Docherty, Tommy

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Fullname: Thomas Henderson Docherty
aka: Tommy Docherty, Thomas Docherty, The Doc
Born: 24 April 1928
Died: 31 Dec 2020
Birthplace: Glasgow (Gorbals)
Signed: 26 July 1948
Left: 4 Nov 1949 (to Preston NE)
Position: Right-Half
Debut: Celtic 0-1 Rangers, League, 21 Aug 1948
Internationals: Scotland
International Caps: 25 (None With Celtic)
International Goals: 1

Biog

One of British football’s most colourful characters, Tommy Docherty may now be better remembered for his lengthy career as a manager and witty football anecdotes but he started off his professional career with his beloved Celtic. In his youth he played for St Paul’s Guild in the 1940s alongside another Celt, Willie Toner.

Signed by the Bhoys in July 1948 (after coming back from Palestine and being demobbed from military duty) the sandy-haired Tommy Docherty was an assured ball playing defender. He joined the Hoops straight from the army and made his debut in a 1-0 home league defeat to Rangers.

During most of his time at Parkhead, Tommy Docherty was understudy to the great Bobby Evans but he had shown real promise in the reserves.

It wasn’t an easy time to be with Celtic, having just avoided relegation the season before his debut. Worst was that legendary coach Jimmy Hogan was poorly treated but Tommy Docherty had the upmost respect for him. Tommy Docherty credited his success to the initial school of coaching he received from him, as he put it:

“The finest coach the world had ever known“.

However, he described various players’ attitudes to Jimmy Hogan critically:

“It was in the days of Charlie Tully and players like that, and they looked upon coaching as a bit of a joke.”

He eventually left for Preston North End in November 1949 after just 9 league appearances and 2 goals. He went on to enjoy an impressive career at Deepdale where he established himself as a Scotland regular (and captain), and then spells at Arsenal and Chelsea followed.

Leaving Celtic was hard for him, as he put it:

“When I was a youngster, it was my one and only ambition to play in a green and white jersey. When I was transferred it was one of the great disappointments of my life. I’d go back gladly if the chance came along” (2 Aug 1958).

That chance though never came along.

Many players (mostly the elder ones) wasted the valuable resources in front of them, and that environment was never going to help an aspiring youngster like Tommy, but at least he paid attention and he reaped the rewards from doing so.

It’s quite true to say that with his transfer away, Celtic had lost a valuable player just at a time when the first team really needed men like him, another mark down for the club board and team management.

In future conversations, Tommy Docherty openly professed his love for Celtic stating that on a Saturday finding out how Celtic had done was his first task. Despite all the time at other clubs, Celtic was always there deeply ingrained in him emotionally.

Whilst at the Citizens theatre in 2006 for a one man show, he was asked about the upcoming Celtic matches with Manchester Utd in the Champions League group stages, and was asked who he thought would win. He said his head said Manchester Utd but his heart will always be with Celtic.

Tommy Docherty went on to become one of the highest profile football managers of his generation and during a roller-coaster coaching career managed Scotland, Manchester United, Aston Villa, Wolves, QPR and many, many others. Actually, his list of clubs is probably one of the longest of anyone ever involved in professional football in the UK, or as he once joked: “I’ve had more clubs than Jack Nicklaus [legendary golfer]“.

He set Scotland up to qualify for the 1974 World Cup for the first time since 1958, but then left Scotland Man Utd which was a poisoned chalice and got them relegated in 1974. He bounced straight back and produced one of the most exciting Man Utd teams ever and won the FA Cup in 1977. Then he got sacked for having an affair with physios wife who he used to send away on scouting missions. He tried to get George Best’s career back on track again after he went AWOL, and irked the old guard when he went about rebuilding the team. Some wondered if he could have been taken on as Celtic manager following Jock Stein’s departure from the role.

Known to many simply as ‘The Doc‘, Tommy Docherty was blessed with the gift of the gab and he went on to enjoy a successful career as an after-dinner speaker and media pundit.

Celtic was always in his heart.

He died in December 2020 after a long innings, but his quips will be recalled for eternity.

Quotes

“It was the happiest day of my life when I signed [for Celtic]. This was the team I supported. This team was full of my idols guys like Charlie Tully. Training was very basic then. You turned up at Parkhead did a couple of circuits of the track and then headed home.”
Tommy Docherty

“Remember, lads, if football directors are too old to do it to their wives, they’ll do it to their managers.”
Tommy Docherty on football management

Legend says Docherty was raised in Glasgow’s tough Gorbals district. In fact, he hailed from Shettleston Road in the city’s east end. From where, in the 1930s, you also had to be as hard as a coffin nail to survive. Docherty would later joke about his mother’s visits to charity shops. “You want to try walking to school wearing a third-hand Japanese admiral’s outfit.”
The Guardian on Tommy Docherty

“I’ve been called a sadist, a sergeant major, a Glasgow tough who lashes his players. I’m not in the game to make friends.”
Tommy Docherty on criticisms of his management style

“Ah, Tommy Docherty has died. Such a lovely man. I once did an after-dinner alongside him for Celtic FC, back when I was pretty new, while Martin O’ Neill was manager. He gave a great speech and I was on later, by which time the crowd were more eager to hear from Martin. I just have looked pretty nervous when my turn came around because Tommy leaned over and whispered “Don’t worry! If it isn’t going well just make a joke about me sleeping with the physio’s wife!” (Which happened while he was at Man United; they later married). So I get up… I do some of my cast-iron Catholic-Protestant material, it all drops to silence. Nada off the crowd. It’s getting a bit awkward.
“So, remembering the advice, I said “Great to see Martin and the entire management team here tonight….” HUGE around of applause… “In fact” I continued, “the only member of the back-room team who isn’t here is the physio, who didn’t come because he was afraid Tommy might **** his wife” Massive laugh, round of applause.
“Having won them back, I went back to my actual proper material again, and…. died roaring. Didn’t get another laugh, slid off the stage. Still, Tommy Docherty, big handshake when I got back to the table. Sweetheart of a man. RIP.”
Dara O’Brien (Irish Comedian & TV presenter)

“There was no bigger character in the game than the Doc and there has never been one of such character since.
“He was funny, he could argue with you, but if you had a raging argument with him, he would make up with you the next day – it didn’t affect your position in the team.
“I had Jock Stein who changed my life by taking me to Celtic as a young boy and then I went to Old Trafford with the Doc. He was an entertainer, a law unto himself and a great guy.”
Lou Macari on Tommy Docherty

Playing Career

Honours with Celtic

Glasgow Cup

• 1949

Pictures

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Articles

A Date With The Doc: Life, Love And The Football … But Celtic Over All

https://thecelticblog.com/2018/03/blogs/a-date-with-the-doc-life-love-and-the-football-but-celtic-over-all/
Date: 18th March 2018 at 8:04pm
Written by: James Forrest

On Friday, I was honoured to have a man sit in my living room who is a hero to a great many people and admired by many, many more. I refer, of course, to the man in the picture; Tommy Docherty, a legend in so many ways. And the reason he was there at all is simple; my old man and I were having a lengthy discussion on who the oldest living ex-Celtic player is and Tommy was one of the names on our shortlist. He may even be right at the top of it.

The discussion itself arose from the chats I often have with my folks about the great moments from their own Celtic supporting lives; the history of our great club is inexorably woven with that of my family. My folks met at a taxi rank at Glasgow Cross one night, when my dad offered my mum his scarf because it was raining. My gran on my mum’s side got to know King Kenny when her son, James, who I’m named after, got cancer and, sadly, died in his teens; Kenny was a frequent visitor when James was sick. When my granny on my dad’s side passed away (both my grannies died on Christmas Day just a few years apart; how unusual is that?) the funeral was held on the day of a Rangers game and every one of us went from the crematorium to a nearby hotel and sat down to cheer on the Bhoys to a famous victory.

Every one of us reveres this club and the impact it’s had on us.

So when my dad started thinking about who the oldest living player might be it sparked an interesting discussion. He spoke to a few of the guys on the CSA committee, and John Andrews, who knows Tommy well, said that he’d be coming to town and he would get him to pop over and do a piece for the blog.

And so he did and it was a thrill, I have to say.

My old man and Tommy go back a while too, and there’s a story about Tommy which highlights the sort of man he is and why he’s so well liked amongst our fans. Let me give you some background to this tale first, for a nice comparative.

