McGrain, Danny – Misc Articles

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DANNY McGRAIN

By David Potter

It would have to be admitted that the name DANIEL FERGUS McGRAIN does sound as if its owner were Catholic, Irish and even an habitue of the slopes of Celtic Park of a Saturday afternoon. Well, just to prove that boneheaded-ness is not confined to the support of Ibrox and more than occasionally finds its way along the corridors of power, the coaching staff at Rangers concluded that this boy was not genetically or racially pure enough to wear a blue jersey and ignored him, leaving the way open to that famous Protestant called Jock Stein to sign yet another Protestant for a Club that did not employ such a bigoted, ignorant policy.

Danny was one of the Quality Street Kids who learned their football in the background during the late 1960s when the first team was winning everything in Scotland and impressing England and Europe as well.

He joined the Club when he was 17 on May 13th 1967 (12 days before THAT day of days) and stayed with the Club until 1987. During the intervening 20 years he played 657 times for Celtic and earned 62 caps for Scotland. He won seven League Championship medals, five Scottish Cup medals and two League Cup medals. He was the captain of the team from the late 1970s onwards.

He was unfortunate in that he was often the only player of real class at Parkhead at that time. The rest of the team were GOOD players (deservedly playing for Scotland, for example and winning medals for Celtic and other clubs), but Danny was a GREAT player – and it showed. He was a superb athlete, a great competitor and an inspiring captain, and thoroughly deserved his M.B.E. from the Queen in 1983.

Yet it might never have been had he not also shown the world his qualities of resilience that allowed him to recover from three problems that would have floored a lesser man. One was a fractured skull sustained more or less as he was breaking into the Celtic team on March 25th 1972, but from which he had recovered by the start of the following season; another was his being diagnosed as a diabetic and the necessity of insulin injections. Once again he showed the world what he is made of and remains an example to others who suffer from that distressing condition, and then there was that mysterious ankle injury which knocked him out of the 1977-78 season when Celtic really needed him and out of the 1978 World Cup disaster in Argentina, where it is hard to believe that his calming influence would not have been beneficial in that crazy Scotland set-up.

He was always a Glaswegian with the Glaswegian sense of humour. No great speechmaker, he nevertheless told the story about how he was attending a reserve football match and was spotted and recognised by a Rangers fan. The bluenose was about to launch into a tirade about the Pope, Fenians etc. before he remembered that this was not appropriate for the Protestant Danny. Danny then says, “He searched what there was of a brain before shouting ‘McGrain, you diabetic bastard!”

He also looks back with affection on his early days of working with Jock Stein, whom he called “Mr.Stein” when wanting a pass in a bounce game when Jock joined in. He looks back nostalgically on his peers “Davie Hay, George Connelly, Vic Davidson … and there was a young lad called Dalglish, I think his name was, that played as well!”

Those who saw Danny McGrain in his prime will say without any doubt that he was the best right back of his and possibly of all time. Yet he could play at left back as well, performing equally creditably. He was a complete footballer with everything except an ability to shoot – but then again, he would never have claimed to be a forward. Indeed his modesty was one of his more endearing characteristics, for he was never big headed enough to feel that Celtic and Scotland were not good enough for him and that he should move south to England.

He remained until his retirement Danny McGrain of Celtic and Scotland.

In later years he was manager of Hamilton Accies and Arbroath, but like Alec McNair of old, he simply was too nice a man for the nastiness of managing a Scottish football club.

Danny is now of course an integral member of the Celtic Youth Academy’s coaching staff.

Danny Leaves Celtic as a Player

Football: McGrain departs
Times, The (London, England)
May 14, 1987

The Scottish international full back, Danny McGrain has been given a free transfer by Celtic, ending a 20-year association with the club. McGrain said that the news provided him with the ‘worst day of my life’. McGrain is the most capped player in Celtic’s history, having appeared for Scotland 62 times.

Danny McGrain banned from Albania due to his beard!!!!

(From the Guardian)

Communist Albania frowned at all facial hair under its leader Enver Hoxha, who had made beards illegal before Celtic were due to travel for their 1979 European Cup first-round first leg tie against Partizan Tirana. The owner of a fine-follicled face-hugger himself, McGrain was understandably anxious before the trip, recalling that “there was a lot in the press about beards being banned there.”

As it transpired, no one told McGrain to shave it off and he went on to play in a 1-0 defeat. “I would have done it if they had asked, but I had actually seen a few people with them,” added the Celtic legend, whose side subsequently ran out 4-1 winners in the return game. “It was a little intimidating too because when we went outside there were only men in the streets and no women to be seen, but there was no bother at all.”

Right-back McGrain went on to win 62 caps for Scotland, before moving into management at Arbroath, where his fancy chin-warmer came to prominence again. “I’ll never forget how the fans took to Danny McGrain and his beard,” recalled then-chairman John Christison of the so-called ‘Danny McGrain’s Bearded Army’.

“It was crazy – but brilliant. They would all wear their own beards and we had 700 T-shirts printed up. They sold out in three days.”

