Golden Brown

By IAIN KING, Toronto, June 21, 2020

NEVER mistake kindness for weakness.

Craig Brown uttered those words to me 24 years ago in the leafy surroundings of the Scotland national team camp in Stratford-upon-Avon.

We were on the brink of the Euro 96 opener with Guus Hiddink’s Holland which would end in a nerve-jangling 0-0 draw at Villa Park.

Craig was the Scotland manager, I was Chief Football Writer of the Sunday Mail and covering my first major Finals in the role I’d craved. It was my dream assignment.

As ever there was a story to chase. Would Brown pick Hall of Fame legend Jim Leighton between the sticks for the tournament or Rangers no1 Andy Goram?

It was a desperately close call. Within his technical staff Brown had Leighton’s Hibernian boss Alex Miller as his no2 and Goram’s mentor Alan Hodgkinson as his goalkeeping coach.

I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall in the technical room as that debate raged.

Many felt Leighton, the consummate professional, would get the nod. His stoic, driven personality, ingrained work ethic and vast experience seemed to gel with the profile the coach would lean towards.

Goram was the maverick shot-stopper who made as many front page headlines as he did back page ones in his colourful career.

As I would write in the blurb for his autobiography we worked on together years later The Goalie was a genius with flaws. Lots of them.

Deep down you felt that Andy’s misdemeanours and off-field lapses gnawed at Brown, there was a suspicion that would colour his thinking on this pivotal decision.

After the official Press conference I asked Craig for a quiet word privately as writers often did, this was when you would search for a “steer” on a story.

You sought the off the record comment that would allow you in essence to present theory as fact to your readers, a staple ingredient of tabloid sports journalism!

In that quiet moment away from the madding crowd I asked Brown if knowing that jettisoning Leighton - who had played a key role in the qualifiers - would break Jim’s heart was weighing on him.

He said: “No, I need to make the right decision for Scotland and I will do it.

“Never mistake kindness for weakness, Kingy.”

Goram was selected, Leighton choked back tears when told the day before the match that he was on the bench.

It was the RIGHT call, Andy had a magnificent tournament as Scotland were edged out on goal difference in a Group of Death that saw them face the Dutch, Terry Venables’ England and a dangerous Switzerland side.

GLORY DAYS...Craig celebrating Ally McCoist's winner against Switzerland at Euro '96

This story came rushing back into my consciousness on Friday morning as Craig, still bubbling with life and wisdom at the age of 79, held court in a brilliant webinar for the North American Scottish Coaches Association (NASCA).

When I asked him to take part the text pinged back saying yes immediately. He even sent in-depth notes to help my fellow presenters Eric McAleer, the NASCA president and a Scot who has built a superb sports business in the USA with Worldstrides Excel, and Jonny Burns, the son of late Hoops legend Tommy who is Technical Director of Florida Celtic, with their sections of the interview.

What followed was a fascinating insight to a coach who will forever hold a unique place in Scottish football history.

Brown was on the coaching staff for FIVE major tournaments. Pause and think about that now that we have not qualified for the events that count for 22 long years since the World Cup Finals in France in 1998.

Craig was on Sir Alex Ferguson’s staff at Mexico ’86 - when he was manager of Clyde - which shows the esteem the great man held him in.

Then he worked as assistant to Andy Roxburgh at Italia 90 and then the European Championship Finals in Sweden in 1992.

He then took the reins himself and guided us to Euro 96 before that rollercoaster ride in an unforgettable French summer that saw us play in the biggest game on the planet in the World Cup opener against Brazil when Tom Boyd’s cruel own goal saw his side edged out 2-1.

CAPTIVATING THE AUDIENCE...Craig on his NASCA Zoom call to our ex-pat coaches

The measure of being privileged to observe coaches like Craig at close quarters as you get older is in the lessons you learn not just about football but about life.

Brown, bred as a teacher at Jordanhill College, is a football educator who I feel would always choose collaboration ahead of confrontation.

Yet inside there lay a core of steel honed by working with men like Ferguson and we caught a glinting glimpse of that on Friday morning.

Craig revealed that when he was working with former Wales boss Chris Coleman at Fulham they had listened to players constantly ask: “Why did I get taken off?”

A list entitled “11 reasons you were subbed” was compiled and Brown would adapt and tweak it as time went on. Yet it always included one tenet that was cast in stone. Never shake hands with a player coming off. Why?

Brown told me simply: “Some of the reasons are failure to stick to the tactical plan or indiscipline during the game, why the fuck would I be shaking their hands after that?”

Doesn’t fit the image of the sage old football grandfather that you have in your head of Craig does it?

Never mistake kindness for weakness.

My time covering Craig as a coach coincided with my first shaky steps as a coach taking my son Bruce’s team at East Kilbride Burgh United.

Yet observing his man-management and his classy standards of behaviour towards others were a lesson in life that stayed with me when I was building an editorial team in the challenging times that would come in the newspaper world as Head of Sport at The Scottish Sun.

With a precious chance to have a second career in my life as a full-time coach now at North Toronto Nitros, Brown’s nuggets of coaching advice remain priceless.

This Coronavirus lockdown has made every coach at our club an expert in Zoom calls, Kahoot! for learning and quizzes and Mentimeter for gauging your players responses to key questions.

One of those recommended exercises for me is the toughest part of being a coach at the youth level, the self-reflection of asking kids these two questions.

What do you like about my coaching style and what really irritates you about how I operate?

The answers you get are enlightening. Kids can answer anonymously and the words grow bigger in the cloud you see as the answers stack up.

Mine can often follow a pattern, at the heart of the slide you want to see is “Cares about his players” and somewhere on there in the second slide will be the one you have to ponder which for me is “Needs to be harder on us at times.”

This season my teams to head coach with Nitros are Under-14 Boys and Girls, I don’t think the hairdryer treatment is appropriate and I have never been authentic being that coach in any case. Yet some of your players want that approach and the answers have to be considered.

These dedicated Canadian teenagers don’t see the other side of me that the players of East Kilbride FC and BSC Glasgow did occasionally when my partner in crime Craig Young and I were operating together in Scotland’s Lowland League.

Yet it’s telling to see yourself how your players see you through their lens and it resonated with me after reconnecting with Craig for the first time in a few years.

I believe he is a magnificent role model for young coaches, a lust for life, a thirst for knowledge, an in-bred humility to listen and learn, an undying love for the game.

Brown’s recounting of that Leighton story on Friday morning was compelling viewing on Zoom. He gave Jim the news the day before the match and the former Aberdeen and Manchester United goalkeeper was devastated.

Yet the following morning Jim THANKED Craig for his honesty and integrity in how he broke the news as it also allowed him to tell his family and come to terms with being the support act in the shadows to Goram.

In so many ways it would have been easier for Brown to select Leighton and I recall many of my Press colleagues thought he would but he never flinched.

Never mistake kindness for weakness.