A few years back, Tommy wanted to attend a match at Old Trafford with his family and so he got them to make a call to the club for some tickets. He’s a previous boss there, of course, and they fixed him up with them no problem. Or so he thought. About a week or so after the game though, he got an invoice in the post; they were actually charging him £88 for the tickets. Needless to say, Tommy, who’s not shy about speaking his mind, was not happy.

Fast forward a year or two, and he got in touch with my old man and the CSA boys about finding tickets for a Celtic game up at Hamilton. My old man got him some for the main stand, next to the big-wigs there. A party of four travelled to the match, and they took their seats, enjoying the view and the day out.

But Tommy is not exactly the kind of guy you can miss; Hamilton fans sitting near him quickly recognised him and were soon surrounding him asking for his autograph, shaking hands, pleased and delighted to see such an esteemed figure.

And at that point, Hamilton’s directors twigged as to who they had in the stand. They immediately came over, and offered to lay out the red carpet, pointing out that if they’d known he was going to be there they’d have rolled it out a lot quicker.

As grateful as he was for that – and how great a contrast between their reaction and that from the behaviour of the richest club in the world eah? – Tommy thanked them and said “maybe next time.” That day was already taken up with his first love, the reason he’d gone to the game in the first place; he was only interested in watching Celtic.

This is why I love all this stuff; this is what makes Celtic special. Guys like Tommy. Guys like Rod Stewart coming over for games. Guys who for all their success, for all their fame, when it comes down to it are just ordinary fans like the rest of us.

No airs or graces; just blokes in the stand, just guys who care about the team and the players on the park.

Tommy came down to see us and to talk about himself and the club; I decided not to ask him formal questions because I didn’t want it to be formal. Instead, I said “just talk.” And he did. It’s not for nothing that he’s popular on the after-dinner circuit!

As many of you will be aware, he was born here in Glasgow, in the Gorbals, and raised for a time in the Gallowgate. Tommy will be 90 on his next birthday; that is incredible and almost unbelievable when you meet the man and see how fit he looks and listen to how sharp he is. This guy has a tremendous memory, going all the way back to when he was a kid.

Back then, as he tells it, families took their washing “down to the steamie”, the old steam rooms in the tenements, and there they’d all meet up and chat, especially the wives. He recalls sitting reading the paper one day, about the crimes of Glasgow’s most notorious serial killer, Peter Manuel, and commenting to his mother that “they should hang this b@stard.”

And for his use of bad language he got a clip round the ear. “Hanging’s too good for him,” his mother said. “A slap in the face, that’s what I’d like to give him.”

Back in those days, the church played a real role in people’s lives. “The priest was never out of the house,” he said. “He enjoyed a cup of tea and a slice of toast.”

He was always a keen footballer, and was quickly tapped up by Shettleston.

In 1946, he got the call for National Service and he joined the Highland Light Infantry, where he became a top footballer from the army. It was there that he was first spotted by the professional clubs and his dream came true in 1947 when Celtic offered him a deal.

Years later, he was to say that there, Jimmy Hogan was the greatest influence of anyone on his career. But he wasn’t to be at Celtic long; he struggled to break into our first team squad and he got the bad news, in 1949, that the club had accepted an offer from Preston.

Amongst his memories in a Celtic shirt was a day at Ibrox, when he saw another player about to leave the pitch in tears. “What’s the matter with you?” he asked. “The crowd keeps shouting that I’m a f@nian so-and-so,” the guy told him. “Ach, they shout that to me all the time,” Tommy said, scornfully. “Aye,” his team-mate said, “But you are one!”

The Preston deal never sat right with Tommy. He always felt the club had made a mistake. “They told me I was too wee,” he said. “Too wee. And then they went out and signed (Bobby) Collins. He was only bloody 5’3.” He always felt he could have made it at Celtic.

Certainly, his size didn’t hamper his time at Preston; he played over 300 games for them, and he got to an FA Cup Final. He went to Arsenal after that and then Chelsea. It was whilst at Preston that he won his first caps; he considers the best of them to have been at Wembley, where he played so well that the Preston chairman asked to speak to him after the game.

He was offered a new deal on the spot. “My contract at that time was for £10 during the season and £8 in the summer,” he said. “Their offer was £12 in the season and £10 in the summer. I told them I wanted the same deal as Tom Finney. I knew they wouldn’t give it to me, but I was chancing my arm,” he said. “They came back to me and said, ‘Well, you’re not as good a player as Tom Finney.’ ‘I am in the summer,’” Tommy replied.

All the lessons he learned as a player enabled him to have one of the most diverse managerial careers of anybody in the game.

Even a list of the clubs makes you dizzy; 1961–1967 Chelsea, 1967–1968 Rotherham United, 1968 Queens Park Rangers, 1968–1970 Aston Villa, 1970–1971 Porto, 1971 Scotland (caretaker), 1971–1972 Scotland, 1972–1977 Manchester United, 1977–1979 Derby County, 1979–1980 Queens Park Rangers, 1981 Sydney Olympic, 1981 Preston North End, 1982–1983 South Melbourne, 1983 Sydney Olympic, 1984–1985 Wolverhampton Wanderers and in 1987–1988 he went to Altrincham.

Foremost amongst that lot, of course, are the times he spent as manager of Scotland and at Manchester United. He credits a Scottish journalist, Ken Gallagher, with ending up at Hampden. He was in Portugal at the time, and Gallagher had heard through the grapevine that Scotland would soon be looking for a new boss, and urged him to speak to the SFA.

He has regrets over how he left the job; he believes he should have stayed and taken the team to the 1974 World Cup Finals, and experienced the thrill of managing them in that oh-so famous group against the mighty Brazil.

But when Manchester United came calling it was something he simply couldn’t say no to; those who say he went there for more money are actually dead wrong. His salary at Hampden was around £15,000 a year, about £300 a week. He still has the contract at home, in a frame. His salary at Old Trafford was for exactly the same cash.

Tommy’s time there ended a little … controversially, and it perhaps accounts for appalling way they treated him over those match tickets. It was 1977, and he had just won the FA Cup for them, in the greatest moment of his managerial career. He had assembled a lean and hungry team that was capable, he thought, of big things.

And then it was over, because he’d been having an affair with the wife of the club physio. Tommy is about as open and genuine as anyone I’ve ever met; he told me he has the unfortunate distinction of being one of the few people who ever got to read about himself in News of The World courtesy of a family member (his daughter) selling a story to the tabloids.

“All I did was fall in love,” he told a newspaper years later and no-one can argue with that. It wasn’t a quick fling he had; it broke up his marriage and hers, but he and Mary Brown got hitched afterwards and stayed that way. It was The Real Thing.

“She is the best thing that ever happened to me,” he says with no regrets at all.

I wondered whether that relationship ever caused him problems; he replied with the kind of story only he could tell. Years later, he was doing an after-dinner thing not knowing that the man in question, former physio Laurie Brown, was in the room. Afterwards, Brown came over and the two had a brief chat.

“I was talking to Mary after it, and I said to her, ‘He came up to talk to me.’” “Oh God,” she said. “What did he say to you?” “He asked me, ‘How’s the wife?’”

Is he having me on? Does it matter?

It’s the kind of thing that could happen! It’s the kind of story that he loves to tell.

But always, the conversation comes around to Celtic, to his first love, his most enduring one, and the subject matter is Brendan Rodgers who Tommy has always hugely admired. John Andrews confirms that when the club announced that Ronny would be leaving Tommy was vocal in his belief that the only man worthy of appointing was the former Liverpool boss.

John Andrews told us that he and Joe O’Rourke had been in Brendan’s office recently; a huge long room which had once belonged to the scouting department. It had been filled with computers and charts. Brendan had decided that the traditional manager’s office was not the kind of place you wanted to bring a guy you were trying to sign; he quickly insisted on the bigger room.

That’s the attention to detail – to every detail – Brendan brings to Celtic and it’s one of the many insights into our boss that the guys have gained talking to him in the last year and half since he was appointed. It’s little wonder that Tommy is unwavering about his belief that we have the right man in charge.

The respect in which Tommy himself is held in the game is enormous; he came to visit us shortly after being at an event at Hampden, where the great, the good, and Alex McLeish were in attendance, every one of them wanting to spend time with him.

He is an icon of Scottish football, inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2013 and still able to hold a room captive.