Danny McGrain (becoming a Bhoy)

CelticFC.net
March 2012 & Nov 2013

Before you joined the club’s youth system, where were you playing football?
I played for Queen’s Park Strollers, which would be under-18s, along with Scottish schools. I played for the school in the morning and Queen’s Park in the afternoon, which I never found tiring at that age, although it shouldn’t have been tiring around 16 or 17. Apparently, Tommy Reilly, Mr Stein’s friend, came to watch Scottish schools with Sean Fallon, when we got hammered 4-1 by England schoolboys. I had just turned 17 at this time. Sean Fallon came up to my house in Drumchapel and wanted me to sign. Up to then, people were saying to me that I could be a professional footballer, but I never thought I would be a player. So when Sean Fallon came up to sign me on a part-time basis, I thought I needed to stay on at school. But he said that they would send me to college as I wanted to be a mechanical engineer – that was my hope. But I had to get a Higher in Maths. I got an O-level Maths but couldn’t understand Higher Maths. The club sent me to Reid Kerr College for a year and I still couldn’t understand it. At the same time, Kenny was training to be an apprentice joiner. It never worked out for me and I don’t think Kenny was enjoying being an apprentice joiner so when the year was out, me and Kenny decided to go and ask Mr Stein to go full-time.

Was it difficult juggling football and college when you were part-time?
I played Junior that year as the club wanted you to go out and get experience, and I learned to look after myself. Kenny was lucky and went to Cumbernauld, a brand new club with a new park. I went to Maryhill Juniors, an old club with an old park, and got kicked from pillar post. I never really enjoyed it. We never won one game in six months – it was that bad I got voted Player of the Year! Kenny was at Cumbernauld, scoring goals every week and was just a natural goalscorer. It wasn’t until years down the road that I realised what I had learned there. I learned how to look after myself and improve my awareness of the game. That was why Mr Stein wanted us to go there. Wherever you play, you always have to learn something, be it a good game, a bad game or an indifferent game, and take something from it. I was taking things in but wasn’t aware that I was doing it.

How did it feel to sign for the club?
I think it was relief as I didn’t have to do any more Maths! I didn’t have to try and get into the mechanical engineering.

With the club lifting the European Cup days after you joined, and regularly competing for top honours, it must have been an exciting time to be a young player at Celtic?
Of course and we reached the European Cup final in 1970 as well. I made my debut that year and Kenny and I went to the final, not as boot boys but for experience. How many chances do people get to go to a European Cup final with a team? Again that was the type of manager Mr Stein was. It was great to see the preparation but then we lost to Feyenoord, which was awful for us as the first-team were our pals now. Dutch football had been in its infancy but unknown to us it was growing. They came and took over, and played us off the park that night.

What were those first weeks like?
We did go full-time and we signed the week after Lisbon and the following week we were in training with theses guys. To go from being at college at 17 or 18, from Drumchapel, and go all the way to Celtic Park and train altogether as one group with the Lions was amazing. I just remember the first pre-season running around the track and running and running…with these older guys and names that I heard of like Big Billy and Bobby. We thought we could outrun them. We did some hard work and Big Billy was just passing me as if I was stuck in mud and I was giving it everything. That was my first introduction. I went from there and three years later I made my debut.

Were you ever intimidated when you walked into a dressing room occupied by such household names?
No, because when we first arrived we trained together. We were one squad. It wasn’t a first-team squad and reserve squad, so we got to know each other. We would play games together. You would be playing alongside and against the likes of wee Jimmy, Bobby, Big Billy and Bertie. You can’t become friends as we were too young but you just to know them, so when you made your first-team debut it was still a daunting task but you weren’t as nervous. They were still the Lisbon Lions, you still had a great respect for them, and I have great deal to thank them for. For me, Kenny, Victor and Paul to be able to play with these guys was like being at Yale University for football. We had to take everything from it, and I thing we did that.

What it was like being part of such a talented group of young players at the club?
I think Jock Stein and Sean Fallon gave everyone the confidence that they could make it. The whole Lisbon team were ahead of us and it might be another five years before I could even try and get into the first-team. Originally, I was a midfielder who would run about everywhere, and Mr Stein and Sean Fallon put players in various positions in the reserve team – I think I played every position apart from centre forward and centre-half. After two or three years, Mr Stein thought I would be a full-back. However, I never thought I could be a full-back as I always thought that full-backs had to be hard tacklers and good defenders but once I played there I was comfortable. At that time, I was playing with Kenny, Vic Davidson, Lou Macari and Paul Wilson – all guys who made it into the first-team. And because we all made it into the first-team, it made it a bit easier to come into. Because we had come through together, you knew what kind of passes they wanted and what they liked.

Was it a good grounding to play in that reserve set-up before you went into the first-team?
Charlie Gallagher played alongside us a lot and he was a very good player. You learned from him and there would be others who would play when they were coming back from injury. Davie Cattanach was there most of the time as well and he was a rough and ready defender who was very enthusiastic. It was good for us to see someone who was perhaps out the picture but still had great enthusiasm for the club and still worked hard. He also takes a bit of credit for our knowledge of the game.

After signing for the club back in 1967, could you have ever imagined having such an illustrious career and still being at the club nearly 45 years later?
I was quite happy getting the first day over with and the games out of the way! Nobody ever thinks that’s going to happen. But it’s been enjoyable. I left in ’87 and never came back until ’97. I still kept in touch and still watched the games – but I don’t count those 10 years, they never existed! So it’s been a long time but I have enjoyed every day of it.

