and your magnificent team.
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