And yet that man, on that day, found the time and took the trouble to come and speak to me, a Celtic blogger, and thus to all of you, all the better to show his commitment to and passion for our great club. Anyone who thinks that doesn’t matter doesn’t really get it. Celtic is no more a passing fancy or a fleeting part of our lives than Mary Brown was for Tommy; this is The Real Deal. This is love. And it lasts a lifetime.

He might be the oldest living Celtic player or he may not be, and Tommy Docherty might not have been at our club for long, but what matters to him and us is that our club never leaves him and is never far from his thoughts. That’s what it’s all about. That’s what love is. We are lucky to have people like this. We will always have them and that’s important because the next generation should know who they were and what they are part of.

It’s because of guys like this that we are the greatest club in the world, bar none.

Tommy Docherty Quotes
https://sabotagetimes.com/football/25-funny-tommy-docherty-quotes-chelsea-and-man-utd-fans-must-see

25. On his career: “I’ve had more clubs than Jack Nicklaus.”

24. On his reputation: “I’ve been called a sadist, a sergeant major, a Glasgow tough who lashes his players. I’m not in the game to make friends.”

23. On the pressure at Manchester United: “I don’t think Henry Kissinger would have lasted 48 hours at Old Trafford.”

22. On the finest player he ever saw: “You can keep all your Bests, Peles and Maradonas, Duncan Edwards was the greatest of them all.”

21. On Chelsea: “Chelsea is my club. I won’t have a bad word said against them. I love the Bridge. I go five or six times a year and they’re brilliant to me.”

20. On Ray Wilkins: “He can’t run, he can’t tackle and he can’t head the ball. The only time he goes forward is for the toss.”

19. On growing up in Glasgow: “I remember this about the Gorbals. If you wanted a new pair of shoes you went down the swimming baths in bare feet and just nicked a pair.”

18. On Lorenzo Amoruso: “Somebody compared him to Billy McNeil, but I don’t remember Billy being crap.”

17. On his forwards: “Our strikers couldn’t score in a brothel.”

16. On his former QPR chairman Jim Gregory: “When you shook hands with him, you counted your fingers.”

15. On how the game should be played: “Football wasn’t meant to be run by linesmen and air traffic control.”

14. To his chairman at Chelsea: “Mr Chairman, when I want your advice I’ll give it to you.”

13. On Jimmy Hill: “He was probably one of the worst players I’ve ever seen. He once said to me: ‘I’m good in the air.’ I replied: ‘So was Douglas Bader.’”

12. On Aston Villa: “Villa have amazing support. If you hung 11 Villa shirts on a washing line five thousand fans would turn up to watch them.”

11. On celebrity football club ownership: “Elton John decided he wanted to rename Watford and call it Queen of the South.”

10. On Barry Ferguson: “He had no pace. I’ve seen malt turn quicker.”

9. On compensation: “They offered me a handshake of £10,000 to settle amicably. I told them that they would have to be a lot more amicable than that.”

8. On modern players: “I’ve seen some recently who could trap a ball further than I could kick it. When they pass it, they should attach this message: ‘To whom it may concern!’ And they’re getting 50 grand a week and upwards.”

7. On Jimmy Johnstone: “On my first day as Scotland manager I had to call off practice after half an hour, because nobody could get the ball off wee Jimmy Johnstone.”

6. On surviving in management: “People ask me what makes a great manager and I say it is good players. Crap players get you the sack, it’s as simple as that.”5. On the best player in the world: “Lionel Messi is an immature Tom Finney.”

4. On Manchester City: “There are three types of Oxo cubes. Light brown for chicken stock, dark brown for beef stock and light blue for laughing stock.”

3. On getting rid of George Best: “George just kept on going missing at the time – Miss America, Miss Canada, Miss Great Britain.”

2. On the media: “I’ve always said there’s a place for the press but they haven’t dug it yet.”

1. On being sacked by Manchester United after having an affair with the physio’s wife (who he later married): “I’m the only manager to be sacked for falling in love.”

Tommy Docherty: Former Scotland, Chelsea and Manchester United manager dies aged 92

Former Scotland, Chelsea and Manchester United manager Tommy Docherty has died at the age of 92 following a long illness.
By David Oliver
Thursday, 31st December 2020, 4:38 pm
Updated
16 hours ago
https://www.scotsman.com/sport/football/international/tommy-docherty-former-scotland-chelsea-and-manchester-united-manager-dies-aged-92-3082869
Docherty, who was known as ‘The Doc’, spent nine years as a player with Preston, and won 25 caps for Scotland.

He went on to manage 12 clubs – including Chelsea, Aston Villa and Derby – as well as a stint in charge of Scotland.
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But he was best known for his five-year spell at Old Trafford, overseeing an FA Cup final win over Bob Paisley’s Liverpool in 1977.

Docherty died at home in the north-west on England on December 31.

A family statement read: “Tommy passed away peacefully surrounded by his family at home.

“He was a much-loved husband, father and papa and will be terribly missed.

“We ask that our privacy be respected at this time. There will be no further comment.”

A football career which began at Shettleston Juniors in the east end of Glasgow ended with ‘The Doc’ in the dugout after coaching 12 different clubs and establishing himself as one of Scottish, and British football’s, most colourful characters some four decades later.

Capped 25 times for the national team he would also go on to manage for 15 months, Docherty starred for Scotland at both the 1954 and 1958 World Cup finals.

He would have led the national side to the 1974 World Cup too, but was lured to Manchester United, a career move he later said he regretted. However, Docherty also reflected if he hadn’t made the move, he wouldn’t have met second wife Mary Brown. It was a relationship that led to the end of his first marriage, to Agnes, and his sacking at Old Trafford.

Relations at Old Trafford remained strained, however Docherty retained affection for Chelsea, and his boyhood club Celtic.

Growing up in the Gorbals area of Glasgow he admitted he ‘was a bit of a scallywag’ and ‘national service was the making of me’.

He represented the British Army on the football field as well as Shettleston, then played nine times for Celtic before moving to Deepdale. More than 300 appearances for Preston North End earned international recognition, before moving to Arsenal nine years later.

A transfer across London to Stamford Bridge as a player-coach saw The Doc embark on a managerial career spanning 27 years. He signed well-known names like Terry Venables and Peter Bonetti for Chelsea and gained promotion back to the old Division One at his first attempt in 1963, and won the League Cup two years later.

Short stays of little more than a year followed at Rotherham, Aston Villa and Porto, surrounding a month in charge of Queen’s Park Rangers.

Then, following Bobby Brown’s departure from Hampden, Docherty was put in charge of a Scotland squad boasting the likes of Jimmy Johnstone and Billy Bremner in 1971 and gave Kenny Dalglish his first cap.

But a year into the job with a squad that would reach the 1974 World Cup finals, Docherty was recommended to Manchester United by Scotland striker Denis Law, and kept the Reds in the top flight in 1973. He was unable to stop their relegation the following year – consigned in part by a back-heel goal by Law – then of Manchester City, having been released months earlier against Matt Busby’s wishes.

Docherty returned United to the top flight and to two FA Cup finals, winning one against rivals Liverpool in 1977 but he was sacked months later in a blaze of publicity after admitting an affair with Mary, wife of Old Trafford physio Laurie Brown.

Two years in Derby and subsequent short spells in charge of clubs in England and Australia failed to bring further success but Docherty’s place in Scottish football was cemented by his induction to the Scottish football hall of fame in 2013.

Later a popular raconteur and interviewee, Docherty, told The Scotsman’s Aidan Smith back in 2010: “If I knew I was going to live this long, heh heh, I’d have taken better care of myself.”

Docherty, footballer

SUFFERING from World Cup withdrawal symptoms and Jabulani jealousy over Scotland’s ongoing non-involvement, I phone up Tommy Docherty, survivor of our WC debut way back in 1954.
By The Newsroom
Saturday, 19th June 2010, 1:00 am
https://www.scotsman.com/sport/interview-tommy-docherty-footballer-2442371
“I’m in the middle of the North Sea,” he says, and perfectly naturally I assume this to be one of The Doc’s jokes, with the punchline expected to arrive a whole lot faster than any of his attempted tackles on Uruguay’s star man Juan Alberto Schiaffino in the 7-0 thumping 56 years ago. But no, he’s on his way back from a cruise, something he does quite a lot, working his passage with funny stories from a life-and-a-half in football, told from the captain’s table.

