Remembering Craig Brown: A Football Legend
Introduction
Craig Brown was an affable character, a total charmer, and an underdog who never really got the appreciation he was due. He was a relentlessly positive man even when surrounded by wholesale negativity. He was at the heart of most of the buzz that Scotland has experienced on the big stages in the 1980s and 1990s. He was a product of the Largs coaching school and remains the last person to take the men’s national team to a World Cup.
Early Career
Brown had a long and varied career in football. He trained with Billy McNeill as kids at Celtic, signed for Rangers at 17 but never played, and had cameos in Dundee’s famous championship-winning season of 1961-62. His injuries destroyed his time as a footballer, but he was determined to make his mark in the game. He was at the heart of most of the buzz that Scotland has experienced on the big stages in the 1980s and 1990s. He was Ferguson’s assistant at the World Cup in Mexico in 1986 and Andy Roxburgh’s assistant at the World Cup in Italy in 1990 and at the Euros in Sweden in 1992. Having managed the Scotland Under-16 side to a World Cup final in 1989 and the Scotland Under-21s to a European championship semi-final in 1992, the top job was his when Roxburgh went.
Managerial Career
As a manager, Brown was an intelligent pragmatist with a personality to convince his players that they should fear nobody. He was ahead of his time in terms of his preparation, how he managed people and the psychology of dealing with the opposition. He was loveable and approachable, but there was a serious football intellect there, a huge hunger to take it to the big guns. He was single-minded and autocratic, believing that whatever he said was the way it must be.
Scotland’s Success Under Brown
For much of his time in full-time charge – 70 games across eight years with only nine competitive losses from 26 matches – Scotland were organised and driven. When he took Scotland to Euro ’96, they only conceded three goals in 10 qualifying games. When they made the World Cup finals in 1998, again, they only conceded three times in 10 group matches. In qualifiers or tournament play, his side went on an extraordinary run of 14 clean sheets in 15 games.
Defining Moments
If the defining moment of his Euros in 1996 was Paul Gascoigne’s goal and Gary McAllister’s penalty miss at Wembley, then it was the Brazil game that opened the World Cup in 1998 that will live forever in the memory. A packed Stade de France and the eyes of the football world on Scotland. It’s never been that way since. It was 1-1 with 16 minutes to go. Brown’s tactics had kept out Cafu, Roberto Carlos, Rivaldo, Ronaldo and Bebeto. A famous draw was at hand, only for Tom Boyd (one of Brown’s key lieutenants at the back) to unluckily knock the ball into his own net.
Disappointments
A 3-0 loss to Morocco did for the Scots that summer. Decades later, Brown still trotted out the stats from that game, still railed that the scoreline did not reflect the flow of the game. He got monstrous stick for that Morocco debacle but he drove on, always cheery, always believing, even when the results started to go downhill. When Scotland failed to make the play-offs for the World Cup in 2002, the criticism had grown ever louder and he was gone.
Later Career
The end of his story? Not a bit of it. He managed Preston, Motherwell and Aberdeen after that. In a European game with Motherwell against Odense in 2010, there was a fracas on the sideline. The Odense director shoved Brown and Brown responded by thumping him. He was 70 and still up for the fight. Football kept him young, he said.
Conclusion
Craig Brown was an incredible man who will be very sorely missed by so many people. He loved proving people wrong, whether in his ability to take Scotland to major championships or to fly the flag for the old guard by managing into his 70s, or through his physical capacity to survive illness when the odds were seemingly stacked against him. Age was only ever a number to him, not a state of mind. He will be remembered as a football legend who left an indelible mark on Scottish football.