Greatest player I played alongside
Obviously I played with the whole Lisbon Lions team and each and every one of them were great players, and wee Jimmy Johnstone has been voted the best player ever so who am I to say he´s not. Bobby Lennox was a great player and they all were to have won the European Cup. Of my era, Kenny Dalglish was the best to play with for his attributes of passing, creating goals and scoring goals himself – he would be up there. Kenny´s greatest asset was his brain and his use of physicality. He very rarely got injured. When he played up here he was just fantastic, and while we as players never took him for granted, the Scottish football media did. When he did go there was a big gap in our football up here. He replaced Kevin Keegan, who people thought was irreplaceable, and he actually overtook Kevin Keegan in the minds of Liverpool supporters. He blossomed playing with better players in a better league, and grew into a giant of football.

Toughest opponent
I always thought it was going to be my opponent for Brazil in the 1974 World Cup – Jarzinho. I was playing left-back and had only been playing there for about two years, and I had seen this guy having a great World Cup four years previously. We thought Brazil were going to give us a doing, but 15 minutes into the game it was still 0-0. So we started thinking that these players aren´t as good as we thought they were. I think some of them had enjoyed themselves in the four-year gap between the World Cups. Jarzinho just wasn’t up for it. We got through the game with a goal-less draw so we were delighted and were actually disappointed not to get a victory in the end. But the hardest opponent for me was Arthur Graham of Aberdeen. He worked under Fergie and he was a good player. Most people you played against, you could give them a wee kick or dunt and they would go back up the pitch a bit, which is you wanted. The further away they were from my goal, the better I felt. Arthur had this great trick of coming in just after you cleared the ball. It was an art-form. His timing was just great. It wasn’t too early to do too much damage but it was just fractionally late. That meant I was thinking about him coming in late which would take my mind off the ball. Just that half second and my intended pass might go out for a throw-in or go to one of their players, so it worked. Arthur was quite pacey and he played in a good team so he was always getting good service – but he never got by me that often!

Favourite game
I played in some great European games but I have to say the St Mirren game in 1986 when we won 5-0 to win the league. Everybody who played in that game played well. There wasn’t one bad player. We went into that game, thinking Hearts just needed a point against a struggling Dundee team and we thought they would beat them. So we thought we were just there to play out the 90 minutes, and we started the game in that mindset and played so well. We were 4-0 up at half-time and it was still goal-less at Dens Park. We still hadn´t won the championship and thought Hearts would still score a goal or two in the second half. But then the game restarts and suddenly the crowd starts to cheer. We hadn´t scored a goal so obviously something had happened at Dundee. Then we scored a fifth goal and then the crowd started cheering again and then we knew we were in with a chance. The game was over in a flash. Usually in games you are concentrated on winning it but none of us were even thinking about that match. We were all playing with a great freedom as if it was a bounce game. Brian McClair got two so did Maurice Johnston and Paul McStay got one. Obviously people who hadn´t been to the game heard that Dundee had scored so I think a lot of people came for the celebration. The ground was busy for a meaningless game as the Celtic supporters came to give us their backing, but the crowd seemed to double in size by the end of the game! After the game all the punters were on the park and I was thinking, ´where did all these people come from!´

Most disappointing game
There are a few but one of them was losing to Real Madrid in the European Cup quarter-final in 1980. We beat them here 2-0 and lost 3-0 over there. That was just abysmal. To be part of that team before the game was great, but it was just total embarrassment afterwards. They weren´t a great team back then and we shouldn’t have lost three goals in Spain and should have at least scored one.

Favourite away ground
I liked Ibrox because it was just a nice big park. I enjoyed the stick I got from the supporters. The more they booed you the better the player you were. If you were a good player or just an ordinary player, they would just shout and swear at you but I used to get booed. I knew they didn’t like me. Hampden was good and Aberdeen was a good park as well. It was tight but it was always in good condition. Kilmarnock always had a pristine pitch, too.

Least favourite ground
Brockville, Falkirk´s old home ground. It was just terrible. You would be taking a throw-in and it felt like you were just a yard from the crowd. It was such a tight ground. There was a big shed they had with steel railing and if you were going at pace and hit these railing you would have had it. It was a defenders´ park. The measurements of the pitch must have been tiny. You just felt so enclosed. Every space was filled. It was also the ground where I had my skull facture, though that´s not the reason why I didn’t like Brockville. It was just such a tight park.

Proudest moment
Being given the captaincy when Kenny left in the summer of 1977, just around the time we went to Singapore and Australia for a tournament against Red Star Belgrade, Arsenal, a Singapore XI and an Australia XI. You can´t put it into words what it meant. I went home that night and thought, ´I´m the captain of Celtic´. There isn´t a phrase that can describe it. You can say it was fantastic or brilliant, but it was more than that. You were representing the club, fronting the club. I was captaining a team that had won a European Cup and was renowned around the whole world. I was hoping we could go on a good roll, but in my first year as captain we won nothing!

Biggest regret
I don´t have any regrets. I could say that I could have gone to England and done this and that but as far as I know, no-one came for me. I was diagnosed as a diabetic in 1974 and I don´t know if I would sign me after that. I personally didn’t know how long I would be able to play for. No-one actually told me that I could play on without a problem but diabetes has never affected me once. I was diagnosed in 1974 and played on until 1987 so I played for another 13 years without any problems. I remember Alex Ferguson phoned me to ask if he should sign Gary Mabbut, as he was diabetic. He crossed every T and did everything by the book. Gary was great and played for a long time after that but Alex Ferguson didn’t sign him. Maybe he never listened to my advice and just didn’t want to gamble with the money or maybe he just found a better player.