“The Norwegian Fjords,” he says when he picks me up from the train station in Romiley two days later. “I’ve done them before: six days, nice short trip, two nights’ entertaining, couple of hundred quid. The Amazon was 15 days – too long – but this winter me and Mary are going up the Panama Canal. I’m 82 now and on this cruise I was just about the youngest. I’m sure some of the others were straight aff the boat and into their coffins.”
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We’re on the Lancashire-Derbyshire border and Romiley quickly merges into another village, Compstall, where the Dochertys live and, in his silver Merc I reckon I’m afforded a glimpse of his daily routine as he flirts with the sub-postmistress, sunning herself outside the shop, then growls at the postie (for relaying this inquiry from a non-local: “Was that Sir Alex Ferguson?”) Mary is waiting for us in their trim cottage behind the local pub and offers up tea and biscuits, only out in the back garden the chocolate quickly melts, so when she makes her excuses – she never hangs around for his cruise turns either – he nips back inside for a bottle of Chardonnay and a jumbo bag of crisps.

Two questions instantly present themselves – did the Scotland team get well and truly blootered in an entirely understandable effort to forget all about ’54 … and, now that he’s reached the age his beloved mother died, has he started to think about life’s final whistle?

Let’s deal with death first. Ruddy-cheeked and nimble in his beach shorts, he seems in pretty good nick. Over two rollicking hours in his company he’ll joke about Alzheimer’s and mention at least four contemporaries who’re currently battling the disease. “That’s tragic, he says, “but I try not to think about death. Some of my old mates have gone on their way rejoicing recently, guys like Tommy Cavanagh, my coach at Man U – but look at Bert Williams, England’s goalie when they beat us 7-2 although I managed to put one past him from 30 yards – he turned 90 last week. So, yes, I’m pleased to have got to 82 because my dear old maw’s death was the saddest day of my life. But if I knew I was going to live this long, heh heh, I’d have taken better care of myself.”

So, back to Switzerland and those World Cup virgins. The beaks in charge of oor fitba didn’t allow us to compete in the 1950 finals and four years later hardly gave the team the best of send-offs following the final training session at Butlin’s in Ayr. “The manager, Andy Beattie, quit as soon as our plane touched down – there had been a row with the top brass – so Clyde’s sponge man, Dawson Walker, took charge,” says Docherty. “We could have had a squad of 18 but only 13 players were taken – more places for the committee-men’s wives, I suppose. And you must know the story about our kit.”

Indeed I do. It turns up in most of his interviews, embroidered a bit more each time, although the strips themselves hardly needed any further layering. Too thick for the sweltering conditions, Docherty has previously likened them to prison shirts and today he says: “Imagine playing in a Crombie overcoat. Our shorts went past our knees, the socks were double-knit and of course we had big, clumpy Mansfield Hotspurs on our feet.

“The Uruguayans’ boots were dead sleek and they wore ultra-thin vests. In the boiling heat we were knackered before the end of their anthem which, typical of South America, went on forever.”

So of course Docherty laughs when he hears the gear grumbles from South Africa, all relating to a mere ball. “We also had to bring our own soap and towels,” he says. Wayne Rooney has complained of boredom in England’s five-star hotel but in Switzerland in those pre-TV days downtime was interminable pontoons.

“Drink? No-one boozed on that trip, we couldn’t afford it. Your appearance money was 15 quid, or if you chose to keep the shirt, nothing. In any case my attitude was, ‘You’re a pro, it’s not done’ and I didn’t have my first drink of any description until I was 34 and coach at Chelsea, when we won promotion from the old Second Division and the chairman Joe Mears got me pissed on one gin and bitter lemon. And since then I suppose I’ve made up for all that abstinence.” Docherty’s quip about 1954 goalie Freddie Martin being “like a crocus – he only came out once a year” – is similarly well-worn.

I’m keen to learn about the rest of the team from a campaign that began with a 1-0 defeat by Austria and, topping up my wine, he obliges.

“Willie Cunningham was the right-back, played with me at Preston North End, a dour customer from Hill o’ Beath and a hard defender although as England’s Ivor Broadis said after Willie had spent all afternoon trying to catch Uruguay’s winger Carlos Borges, he was the only player at that World Cup who got a sunburnt tongue.

“Jock Aird (Burnley] was the other full-back and he only lacked one thing: ability. Jimmy Davidson (Partick Thistle] did his best at centre-half although every time he passed the ball he had to say: ‘To whom it may concern.’ Doug Cowie from Dundee more than made up for him in that department and John MacKenzie was the Firhill Flyer and the Hibs’ Willie Ormond was a lovely crosser on the other wing. Allan Brown of Blackpool – great runner. Neil Mochan of Celtic – wisnae up to much. And Willie Fernie (Celtic] needed a ball of his own. He could dribble all right, although often by the time he’d finished the rest of us had gone home.”

That just leaves Docherty himself, and the 25-times capped wing-half says he can still hear his old Preston manager Cliff Britton bellowing at him whenever he dared venture over halfway.

Disputes and punch-ups, the odd court case and bitter rifts which he says will never heal – Docherty’s story is an incredibly rumbustious one, painted in screaming banner headlines. Mary is of course his second wife, and was married to Manchester Utd’s physio Laurie Brown when they began an affair. Docherty, about to sign a new 18,000 contract as manager and sporting a black eye, thought he’d better ‘fess up. “I expected to be sacked,” he says. “But the club were hypocrites. I’d seen what went on during foreign trips.”

In his 2006 autobiography he claimed Sir Matt Busby admitted to having a “lady friend” for trips to London. “And I think I needled Matt by getting rid of some players past their best.” He must be referring to Old Trafford legends George Best and Denis Law. “Or, if you prefer, leg-ends.”

At the time Docherty famously blurted that he was the only manager sacked for falling in love. Thirty-three years on he says: “Mary’s the best thing that ever happened to me, she’s a star.”

But there’s a price to pay for his happiness and it’s being shunned by all but one of his four children from his marriage to first wife Agnes, with the resentment spilling over into a book which, bizarrely, was on sale on Docherty’s cruise ship after his session. He tells me a sad story of how, as the four met up to scatter Docherty’s mother Georgina’s ashes at Ailsa Craig, the revelation that the newest addition to the clan had been given his middle name of Henderson caused the gathering to break up before the ceremony. Little Archie’s father Michael, who told him the story, is the only one who speaks to Docherty. Does he hold out any hope of reconciliation with the others? “Not now, no, it’s gone.”

Docherty remembers nothing of his own father, who died of pleurisy in Glasgow’s Gorbals. His 1930s childhood was tough. “When I needed new shoes I went to the swimming baths on a Saturday and nicked a pair. I was a scallywag and National Service was the making of me.”

With the Highland Light Infantry in Palestine he became pals with David Beckham’s grandad but had to clear up what was left of many of his friends after the bombing of Jerusalem’s King David Hotel.

It’s obvious how Docherty acquired the toughness, developing into abrasiveness laced with damning wit, which some in football have found difficult to deal with. In the blazing afternoon sun, more appropriately dressed than on that infamous day in 1954, he admits there were times as an old-school disciplinarian manager when he went too far.

“At Chelsea, when seven players misbehaved in Blackpool – ringleader: Terry Venables – and I sent them back to London, that was maybe wrong. With Scotland, after an under-23s game, I told George Connelly and Eddie Kelly when I caught them with a bird that they’d never play for me again and I was probably too hard on them as well. My sharp tongue has caused me problems in life but you are what you are. I’ve always been the kind to call a spade a shovel.” And now and again to dig himself into a hole with it.

I’m keen to check on relations with old foes, and we might as well start with Venables. “A newspaper rang me up when he released his World Cup song. I told them he wasn’t that great a player either: passable if you were two-up but not the man for two-down.” Willie Morgan? “I haven’t seen him since court.” (Docherty tried to sue him, the case collapsed and he had to admit to lying). The Lawman? “We say hullo but that’s it.” Pat Crerand? “Next.”

But all the barneys and sackings and more-clubs-than-Jack Nicklaus-gaggery can sometimes make us forget that his Manchester United played with an elan that can bring a nostalgic tear to the bashed-in eye of an old Stretford End skinhead – and that the Scotland team he bossed wasn’t half bad either. Some, T Docherty included, reckon it was the best we’ve seen.

There were battles along the way, of course. “First day in the job I had to tell Willie Allan, the SFA secretary, to stop opening my mail.” And, suspicious about Aberdeen withdrawals, he once drove north for a full and frank exchange of views with the Pittodrie management .

“But what a terrific bunch of players. I told Don Revie I wanted four boys from Leeds as the foundation – Bremner, Lorimer, Gray and Harvey – and I pinned wee Billy up against a wall and told him I’d chop off his legs if he let me down. There was Denis, when I had him then, and of course wee Jinky. I picked lots of Hibs boys and Tom McNiven was my physio although I didn’t fancy his wife. I got asked when I was going to pick a Dundee United player by one of the directors and said: ‘When they’re good enough.’ I gave Kenny Dalglish his first cap.”

And then he gave the team to Willie Ormond. “Aye, and on his first day he asked me how to fill out an expenses form. I wished I could have taken them to the (1974] World Cup but I don’t beat myself up about going to Man U because if I hadn’t I wouldn’t have met Mary.

“I loved managing my country and Maw loved it too. She was hanging out the windae in Shettleston as usual when I turned up in my brand new Rover to take her to lunch. The waiter gave her her ticket for her coat and she said: ‘When’s the raffle?’ And do you know that when she died, all the money I’d sent her from my army days right up until just the week before came back to me unspent.”

In 1954 Docherty rejected the princely sum of 15 and elected to keep the strip. He scuttles off to fetch it. “Bloody heavy, eh?” he says, and it is. It’s also damp – could this be his actual sweat? “Nah, I just dabbed it with a wet cloth so that’s what you’d think.”

Talented, charismatic, volatile: the legend Tommy Docherty

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Tommy Docherty spent a lifetime breaching convention. From a loft – a “doocot” to Docherty – atop the main stand at Stamford Bridge, he could be found peering down on Chelsea. Docherty, the club’s manager from 1961 until 1967, determined he could have a better view of play from on high.
a group of people posing for the camera: Photograph: Allsport © Provided by The Guardian Photograph: Allsport

If that was a footballing break from the norm, Docherty’s departure from Manchester United in the summer of 1977 because of an affair with the physiotherapist’s wife dominated Britain’s news agenda. Docherty later married Mary Brown – the pair remained together until his death aged 92 – and apparently bore no grudges at all about his sacking but the scenario was tabloid gold. It helped that Docherty was and remained one of football’s great personalities.

Legend says Docherty was raised in Glasgow’s tough Gorbals district. In fact, he hailed from Shettleston Road in the city’s east end. From where, in the 1930s, you also had to be as hard as a coffin nail to survive. Docherty would later joke about his mother’s visits to charity shops. “You want to try walking to school wearing a third-hand Japanese admiral’s outfit.” Such humour was typical of “the Doc”: self-effacing and sharp.

Related: Tommy Docherty, former Manchester United and Scotland manager, dies aged 92

His stand-up routine included promises made to Mary. “I will take you places no other man could. First stop, the Old Bailey.” This was in reference to the famous libel case served by Docherty on Granada TV and Willie Morgan, one of his former players. Morgan told a television show that Docherty was “the worst manager there had ever been”. Denis Law, Pat Crerand and Lou Macari were among those forced to give witness statements. Docherty dropped the case on day three. “The ordeal is one of the worst times in my life and the stress on my family was incredible,” said Morgan in his autobiography. “But it was worth it in the end.” On reflection, the offence taken by Docherty was strange. He was far from short on opinion and, in fact, revelled in being outspoken.
a group of people posing for the camera: Tommy Docherty celebrates with (left) Tommy Cavanagh and Jimmy Nicholl after Manchester United had beaten Liverpool 2-1 in the 1977 FA Cup final © Photograph: Allsport Tommy Docherty celebrates with (left) Tommy Cavanagh and Jimmy Nicholl after Manchester United had beaten Liverpool 2-1 in the 1977 FA Cup final

Docherty’s playing career began at his local club, Shettleston Juniors, before he was picked up by his beloved Celtic after the second world war. He had served in the Highland Light Infantry while also representing the British army at football. A right-half, he lasted only two years at Celtic Park before departing on to a packed tram with a brown bag full of cash handed to him by the club secretary, Desmond White. Due of course to emotional attachment, Docherty branded his departure as one of his great disappointments. Ultimately, he couldn’t displace a Celtic great, Bobby Evans.
a display in a store: There’s no feeling quite like a victory in a derby match against your most hated adversaries. These are the games that decide who laughs last and loudest in the office, classroom, shop-floor and forum. These are the games you love to win and hate to lose. They can make or break your season – longer, if you’re in different divisions. A quick note on inclusion rules. We’ve stuck to club teams and we haven’t chosen any team twice: no matter how many foes you despise (or how widely hated you are), you’re only allowed one mortal enemy. The vast majority of these derby rivals are geographically close – the same city or the one just up the road – but there are some exceptions. Oh, and for each fixture we’ve listed the teams in alphabetical order: no, we don’t think they’re a bigger team than you.

Next stop was Preston North End, where Docherty would play almost 300 matches in a nine-year spell. If Tom Finney was the indisputable king of Deepdale, the winger was consistently reverent towards the club’s strong Scottish contingent. Davie Sneddon, who died on Christmas Eve, was another of that number. Docherty, having played at the 1954 World Cup, was part of Scotland’s 1958 squad shortly before the bright lights of London – specifically Arsenal and Chelsea – rather appropriately beckoned.

That Docherty, aged only 33, was unwilling to stand on ceremony when he took over as Chelsea manager in 1962 was instantly evident. He shipped out the old guard while showing faith in players such as Terry Venables, Ron Harris and Peter Bonetti. Promotion back to Division One was instantly achieved, with a fifth-placed top-tier finish in 1964-65 a further sign of sharp progress. Defeat in the FA Cup final of 1967, to Tottenham, came just months before Docherty exited. As had been the case when he was a player, he could be volatile but was a terrific motivator. His Chelsea team had been famed for wowing crowds with high entertainment value; his successor, Dave Sexton, felt the benefit by winning both the FA and Cup Winners’ Cups.

Related: A life in pictures: Tommy Docherty

A nomadic spell beckoned, quite possibly because Docherty would never rank in any shortlist of uncomplicated employees. The feeling was mutual. “If football directors are too old to do it to their wives, they’ll do it to their managers,” Docherty once said.

International football, then, seemed a natural fit. After brief tenures at Rotherham, Queens Park Rangers – this one lasted only 29 days – Aston Villa and Porto it was Scotland who offered Docherty a semblance of stability. Willie Ormond continued Docherty’s revival of the Scots when taking them to the 1974 World Cup, a first appearance in 16 years. Docherty had lost just three of a dozen games in charge, including 1-0 defeats to Brazil and England.

He expressed regular regret at leaving his country, even if an ailing Manchester United meant seismic opportunity. The United hierarchy, desperate to properly progress from the Matt Busby era, were seduced by Docherty’s blend of talent and charisma. There was no prospect of the Scot being overawed by the post. From the Second Division, Docherty – who was in charge for relegation in 1974 – had a canvas to rebuild United and duly did. Law remained sore at being let go but so, too, were Bobby Charlton and George Best. Once unthinkable acts from which Docherty wouldn’t shirk.

If Manchester United had kept me for another couple of years the trophies would have been rolling in

With United re-established, Docherty’s finest hour was halting Bob Paisley’s Liverpool from winning the treble courtesy of FA Cup final glory in 1977. “If they’d kept me for another couple of years the trophies would have been rolling in,” said Docherty. Instead, his love for Mary – the then wife of Laurie, the United physio – proved an issue nobody could skirt around.

Docherty served Derby, QPR – again – Sydney Olympic – twice – Preston, South Melbourne, Wolves and Altrincham in the conclusion of an extraordinary career. He was the original Mr More Clubs Than Jack Nicklaus.

The after-dinner circuit, rightly and successfully, beckoned. The Doc was inducted into Scottish football’s hall of fame in 2013 and last appeared at Hampden Park five years later, where he spoke warmly and hilariously – then aged 90 – about the goalkeeper Bobby Brown, who died in January. Craig Brown, in attendance that night, recalled how barely a Scotland game under his own management would go by without words of support and encouragement from Docherty.

Tommy Docherty was far from just a jolly japester and a colourful character; much as he may have tried to mask such a formidable football brain.

Tommy Docherty death: Former Manchester United and Scotland manager dies aged 92

Docherty was best known for his five-year spell at Old Trafford, overseeing an FA Cup final win over Bob Paisley’s Liverpool in 1977
Simon Peach
15 hours ago
https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/premier-league/manchester-united/tommy-docherty-death-man-u-scotland-manager-b1780956.html(Getty Images)
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Former Manchester United and Scotland manager Tommy Docherty has died at the age of 92 following a long illness, it has been confirmed.