Greatest goal scored
I didn’t score good goals! I remember scoring against Gordon Marshall´s dad at Arbroath. I got to the touchline and was off balance when I was cutting the ball back. He anticipated me cutting it back and it went too early and the ball went inside him and into the net. Everyone laughed as it was such a stupid goal! I also scored against Jim McArthur for Hibs. It went through a ruck of players and the ball didn’t seem to be going at a fast pace but it ended up going into the back of the net. My favourite goal was one I scored at Motherwell. I should have scored three that day but I think I gave Vic Davidson one or two of them by cutting the ball back. I had three chances but gave two away. If anyone can remember me scoring a goal, please write in and let me know about it!

Greatest goal witnessed
Joe Jordan´s goal for Scotland against Czechoslovakia in 1973. It wasn’t a great goal but it meant that we had qualified for the World Cup for the first time in about 15 years. You see people having great strikes and winning goals but Joe Jordan will always be remembered for that goal.

Tell us something we don´t know about your career
I am proud of showing that having diabetes shouldn’t stop you having an active life. A lot more people seem to be getting diabetes now, whether it be type one (where you inject) or type two (where you don´t). For anyone who has type one and wants to be a good athlete, golfer or rock climber etc – it´s not going to stop you. I played with it for 13 years and never had a problem. It’s all about how you look after yourself and live your life.

Quotes And Tributes

Early Celtic Memories
McGrain cannot recall his precise Celtic debut, but he remembers an early first team experience in August 1970 when he replaced Harry Hood in a League Cup tie against Dundee United at Tannadice.

He revealed: “I came on for Harry at half-time and Bobby Murdoch played a pass to give me an early touch to calm any nerves. But I allowed the ball to run under my foot and it went out for a throw-in.

“But, thankfully, Bobby didn’t give me a hard time. He could see I was nervous and told me it was OK. His encouragement boosted my confidence.”

In July 1967, when, together with Kenny Dalglish, his great friend, he dared to ask Stein if they could go full-time at the club. The pair were miserable as respectively a trainee mechanical engineer and an apprentice joiner. “Football was the easy option. Kenny and I thought the real world was too hard.”

McGrain and Kenny Dalglish, two of the most outstanding members of Celtic’s “Quality Street” gang, had accompanied the squad to Milan for the European Cup final against Feyenoord as kit boys.

Danny on The Manager
“Mr Stein was an imposing figure. I was in awe when I first met Mr Stein, and I thought I was all through my playing career.

“He meant something to every player. Whether or not they liked him as a person he was loved for what he did for their careers.

“How big an influence was he? How long is a piece of string? He was a nice man. A nice, nice man. You don’t remember the things your dad did to you that were bad. You remember the nice things like Christmas or your birthday. Maybe Mr Stein could give you stick, but it was forgotten outside the dressing room. He taught me so much. He hurried things up for me.”

McGrain had been signed from Queen’s Park Strollers on the recommendation of Jock Stein’s assistant, Sean Fallon.

“But it was Sean who wanted to sign me and Kenny and I owe him a lot. To this day whenever I meet Sean I want to thank him.”

Commenting on the 4-2 game
“At the start of the season it looked as if I didn’t have a football future. I suffered an ankle injury which kept me out of the World Cup and I was told I wouldn’t play again. Now I was the skipper of the title winners; it was some turn-around.”

Best Moment With Celtic
It’s difficult to pick one moment from all that time, but beating St Mirren 5-0 at Love Street to win the championship in 1986 was a great moment.

Worst
When Mr Stein left, he was missed around the club and there was a void left by his absence.

Favourite Away Ground
I loved the whole atmosphere and the love/hate thing at Ibrox. There was more blood and thunder in those days, but that was more acceptable then.

Favourite Goal Scored
Mine were quite forgettable. My biggest was probably against Partick Thistle in the Glasgow Cup, when I scored the winner to take us to the final!

“My bottle just went in the box. I just couldn’t score.”

Discipline
McGrain, despite the ferocity of his talking, was not a dirty player. He received only one red card in his career of 650 games for Celtic and 62 for Scotland. It came against Aberdeen at Celtic Park on October 9, 1982, for two fouls on Peter Weir. The second was worthy of a yellow card, the first was not. “I was late for the second one, unfortunately I only realised that when I was in mid-air. It’s always like that when you are late.”

Tackling is a “lost art”
“You can’t tackle now and I do see more young guys copying professional players by feigning injury. We used to laugh at the Italians for doing it, now we copy them.”

“My tackling was good because my timing was good. Okay, not every tackle was inch-perfect, but I never went in to hurt anybody.”

Injuries and Illness
He sustained a fractured skull after a clash with Doug Somner at Brockville on March 25, 1972, and then there was the discovery that he suffered from diabetes after the 1974 World Cup.

“The fracture wasn’t that severe,” says McGrain, touching his forehead. “Wee Louie (Macari) didn’t want to go on because it was a cold day at Brockville, but I said I felt okay and then I collapsed as I tried to leave the dressing room. I woke up in an ambulance on my way to hospital.”

After an anxious three months when double vision persisted, McGrain’s rehabilitation started sitting at home heading a balloon and was completed when Bertie Miller, of Aberdeen, blootered him with ball at the beginning of the 1972-73 season.

It was the searing heat of Frankfurt, Scotland’s base at the 1974 World Cup, that made McGrain realise he was again seriously ill. He lost two stones in weight during the tournament and his nights were spent on a depressing cycle of drinking pints of orange juice and then going to the toilet. On his return, his wife, Laraine, insisted that he visited the doctor and he was diagnosed diabetic. If Scotland had progressed, as they came agonisingly close to doing, he could have suffered a diabetic coma.