Docherty, who was known as ‘The Doc’, spent nine years as a player with Preston, and won 25 caps for Scotland.

He went on to manage 12 clubs – including Chelsea, Aston Villa and Derby – as well as a stint in charge of his country.

But he was best known for his five-year spell at Old Trafford, overseeing an FA Cup final win over Bob Paisley’s Liverpool in 1977.

Docherty died at his home in the north-west on Thursday.

A family spokesperson said in a statement: “Tommy passed away peacefully surrounded by his family at home. He was a much-loved husband, father and papa and will be terribly missed.

“We ask that our privacy be respected at this time. There will be no further comment.”
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United added in a statement: “We are deeply saddened by the passing of Tommy Docherty, who led us to FA Cup victory in 1977 with a thrilling, attacking team in the best traditions of Manchester United.

“Everyone at the club sends sincere condolences to Tommy’s loved ones.”

Scottish Football Association president Rod Petrie said on the organisation’s website: “Football has lost a tremendous personality in Tommy Docherty. He was tenacious on the park and a great leader off it.

“Tommy was a regular in the Scotland side in the 1950s that qualified for two World Cups, and his record as Scotland manager was impressive, albeit cut short by his decision to take the Manchester United job.

“He was on record as saying that the biggest regret of his career was leaving his Scotland managerial role and looking at the results and performances he inspired, it is hard not to wonder what might have been had he remained.

“His charisma and love for the game shone even after he stopped managing and it was entirely fitting that Tommy should be inducted into the Scottish Football Hall of Fame for his lifelong service. Our thoughts are with his family and friends at this difficult time.”

Docherty began his playing career at Celtic, before spells with Preston, Arsenal and Chelsea, and the Hoops tweeted: “We are saddened to hear of the death of Tommy Docherty who spent two years with Celtic in the 1940s. Sincere condolences go out to his family and friends. RIP.”

Chelsea also paid tribute to their former player and manager.

A club statement on Twitter read: “Tommy was a legend of our game and our thoughts are with his family and close friends at this time.”

Tommy Docherty – manager of many clubs, quips, anecdotes and one-liners

BBC
Last updated on

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/55501577Tommy Docherty (back) said his biggest regret was leaving Scotland for Manchester United

Tommy Docherty, who has died at the age of 92, will be remembered as one of football’s great characters.

Known as “The Doc”, he managed 12 clubs and the Scotland national team during the most colourful of careers.

He was irrepressible, outspoken and often controversial, accruing a seemingly endless supply of anecdotes, quips and one-liners.

Docherty spent nine years as a player with Preston North End and played for Scotland at the 1958 World Cup in Sweden before a managerial career that took him to Portugal and Australia. However, he is probably best remembered for a five-year spell with Manchester United.

Born in the Gorbals district of Glasgow on 24 April 1928, he once said in a Daily Telegraph interview of his tough upbringing: “If you wanted a new pair of shoes, you went down the swimming baths in bare feet and just nicked a pair. I didn’t think it was morally wrong. It was the thing to do.”

His mother, Georgina, was a charwoman, but he recalled nothing of his father, Thomas, who worked in an iron foundry.

“I don’t remember him putting me on his knee, or telling me a story, or taking me to a park,” Docherty said. “I only remember the sound of my mum crying when there was a loud knock on the door to tell her he was dying.

“He was in hospital with pleurisy. They’d give you a couple of tablets for that now.”
Leaving Celtic one of biggest disappointments

Docherty started his career as a right-half at junior side Shettleston before joining boyhood heroes Celtic in 1947 after leaving the army, making his debut in a 1-0 home league defeat by Rangers.

He left for Preston in 1949 – the year in which he married his first wife, Agnes – after failing to pin down a first-team spot and said years later: “When I was a youngster, it was my one and only ambition to play in a green and white jersey. When I was transferred, it was one of the great disappointments of my life.”

His time at Deepdale included an appearance in the 1954 FA Cup final and he won the first of his 25 Scotland caps, playing twice in the 1954 World Cup finals.

In 1958, Docherty joined Arsenal, where he effectively ended his playing career.

Although he made a few appearances for Chelsea after moving to Stamford Bridge in February 1961, the switch brought about his first step into coaching and management.

He was unable to prevent the west London club being relegated from the top flight at the end of the 1961-62 season, but the Blues bounced back at the first attempt.

In 1964-65, they won the League Cup with an aggregate victory over Leicester City but lost the 1967 FA Cup final to Tottenham Hotspur.

Docherty left to become manager of unfashionable Rotherham United and memorably said: “I promised I would take Rotherham out of the Second Division – and I took them into the Third. The old chairman said, ‘Doc, you’re a man of your word!”‘

The Glaswegian left Rotherham after a year and began racking up a dizzying number of clubs while honing his repartee.

He had spells at Queens Park Rangers, Aston Villa and Porto and a term as assistant manager to Terry Neill at Hull City before leaving in 1971 to become manager of Scotland, first on a temporary basis, then permanently.

In December 1972, with Scotland having qualified for the 1974 World Cup finals in West Germany, he quit to take over at Manchester United.

“One of my biggest regrets was leaving the Scotland job when I did,” he later said.
One love lost, another gained

The Red Devils were relegated to the Second Division in 1974 but stormed back the next season as champions.

After United surprisingly lost the 1976 FA Cup final 1-0 to Second Division outfit Southampton, Docherty led his side to the FA Cup final again the following year, when they beat favourites Liverpool 2-1.

However, celebrations did not last as he was almost immediately sacked for having an affair with the wife of club physiotherapist Laurie Brown. Docherty later married Mary Brown and they remained together until his death.

They had two children, Lucy and Grace, while he had four children – Tom, Michael, Peter and Catherine – with Agnes, who died in 2002.

Docherty returned to management with Derby County before moving back to QPR, where was sacked, then reinstated after just nine days – and then sacked again.

He subsequently had spells at Sydney Olympic, Preston, South Melbourne and then managed Sydney again in 1983 before becoming boss of Wolverhampton Wanderers. Altrincham was his final managerial post before retirement at the end of the 1987-88 campaign.

Docherty later worked as an after-dinner speaker and media pundit and was inducted into the Scottish Football Hall of Fame in November.

He was still going strong with the jokes at the media conference but for once turned serious, saying: “This is something that will be there forever and will never be obliterated.”
‘The Doc was a law until himself’

There was no bigger character in the game than the Doc and there has never been one of such character since.

He was funny, he could argue with you, but if you had a raging argument with him, he would make up with you the next day – it didn’t affect your position in the team.

As far as company is concerned, I couldn’t have had better company over the years than Tommy Doc and, believe it or not, it was one of the biggest assets to his management style. The laughter and wit in the dressing-room before any game made every player relaxed.

He had these wild dreams. When we got relegated, he told everybody in Manchester we would be back the next year – it happened and it’s never easy to do that.

We went to an FA Cup final at Wembley and we were expected to win against Southampton and we didn’t – conceded a goal six minutes from the end. Got back into the dressing-room, we were down, but he lifted us by telling us we would be back next year and next year we won it, beating Liverpool.

I had Jock Stein who changed my life by taking me to Celtic as a young boy and then I went to Old Trafford with the Doc. He was an entertainer, a law unto himself and a great guy.

Tommy Docherty was a man of dazzling wit, and a joy to write a book with

The late Manchester United and Scotland manager, who died today aged 92, was one of football’s greatest characters. Martin Chilton recalls his time spent collaborating on a book with Docherty in the early Nineties
https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/tommy-docherty-death-man-utd-book-b1780990.html

f all the rag bag of jobs I’ve done in my life – sports editor, culture editor, music roadie, mail sorter, working in schools and in bars, book critic – few have been as wholly enjoyable as being Tommy Docherty’s ghostwriter, working with him on his memoir about managing Manchester United in the 1970s.

Docherty, who died today aged 92 following a long illness, was a true larger-than-life character, a football manager, known and loved for his rapid-fire wit. I first met Docherty when I was about 10. A “jobsworth” commissionaire stopped me going into the Hotel Russell in Holborn. I was trying to meet Bobby Charlton, Alex Stepney and their team-mates, who were in London for a match. “Let my nephew in,” boomed Docherty, in his gravelly Scottish voice, as he bounded up the steps. Docherty then led me through to meet the players in the lounge, joking that I might be fitter than a couple of them and asking whether I wanted to play at Chelsea the following day.

I told The Doc about my first memorable meeting with him when I was contracted to collaborate with him in 1991 on Manchester United: The Quest for Glory for the publishers Sidgwick & Jackson. By the time the book was being written, his eventful career as a manager was over. There was more than a little truth in his quip that he’d had “more clubs than golfer Jack Nicklaus”. After starting as player-coach at Chelsea in 1961, where he was soon promoted to manager, he went on to lead Rotherham, QPR (twice), Aston Villa, Porto, Scotland, Manchester United, Derby, Sydney Olympic, Preston, South Melbourne and Wolves, before his career ended at Altrincham in 1988.

The football he oversaw at United (1972-1977) was based on a glorious, attacking 4-2-4 system, built around a pacy midfield and two brilliant wingers, Steve Coppell and Gordon Hill. The fast, nippy style reflected his desire to play the two-touch football he’d been brought up with in a Preston side that featured the great striker Tom Finney.

Docherty steered the club through the traumatic post-Matt Busby years when he had been handed the tricky task of dismantling a team full of true football legends including Charlton, George Best and Denis Law. All three were either past their best or deeply troubled and Docherty admitted it was hard dealing with a club that was full of cynical old pros and “boardroom ****-stirrers”. He knew going into the job that his predecessor, Frank O’Farrell, had been harshly treated. Not many people knew that O’Farrell was a close friend of Docherty’s and actually sent him a letter warning him to watch his back with “The Knight” (Busby). Docherty kept the letter and allowed me to print it in the book.

After suffering relegation, Docherty took United straight back up. His rebuilt team, full of youngsters, went on to challenge for the title and beat an almost invincible Liverpool team to win the FA Cup in May 1977.

As a lifelong United fan, it was an honour to get the inside tales from a time I had followed the team from the terraces. Docherty, who was born in Glasgow, on 24 April 1928, the son of an iron foundry worker, never lost his Gorbals humour or bluntness. His stories were funny, insightful and sometimes shocking. An afternoon spent with him captioning the photographs for the book had me and the designer in stitches. Many of his tales were outrageous – and, unfortunately, deemed unprintable by the lawyers.

The wisecracking Scot was a football man through and through (when I saw him in his home, he would check teletext constantly for football news, even as a retired manager) and I loved hearing his tales of being a player. Docherty had a highly successful career in the game – he was a talented right-half for Celtic, Preston, Arsenal and Chelsea, and captained Scotland. His 25 caps included several for playing in the 1954 World Cup Finals. He once marked Spain’s Di Stefano in a famous Scotland win in 1957.

Although I was a relatively inexperienced football journalist – I was in my mid-twenties at the time – I think Docherty was fed up of jaded old hacks, and he took a shine to me. He invited me to stay with him, and his wife Mary Brown, in their home in Charlesworth in Cheshire, a beautiful converted farmhouse. He sometimes stopped joking and opened up about his background. He told me his mother never had much money and would dress him in clothes from jumble sales (“I looked like a First World War general”, he said). He admitted he was a real rascal in his young days and credited the Army for teaching him discipline.

During his two years’ national service in Palestine he was on guard duty at the King David Hotel in Jerusalem when it was blown up in July 1946. He saw quite a few friends perish among the 91 fatalities. It’s little wonder that the experience made him thick-skinned about dealing with the vagaries of football chairmen later in life. His tales of dealing with football owners were always funny. On one occasion the Derby chairman snoozed through a meeting, only to jolt awake and criticise Docherty for selling John O’Hare. “He was sold before I got here,” Docherty replied. “Well, that’s my opinion,” the chairman said, before returning to his sleep.

One of Docherty’s bête noires was supposedly Doug Ellis, the Aston Villa chairman. Ellis prompted one of Docherty’s most famous quotes. When Ellis said, “don’t worry, Tommy, I am right behind you,” Docherty replied, “I would rather have you in front of me, Mr Chairman.” Docherty told me that in fact their relationship was always amicable and remained strong even after he was sacked. Years later, Docherty sold Ellis some of the club shares he had been awarded as a manager to help him in a time of boardroom unrest. Ellis kept in touch and rang him just before one of our meetings, because they were due to appear on the same television show. “Please don’t take the piss out of me too much,” he pleaded with Docherty.

Ellis was right to be wary. Docherty’s cutting wit was memorable and some of his one-liners became part of football’s folklore:

“I’ve always said there’s a place for the press but they haven’t dug it yet.”

“They offered me a handshake of £10,000 to settle amicably. I told them that they would have to be a lot more amicable than that.”

“The ideal board of directors should be made up of three men – two dead and the other dying.”

Docherty retained a strong affection for Chelsea. It had been his debut job as a manager, when he was in his thirties (young then in football terms) and was tasked with controlling a group of strong-minded players, including Terry Venables, Peter Osgood and Ron “Chopper” Harris. Docherty once hurled a pasty at the back of Harris’s head, when he wasn’t paying attention during a team talk. Harris later joked that he deserved it. During his time at Stamford Bridge, Docherty won the League Cup in 1965. He told me that Chelsea remained friendly to him, sending a Christmas hamper from Harrods for many years afterwards.

Work on the Manchester United book was constantly side-tracked because he kept telling funny stories about his dealings with managers such as Bill Shankly, Brian Clough and Don Revie. He got on particularly well with fellow Scot Shankly and said the former Liverpool boss often told him the same joke about retired footballers. First they play bowls, then snooker and then golf, said Shankly, adding, “which just goes to prove that your balls do get smaller as you get older”. He would add the same punchline: “So, Tommy, how about a game of marbles?”

Docherty was unfailingly generous. He would treat me to lavish meals, with enough champagne, wine, brandy and cigars to sink a youngster. He introduced me to Sambuca, and once cooked a wonderfully tasty steak dinner, explaining that when he was a young player at Preston, he ran a restaurant on the side to make some extra money. We once drank champagne watching one of United’s European Cup Winners’ Cup games on the television. His running commentary was hilarious.

Mary, a shrewd, humorous woman, was also wonderful to this young ghost-writer and the perfect companion for Docherty, organising a lot of his life as an after-dinner speaker. She came from a more affluent background and their daughters Grace and Lucy loved horse riding. Docherty surprised his family once at Christmas with the present of a horse, which he had adorned with lights and Christmas decorations before leading it to the front door. Docherty told me that the only time he had gone riding, the horse went off into a snobby woman’s garden and shat all over her patio.

Mary and Tommy talked fondly of their days in Australia. Mary invited me out to lunch with them both – I was honoured, as she was wary of journalists – and she told me they used to sit out in the sun at their favourite café, playing scratch cards. All they had to wear were shorts, T-shirts and flip-flops, she said. “Ah Mary, don’t talk about your flip-flops, he’s only a young lad,” came Tommy’s instant wisecrack.

For one session on the book, he came down to the tiny flat I shared with my future wife Karen in Archway, and she was also won over by his banter. He took the mickey out of everything, from our odd-looking kittens to the security grill on the back door, which he said reminded him of a prison. Later that day, we had to endure a meeting with one of the pompous people who was working on the production of the book. “Well, thanks, Martin. It’s not often I get to lunch with The Brain of Britain,” was Docherty’s parting shot.

Even people within the game found him irrepressible. George Graham was full of stories about his former boss. When I met the ex-Arsenal and Tottenham manager Terry Neill, he told me that he had hired “The Doc” as assistant manager at Hull in 1971. In one of their first games together in the dugout, he was surprised to see Docherty rush out and suddenly hold up the No.5 sign, ordering the substitution of a defender. The surprised player trudged off, and Neill asked Docherty what was going on. “I’ve always wanted to do that,” said Docherty with a big grin.

Along with his club exploits, he is remembered fondly by his compatriots for his spell managing his country and still has one of the highest win success rates of any Scottish national team manager. Docherty will always be remembered most for what happened at Old Trafford. People of a certain age will remember the colossal fall-out when he was sacked in 1977, over an affair with Brown, the wife of the team’s physiotherapist, just after the team had won the FA Cup.

The real story of that period is murky and the hypocrisy about breaking the club’s so-called moral code – when Busby had a mistress and the board was full of characters of questionable ethics – remains dismal. “Martin, every day since leaving United I have felt clean about what I did. My marriage was over and Mary was getting a raw deal from her marriage,” Docherty told me. He and Mary remained together for the following 44 years and were devoted parents.