Later injuries, such as a broken leg and the mysterious ankle injury which he sustained when he and John Blackley clattered into each other at Celtic Park in 1977.

The ankle problem, finally cured by acupuncture, meant McGrain missed Argentina, but he played against New Zealand and the USSR in Spain four years later.

Danny Versus . . .
Jairzinho, who had scored in every game of the 1970 finals and tormented Giacinto Facchetti, the legendary Italian left-back, in Brazil’s 4-1 final victory, hardly got a kick when he faced McGrain in Scotland’s 0-0 draw with the world champions.

Jairzinho, he insists, “wasn’t the same player” he had gaped at on television four years previously and was hardly as troublesome as Arthur Graham, of Aberdeen. “You would be allowed one hard tackle at the start of the game, but Arthur could take it and when you had the ball he would tackle you. Davie Cooper was tough to pin down, but if you tackled him hard he would drift back deeper where he was less dangerous. Arthur just kept coming.”

Teammates on Danny
Billy McNeill, “a real cruel tackler at times”.

Tommy Burns still winces at the memory of their Celtic training sessions together. “He came through you like a ton of bricks. There was never any going through the motions for Danny. He was consistently phenomenal, the greatest player I played with.”

Jim Craig: after I got married, I picked up Danny at Canniesburn Toll. Evan Williams, our goalkeeper, used to live out that way too and he would give Danny lifts as well. One day we decided to play a trick on him. Evan drove past Danny and said: ‘Don’t worry, Jim will be along in a minute’. Then I drove past and shouted: ‘Evan will pick you up today, Danny’. We watched from behind some bushes as he looked around frantically for a taxi.”

Jim McLean on Danny
Stein had just told McGrain, who had captained the Scots to a 5-2 win in the opening game against New Zealand, he was being dropped.

Liverpool skipper Graeme Souness was handed the armband at the expense of his vastly-experienced colleague, then 32 and a veteran of the 1974 World Cup.

Ultimately McGrain would win the last of his 62 caps in the final game against the USSR in Malaga, a 2-2 draw, but it was not unreasonable to believe he feared he’d already played his last game when Stein read out the team.

McLean said: “A lot of players at international level do have big egos but Danny’s reaction that day was the act of a true professional.

“He must have been shattered when Jock announced the starting 11 in a team meeting a few hours before the game.

“But as soon as Jock finished listing the team and addressing the squad Danny was the first player on his feet to roar encouragement to the others.

“I’d never seen that side of Danny. He was not an out-and-out motivator because he preferred to set his examples quietly and was enormously respected by the rest of the players as a result.

“Football is a team game but we’re still all selfish at times and in that situation every player was sitting nervously, hoping he’d be picked.

“Danny was a fixture in the side and must have been so disappointed not to be listed.

“But his first thought was for the team and I will never forget his reaction.

Ally Dawson on Danny
The one [game v Celtic] that stands out for me was the second game I played after I returned from a fractured skull. I made my comeback in an Anglo-Scottish Cup tie against Chesterfield and then it was straight into a match against Celtic. We won that game 1-0 at Ibrox.

But what sticks out in my mind was that after that match Danny McGrain made a point of coming up to me to ask how I was. He had suffered a fractured skull himself and wished me all the best with my recovery. That speaks volumes.

Hugh McIlvanney on Danny
“When great racehorse trainers talk about the best thoroughbreds, they emphasise not only talent but attitude. In addition to the obvious qualities of pace and skill that Danny brought to football, there was the priceless asset of his approach to the game. He encountered all kinds of problems through injury and difficulties with his health, but nothing could prevent him from being prodigious on the field.

“Anybody who saw him at his best had the unmistakeable impression of watching a great player, probably one who had no superior anywhere in the world.”

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Interview: Danny McGrain still going strong at 62

WAITING in reception for Danny McGrain, I’m enjoying the view of the Campsies as they rise out of the mist.

Aidan Smith

https://www.scotsman.com/sport/football/competitions/premiership/interview-danny-mcgrain-still-going-strong-at-62-1-2782594

It’s a stunning backdrop and you can’t help wondering how many Celtic-minded bods have fantasised about the phizogs of Hoops notables being carved out of the hills, Mount Rushmore-style. Kenny Dalglish, Henrik Larsson, Wayne Biggins? It’s a good parlour-game, deciding who should be immortalised in rock, and surely today’s subject would be a top contender.

International week means the Lennoxtown training complex is quiet, although a lycra-clad expert in stretching is attending to Fraser Forster’s troublesome neck. This is the kind of specialist care which simply wasn’t available to the likes of McGrain. Forty-one years ago at Brockville, he banged heads with Falkirk’s Doug Somner and, on coming round, was greeted with a swish of the “magic sponge” and a reluctant substitute. McGrain played on with what was later diagnosed as a fractured skull.

With or without characterful dents, his face would be a stone-carver’s delight, just as it appealed to the painter Humphrey Ocean who crafted his likeness for the Scottish National Portrait Gallery a few years back. The beard is grey now, giving him a craggy, seafaring aspect, and his specs are kept close on a piece of cord. But there’s also a glint of gold round his neck, while a fat ring bears the initials “DM”. He may have always looked older than Dalglish and the rest of the Quality Street Gang, but he was still a footballer from Glasgow. That requires a degree of gallusness which you simply don’t see anywhere else, at least not in men of 62.