A year or so after the book was published, I was made redundant, a blow that came just before I was about to get married. Docherty, concerned that I was short of money, rang to offer the use of his country home for our honeymoon, saying he and Mary would go away for a week. For all the fun of being Docherty’s ghostwriter, and despite all the marvellous tales I heard in his dazzling company, it is for that kind, generous gesture that I will always toast his memory.

TOMMY DOCHERTY

http://celticunderground.net/tommy-docherty/
Posted by St Anthony | Jan 1, 2021 | Season 2020-2021 | 0 |
TOMMY DOCHERTY

Tommy Docherty has passed away at the grand old age of 92. A proud Glaswegian to the end, Tommy started his career in Scottish football with Celtic before going on to have an exceptional playing and management career south of the border.

In 2006 I attended an ‘audience’ with Tommy in the Citizen’s Theatre. Basically it was Tommy with a microphone and people asking questions from the stalls. Tommy was overjoyed to be back in the Gorbals, having been born in Crown Street before moving to the east end in his formative years. Tommy talked affectionately of his early football days in Glasgow with the Catholic Guild leagues. He paid tribute to the priests of his parishes who gave up their time to give boys from under privileged areas something worthwhile to do with their time and perhaps to keep them from trouble they may otherwise got involved with.

Tommy was proud of his Celtic connections and was honest enough to say that the best thing he did was to leave Parkhead. As a right half he was in competition with the great Bobby Evans and knew he had to go elsewhere to forge himself a career. And that he did, with great distinction, at club and international level.

Tommy has his successes with many teams as a manager and, it has to be said, was involved in many controversies and even court cases. He recalled with affection his short spell as Scotland manager between 1971 and 1973 where he deeply regretted not being able to take the country to the 1974 World Cup finals in West Germany, on the biggest football stage of all. He recalled the talents available to him, Jimmy Johnstone, Denis Law, Kenny Dalglish, Peter Lorimer, Bully Bremner and Martin Buchan and said it was a huge regret to leave Scotland for Manchester United but the lure of Old Trafford was too much.

He was very bitter when discussing Matt Busby. After he had left his wife for Mary Brown (the wife of the Manchester United physio) in 1977, he felt that Matt Busby had morally judged him over the matter. Busby, a devout Catholic, had huge influence at Old Trafford as a director and Tommy’s services were no longer required. He said that this was no sordid affair and that he and Mary married and were still happily together after all those years. He also mused over the shenanigans of Ron Atkinson at United and rued how judgements at Old Trafford had changed by the late 1980’s.

Ironically, on the day Tommy appeared at the Citizens in 2006, the Champions League draw had just been made with Celtic being paired with Manchester United. He was asked who he thought would win and he said that the head said United, but the heart will always, always say Celtic. He then confessed that every Saturday at ten to five he still looked for Celtic’s result first every week. As he said, ‘old habits die hard’.

He may have been playing to the audience that night but there’s no doubt that Tommy’s faith and upbringing were a huge influence on him, particularly his experiences of the Catholic Guild teams. It was clear from hearing him speak that this had left a huge impression and he appreciated the fact people had given him a helping hand in life, towards a better standard of living than he otherwise may have had.

Tommy was reckoned to be one of the oldest living Celtic players and was a huge personality and influence in British football for many decades.

May eternal light shine upon him.

Tommy Docherty was like Groucho Marx, firing a Gatling gun of gag

shttps://www.scotsman.com/sport/football/international/tommy-docherty-was-groucho-marx-firing-gatling-gun-gags-3083544Character. In Scottish football it means two things, or did once. For no manager in the game today uses the word as often as Jock Wallace back in the 1970s when he was eulogising his Rangers team. That kind of character was steel, both mental and physical.By Aidan SmithSunday, 3rd January 2021, 7:30 am

Then there’s the other kind of character, meaning presence and individuality. Maybe a rascally aspect, someone who could make us smile. Not easily forgotten, that’s for sure.

But where the blinking heck has he gone? Before the last-ever Only an Excuse? I was discussing this with Jonathan Watson. The decline of the character and the send-up show ending were not unconnected, the master mimic admitted. Then, a few hours before broadcast on Hogmanay, we learned that the biggest character of them all, Tommy Docherty, had passed away.

Biggest is not up for debate. In the Characters World Cup perhaps there would be a Scotland-England final, the latter being represented by Brian Clough, but I reckon our man would just edge it. The Doc had more jokes.

Before going any further we shouldn’t let the jokes get in the way of the football and his achievements as a manager. To remind myself of them I revved up YouTube for footage of his Manchester United. With the swashbuckling front three of Steve Coppell, Stuart Pearson and Gordon Hill, they played the way all Man U teams should, though some recently haven’t. I headed straight for Hillsborough and an FA Cup semi-final against Derby County. This was ’76 when the Doc’s XI were the most exciting in Britain. They were such a hot ticket that some fans had to watch from tree-tops. Those from Manchester – and back then most sporting red would actually have resided there – must have imperilled themselves when celebrating two Hill thundercracks.

But oh those gags. Sometimes I’m asked: “Who’s been your best interview?” Invariably what’s meant is: “Who was funniest?” Honorable mentions go to Tommy Gemmell (for his Jock Stein impressions), Neale Cooper (Alex Ferguson take-offs) and John Lambie, all of them hearing the final whistle in recent years. But – and I’m not saying this because he’s just joined them – Docherty wins again.

My audience with him came on a scorcher of a summer’s day back in 2010 but the quippery started two days before on the phone. “I’m in the middle of the North Sea!” he mock-gasped, as if bobbing astride a chunk of broken-up hull. The Doc was working his passage on a cruise through the Norwegian Fjords as the comedy turn. He snorted at the geriatric state of the passengers. “I’m sure some will be straight off the ship and into their coffins.” This from a then 82-year-old but one razor-sharp.

Collecting me from a train station on the Lancashire-Derbyshire border, Docherty in his silver Merc supplied a guided tour of the environs with a flirty wave for the sub-postmistress and a sneer for the local – not a football man – who’d originally confused him with Fergie until we arrived in the village of Compstall. There, his second wife Mary brought us tea and biscuits in the garden.

You might remember the stooshie which once surrounded this pair – Mary was still married to the Old Trafford physio when they began their affair; the Doc by the time of his sacking was sporting a black eye. “She’s the best thing that’s ever happened to me,” he declared, beaming in his beach shorts. Still, tea is only tea. When Mary left us to it – she’d heard his yarns a million times – he nipped indoors for a bottle of Chardonnay.

The stories flowed with the vino. On his tough 1930s Gorbals boyhood: “When I needed new shoes I popped along to the swimming baths and nicked a pair.” On his team-mates – Docherty a wing-half – at Scotland’s first World Cup in 1954: “Freddie Martin, the goalie, was like a crocus – he only came out once a year. Jock Aird at full-back only lacked one thing – ability. Jimmy Davidson did his best at centre-half although every pass came with a note: ‘To whom it may concern.’”

He continued on the theme of that tournament in Switzerland: “Our last training session before flying out was at Butlin’s, Ayr. The manager, Andy Beattie, quit as soon as the plane landed so Clyde’s sponge-man, Dawson Walker, took charge. We could have had a squad of 18 but only 13 players were taken. More places for the committee-men’s wives, I suppose. We had to bring our own soap and towels and our strips were as heavy as Crombie overcoats. The shorts went past our knees and the socks were double-knitted.” Sleekly-attired Uruguay thumped the Scots 7-0.

By the time Docherty took charge of Scotland in 1971 the set-up was slightly more professional. “Though Willie Allan, the SFA secretary, would open my mail. I had to stop that.” He didn’t take any nonsense, racing up to Aberdeen to question call-offs. Billy Bremner was pinned to a wall: “Let me down and I’ll chop off your legs.” Dundee United asked when their guys might expect squad involvement, to be told: “When they’re good enough.” The Doc awarded Kenny Dalglish his first cap. “And I called up lots of Hibs boys and also recruited their physio, Tom McNiven – though I didn’t fancy his wife.”

The gags were delivered by Gatling gun – Groucho Marx pulling the trigger. National service was all too brief when Man U came calling and he handed over to Willie Ormond: “First day, he asked me how to fill out an expenses form.” Would the ’74 World Cup have turned out differently if the Doc had stayed? We’ll never know. But this much is true: from his shoes, no longer needing to be stolen, to the trophy lid once famously worn on his head, this was a character.