Now it’s possible you do not regard McGrain, these days part of Neil Lennon’s coaching staff, as one of oor fitba’s towering intellectuals, wherever they may be. If so, there’s a good chance your reasoning, itself wholly non-intellectual, is largely based on that dunt on the head. Well, regarding the incident, consider this afterthought: “Brockville was always a defender’s park. It suited me but not guys like wee Louie [Lou Macari, the 12th man who stayed put] because it was just too tight for attackers.” An obvious point? Ah, that must be why I’ve never heard anyone make it before…
McGrain questions accepted wisdom. He says things like: “Before the term ‘world-class’ became such a cliché … ” (and this a full 24 hours before England captain Steven Gerrard called for the phrase to be banned in relation to Jack Wilshire, for the player’s benefit). He self-edits (“No, not like a shark smelling blood, like a lion that hadn’t eaten for days…”). And rather than quote from his own highly romantic backstory for the umpteenth time, he throws me by casting doubt on its veracity. Did a Rangers scout really decide not to pursue interest after discovering his full name was Daniel Fergus McGrain? “That’s the legend, but I’m no’ sure. In fact, I wonder if it wasn’t started by some wee Glasgow guy. I must have been 16, playing for Queen’s Park Strollers. If the scout was doing his job properly then he could have easily found out I was a pupil at Kingsridge Secondary in Drumchapel – a Protestant school. That’s if the scout even existed… ”
Fraser Forster is trying to get fit for Juventus and Champions League knockout on Tuesday. Back in September 1981, according to reports, McGrain “rose from his sick bed” to captain Celtic against Juve in the first round of the European Cup. He laughs. “Did I have a cold maybe? That must have been all it was because I wouldn’t have wanted to miss a great European night at Celtic Park. Juventus wore blue, I remember. An exquisite team, [Roberto] Bettega and all those guys.” (And Dino Zoff, Marco Tardelli, Claudio Gentile, Antonio Cabrini and Gaetano Scirea who would help Italy lift the World Cup the following summer).
Famously, the Lisbon Lions were gobsmacked by Inter Milan’s matinee-idol handsomeness and their colognes. Were the Juve of ’81 similarly fragrant? Another chuckle. “I’m sure they were, but I think the personal hygiene of us Glasgow boys had come on a bit since ’67 so we wouldn’t have noticed and probably we thought we were smelling quite nice ourselves!” He remembers the slow tempo the Old Lady tried to impose on the game, and some diving. “In Scotland at that time if you kicked somebody they’d swear a bit – actually, a lot – but no one went down like they’d been shot. Now they all do. But I hate to sound like an old footballer moaning … ”

A Murdo MacLeod goal gave Celtic the narrowest of leads but before the return McGrain broke a leg in a clash with Partick Thistle’s Kenny Watson – “a big hulk of a guy with all this hair but a total accident.” In Turin a young fellow called David Moyes deputised while he watched from the stands. “The Juve fans threw fruit at our guys as they walked up the tunnel, or maybe it was tatties.” That man Bettega won it for the Italians, 2-1 on aggregate.
This gets McGrain thinking about other Italian jobs, including a Celtic youths tour at a highly impressionable 17. Was that his first time abroad? “Naw, I’d been to Butlins at Margate! But that was an incredible trip for a boy to make and, yes, just the smell of Italy was exciting. And, boys being boys, Italian girls were very exciting.” Then there was Milan and Celtic’s second European Cup final in three years under Jock Stein whom 
McGrain still refers to as “Mr”.
“Kenny Dalglish and I were picked as the boot boys, an enormous privilege. I couldn’t get over how relaxed the build-up was. The final of the European Cup and there was Mr Stein officiating games of headers on the hotel tennis-courts. I sat them out, probably because I wasn’t good enough, but Kenny played alongside Big Billy [McNeill], John Clark, Yogi [John Hughes], Bobby Murdoch. And Jimmy Johnstone and Bobby Lennox – two funny guys. Funny sitting down together – I’m picturing them right now – and funny walking about. They were just two cheeky imps who were aye thinking: ‘How can we have a laugh here?’”
Did the young McGrain dream about some Jinky-Lennox malarkey inadvertently injuring the regular full-backs, 
propelling him into the starting line-up? He scoffs. “I must be one of few players who doesn’t dream. They all do now, don’t they? ‘I dreamt I was going to score the last-minute goal that won us the cup,’ they say. Just tosh. I don’t believe you can dream about something that hasn’t yet happened.”

This sounds like the same McGrain who used to be so uncomfortable wearing the epithet of “the world’s best right-back”. He still thinks such proclamations are daft, with huge potential for embarrassment. “I know they’re compliments and well-meant, but they were made when we didn’t see much football from other countries on TV and now that we do, folk are still at it. Then you go to a big tournament and realise there’s a heck of a lot of football played in the world. Who was talking about Feyenoord before they beat Celtic [in ’70]? Then quickly after them came Ajax, the whole Dutch 
revolution.”
Nevertheless, McGrain was pretty good, wasn’t he? Amassing 663 appearances, he was part of Celtic’s nine-in-a-row, the team that won the league with ten men (this is where his hungry lion comes in), the team that caught Hearts at the last-gasp. Seven championships, five Scottish Cups. All of that despite the fractured skull, the broken leg, a mystery, year-long ankle injury – and the diabetes. “At the 1974 World Cup, half-time in the first game against Zaire and right through Willie Ormond’s team-talk, I was lying underneath a tap used for washing boots – I couldn’t get enough fluid in me.” The condition was only diagnosed on his return from Germany having shed two stones. Against Brazil, he would still saunter across to the left-back berth and shackle Jairzinho. “Ach, he wasn’t the player he’d been in Mexico,” says our man of the night Scotland annihilated the world champs 0-0. “Jarzinho had won the World Cup and been feted for it. Over those four years he’d enjoyed himself maybe a bit too much. Rivelino was the same and, to be honest, Brazil disappointed me. Even though we benefited, I felt let down.”
Yet more evidence of the thoughtful football man. “I didn’t even want to be a footballer,” he continues. “I wanted to be a mechanical engineer but couldn’t understand Higher Maths. I watched the ’66 World Cup on TV, and fabulous Brazil in ’70, and never dreamed I’d be playing in the next one. Well, you know I dinnae dream of such things. Before my Celtic debut [’72, the old League Cup groups, sub for Harry Hood] I’d been going: ‘Please don’t let anyone get injured.’ Mr Stein almost had to push me on with a fork handle. Then at the final whistle I was like: ‘Brilliant, I want more.’
McGrain won a lot, where does he keep the medals? “They’re up in the loft, mouldering away. I don’t need them on display. The kids know who I am.” He and his wife Laraine have three daughters and one of their grand-daughters, four-year-old Dawn, has posted them a photo from Hong Kong for every day she’s been alive. A few images from his career adorn the walls: one with Stein and another leading out Scotland at Wembley in ’81, a game won with a penalty by John Robertson (“Brian Clough ripped into him for his slovenliness but with a ball at his feet he was wonderful”). A third is of McGrain and Dalglish, fast friends from the off.
“You find your pals through likes or dislikes which in Scottish football can often mean: does he drink? Neither of us did, although in Kenny’s case that was down to him being too bloody miserable to buy any!” He remembers the day they were the only ones to be spared a half-time blast from Big Jock despite the Celts being two-up against Hearts and how much that unnerved them. The upbraiding would follow later, in private, from Billy McNeill and Jimmy Johnstone. “Mr Stein’s psychology was it would have more impact coming from guys we were in awe of. Apparently, he thought we had a bit too much swagger about us. I can just imagine Jinky taking his orders: ‘Yeah, Gaffer, swagger – we’ll deal with it.’ Did we? I’m not sure, although I never doubted Mr Stein. We went on to win that game 4-0, by the way – quite a swaggering performance!”

McGrain reckons his big thing was consistency, nearly always the same level of performance. “I can’t remember many bad games, nor many outstanding games,” he says, though many would take issue with him on the latter. He’s been consistently entertaining and insightful for a full 90 minutes today. On what our great game might have lost, he says: “Supporters’ club functions. Not for the prizes – silverware, some crystal or for Frank McGarvey once, a vacuum-cleaner – but so that fans could meet the players. Mr Stein sent us out to them all the time but they don’t seem to happen so much now. Maybe the associations think what they could afford to give the modern footballer is too paltry.”
He’s been happy to talk up the immortals some more (“In ’74 we wanted to do well for Billy Bremner and Denis Law who would never get to another World Cup”) but also careful not to forget other notables, less quoted. “John Brownlie was probably a better right-back than me but he suffered such a bad leg-break.” Then there was Brownlie’s Hibs team-mate Erich Schaedler. “What a superb physical specimen. In Germany, because of IRA death-threats against Sandy Jardine, we had security with us at all times. Erich was aye asking them how they neutralised a guy but they wouldn’t say. He was convinced they had a technique like Mr Spock’s in Star Trek – you know, just a slight squeeze of the shoulders – and would try it out on the rest of the boys. But Erich – hard, hard man – couldn’t do slight squeezes!”
Among the Quality Street Gang, George Connelly was the great enigma. “He was from Kincardine, loved the place and you couldn’t take it out of him. As much as I’m from Drumchapel I think I’ve grown through football and learned how to communicate with people. The poor lad just couldn’t handle being recognised but he was a rare talent.” Now we’re circumnavigating Planet Football with this would-be sailor – to Real Madrid (“Another debacle”) and Atletico Madrid (“Veins sticking out of necks with hatred – but I always loved games where the fans booed you”). To Ujpest Dozsa (“Godawful strips, just lilac T-shirts”) and Partizan Tirana (“There was a rumour I’d be banned from entering Albania because of my beard; I wish I had been. Every meal-time the same consomme with a raw egg on top, guys holding hands in the street. To us from the west of Scotland that wasn’t right”).
We’ve come full circle and are back in Turin. “That was when I discovered champagne! We were in Italy’s region for it, so we were told, so with me not playing and my leg in plaster I thought it would be impolite not to try some at lunchtime and downright rude not to have a bit more with my dinner. Although as you know I dinnae drink!”

Danny McGrain: If Neil Lennon wins 10-in-a-row I hope he gets the knighthood that Jock Stein should have got

https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/danny-mcgrain-neil-lennon-wins-1842862

NEIL LENNON hadn’t been born when Danny McGrain was part of his first title-winning Celtic side.

And there was no such club as Inverness Caley Thistle when McGrain began the glittering career that saw him make 657 appearances for his club.

But tomorrow the man Lennon appointed as first-team coach will stand beside the manager in the dugout as Celtic aim to celebrate their second title in succession by beating the Highland side.

The moment will give Danny, two weeks short of his 63rd birthday, pause for reflection on the passage of time.

But he’s not one of those who believes that in his day players were better and so was the standard of Scottish football.

He believes in fresh horizons.

The side he was part of claimed the original nine in a row but McGrain believes the team he works with now could be laying the foundations for a history-making 10 successive titles.

McGrain made his name in a side that contained Jimmy Johnstone and also forced him into direct competition with the late Davie Cooper at Rangers.

But arguably the finest full-back of his generation claims the player he would have hated to face most is James Forrest.

McGrain says he doesn’t do memory lane because he can’t remember anything about a playing career that began with his debut at Tannadice in 1970.

But over the course of a conversation at Lennoxtown yesterday he proved he can instantly recall more than he lets on.

And the Celtic legend holds firm opinions on the present day, particularly where Lennon is concerned.

In fact, McGrain would go so far as to say it’s the arrival of Lennon in the manager’s office that most provides him with the inspiration to prolong a time at Celtic that will forever see him enshrined as one of the club’s greats.

He said: “It’s working with Lenny and good players that makes you want to get up and come to your work every day.

“You could hardly call it a hardship to work beside someone who talks about the game incessantly and observe the way he treats players.

“There isn’t much in the way of TLC. It’s more a case of handling players the way they need to be treated and that can range from being a disciplinarian to speaking to them as a father would to a son.”

McGrain is Lennon’s link to the greatest Celtic manager of them all, Jock Stein.

It was Stein who had handed him a debut in a world far removed from the environment he works in today.

“I had no ambition to be a pro footballer,” said McGrain. “I would have ended up as a mechanical engineer if I’d been able to get my head around Higher maths.

“Mr Stein didn’t even ask me at first to go full-time. He told me to stick to the day job and kept Kenny Dalglish as an apprentice joiner.

“The kids I see coming into the academy here want to be footballers or pop stars because they’re part of a TV generation who see that as a glamorous way to make your name.

“I don’t think I’d have been good enough for our academy.

“These kids can pass the ball for a start, which I’d never have done when we were playing games of 20-a-side during my childhood in Drumchapel. I thought real players were posh and came from Bearsden.”

Everyone knows the story. Rangers are supposed to have looked at this fledgling talent called Daniel Fergus McGrain and, in those less enlightened times, looked away again because of his name.

“I don’t know if that story’s true,” McGrain said. “Over the years that followed nobody from Rangers ever told me they wanted to sign me.

“I never thought I’d see the day when Rangers weren’t in the same league and it will add a bit to our game when they come back to the SPL.

“But it can’t happen right away, even for Scottish football’s sake, because they have to pay their dues for what went on.

“However, I thought it was great when I ran towards the Rangers end and got dog’s abuse during the derbies.

“I never thought they booed because I was the Protestant who played for the other side. I thought they booed me because I was a good player.”

Now McGrain knows you don’t need to be posh to push forward in the game – and he singles out Forrest as someone who could have dominated defences in any decade.

He said: “I’d have found James a nightmare. He looks about 12 but would have been murder to play against because of that ability to go by people.

“You’d never get a minute’s peace because, no sooner had the ball gone out of play than a new one would be thrown on. That didn’t happen in my day.

“But I don’t think James could have taken what Jinky had to take on the park. He was up and down like a rubber ball because he wouldn’t cheat and roll about on the ground.

“Good players like wee Jimmy, James and Henrik Larsson don’t need to do that.

“Mr Stein would have told me to make sure I won my first tackle. He didn’t mean for me to go through my opponent but let’s just say the winger would have known what to expect.

“One of the reasons I still derive as much enjoyment from the game is because of players like James.

“People who don’t even support Celtic will admire him for his skill as much as they did with Aiden McGeady.”

Mr Stein. McGrain never referred to him as “Big Jock” or “the gaffer” at any stage and never would.

The man who won Celtic the European Cup in the same year that McGrain signed for the club is easily described as an iconic figure. And, as much as McGrain has the highest regard for Lennon, he can’t rewrite history for his benefit.

He said: “There will never be a greater manager than Mr Stein. But if Neil wins 10 in a row for Celtic I hope he gets the knighthood Mr Stein never got for his accomplishments.

“It was a shameful omission on someone’s part.

“Neil can only get better. He must have learned from the Champions League run.

“Nobody in football ever uses the word perfection because none of us believes that can ever be achieved in the game.

“But for as long as Lenny is manager, the team can only go from strength to strength.

“Why shouldn’t we win 10 in a row? Eight years is a long time and the same players won’t be at the club in 2021 but I’ve admired the manager’s work since we both handled Celtic’s development team.

“A year later he was boss and became the demonstrative guy you see now in the dugout.

“Mr Stein didn’t conduct himself like that but the stakes are higher now.”

Celtic’s second title under Lennon will be dismissed by rival supporters who say it’s an irrelevance while Rangers are missing from the SPL. But McGrain said: “I don’t remember one easy game this season.

“I look at the league from a different perspective. I see the hard work that Lenny puts in to make this side attractive.

“And the message he’ll deliver just before the game is: ‘The supporters love you – pay them back.’

“I can’t believe Lenny wasn’t born when I was winning titles. Mind you, I was 12 when it happened for the first time.

“The monkey glands have kept me going since then.”