He was a football thinker, magnificent motivator, a great football talker and such talents were worth more than the small support that Dunfermline attracted. On 27 February , at the request of Mr Stein, it was announced that the Board had agreed to terminate his contract at the end of the season. Willie Cunningham took over as Manager and continued the momentum that Stein had built by taking the Pars to European successes against Gothenburg, Stuttgart, Spartak Brno as well as reaching the Cup Final.
When Cunningham left in June , George Farm was able to continue the success winning the Cup in Pars supporters found it hard to comprehend the transformation that was started by Jock Stein and came to expect their team to be near the top of the league and in European competition.
Dunfermline will be eternally grateful for his contribution. While undoubtedly a legend in his own lifetime, his affection for Dunfermline remained a deep and powerful one. He always had time to recall his days there and was one of the first to phone Jim Leishman to wish him well as the new Manager of Dunfermline in Maybe he had no wand but Stein had the magic power and Pars fans will always be proud of those halcyon days. Season During the close season of Jock Stein gave notice of his intention to foster local talent and he wasted no time introducing the project.
Jackie Sinclair and Willie Callaghan were two of the early catches with a number of other promising youngsters attending East End Park when training began in July. The Club were also on the look out for players capable of stepping straight into the first team. It was also important to Leicester that they did not sell them to another English club where any success could cause them embarrassment.
A home victory over Raith Rovers was followed by a satisfactory draw at Tynecastle. On 1st October Cunningham made his first team debut in the win over St Mirren at the same Love Street ground where he had started his senior career. Sadly it meant that he missed out on the magnificent victory over Rangers in the League Cup final later that year.
After retiring from play, he was given the role of coaching the reserve and youth players and was responsible for persuading the board to purchase Barrowfield as a training ground. It was embarrassing that whilst the reserves were succeeding, the senior side were failing repeatedly. This unhealthy environment was set to ingrain a deep seated hatred of sectarianism and fuel his personal crusade against bigotry.
It is fair to say that he will have experienced bigotry from both sides once even challenging Charlie Tully in an after-match bath after Tully jokingly questioned the number of non-Catholics in the Celtic side , but he was never one to take part in the banter but rather challenge it. It was to have an impact on him that was to fuel his motivation to succeed against all obstacles for the rest of his life in whatever challenge he was to face or take on.
On 14 March, he accepted the job of manager at Dunfermline. After only 6 weeks in charge, Stein led them clear of relegation. He built Dunfermline into a powerful force and guided them to their first Scottish Cup in , ironically via a replay victory over Celtic. On 1 April, , he was appointed manager of Hibernian and within months of becoming manager he led them to Summer Cup success. Jock Stein was immersing himself in the structure of the game while the rest simply went out and played.
It was an offer he could not refuse as it may not have come again. It could have been so different, and he might have chosen to rather stay at Hibs where he was the newly appointed manager, but his heart lay at Celtic. Unfinished business or he moved in respect to Sir Bob Kelly, Jock Stein was the new manager and everyone knew that things were to change.
Celtic had upto this point only had three other managers in its whole history, so Stein likely saw this chance as a once in a lifetime opportunity.
McNeill, Jinky, Murdoch et al were already there but their morale was rock bottom. Many even were on the verge of leaving the club. If he had come even just a short while later, who knows what Celtic could have missed.
However, the first thing to challenge was the stalemates at the club. The previous incumbent Jimmy McGrory had acquiesced too easily to the board and let control slip through his fingers. The team was a shambles and a poor reflection of its glorious past. McGrory was there to take the flak for the failings and yet had no real control of any of the matters.
That required good early results, and success came early. The victory came following a barren period of 8 years without a trophy for Celtic. He commented that how things could have been so different if the First Team had not won that.
It gave Jock Stein the justification for the right to manage as he freely wished to without any interference. The next season Celtic were crowned Scottish league champions for the first time since ; they also reached the semi-finals of the European Cup-Winners-Cup only to be knocked out on away goals by Liverpool.
It was a taste of greater glories to come, and had shown just how far he had turned the club around. Bad refereeing caused Celtic to lose out on making it to the ECWC final and possibly winning it, however lessons were learnt and it was to be repaid in spades in time to come. The First Team had begun their reign of domestic dominance, and were to monopolise the league cup for the next 5 years and the league was to be ours for an incredible nine seasons in a row.
Not even the most optimistic could have believed this possible only a few years back. So how did he manage such a quick turnaround? The basis for the success from this great start was that from the beginning he was quite revolutionary for the staid world of Scottish football, bringing in a fresh approach. Firstly, unlike the old gentlemanly style of management of McStay and McGrory , Jock Stein preferred to actually mix with the players at training and not be a bystander.
He was a tracksuit manager and introduced the football into training. Surprising as that last point seems, most training in those days for whatever reason did not involve practise with football. He introduced also specialised coaching for goalkeepers, previously seen as periphery. In matches, he was not afraid to let the players express their abilities more and encouraged defenders to push forward and attack.
He used to sit at various games starting with a notepad and pen and map out the lines some players ran in the whole game. This made him a seminal manager for the game both at home and abroad. Jock Stein was never afraid to show who was in charge and the famous hair-dryer method of team talks was much exercised.
Billy McNeill recalled that after one argument with Jock Stein after a game that he went for a bath. The next thing Jock Stein came storming in and jumped right into the bath fully suited and continued the argument.
Billy McNeill knew then if not even before who was in charge and not to be crossed. Any critics of his man management style must realise that Celtic had had gentlemanly management and coaching under Jimmy McGrory and the legendary John Hogan, all to no avail. Players can be just big kids and they can need a stern father figure. Jock was a hard task master but he very much had a sense of humour. He loved to entertain by singing and could have a laugh with all. Quick witted and intelligent see quotes he was a joy for anyone to be around to listen to.
To put anyone in their place he would never shirk from using his wit to cut them down to size. He was fatherly to the players which could mean tough love and that was what the method he employed most with his players and staff. Charlie Tully , he did not want this repeated.
He wanted to achieve with his players what he could not himself as a player. The players all refer to him in retrospective interviews as a father figure, and that is the greatest compliment they can pay to the man on a personal scale.
He took the players to his heart and they respected him for it. Nine league titles in a row with many cup wins and other final victory appearances. The team was led by Billy McNeill on the pitch, and the prime players were Murdoch marshalling play in the midfield , Lennox slotting in the goals and Jinky dazzling the opposition with his skills.
It was a great time to be a Celt and Jock Stein commandeered them both on and off the pitch, pushing them to reach the best of their abilities. Season was the pinnacle of his career and that of his charges. Under his direction, Celtic swept up everything that they entered in that season, domestically and in Europe. It was the manner of victory. Celtic were the first non-latin side to win the European Cup and had broken down the rise of the Catennacio system of football tactics under the difficult and at times reprehensible Helenio Herrera Inter Milan manager but more importantly Celtic had played and won the game in the way it was meant to be played.
Jock Stein had sent the players out in an aggressive attacking system and play in their best way. He had matched his counterpart in the psychological stakes, and he players did not let him down. He was a football manager best remembered as manager of Celtic and of the Scotland national team. The wider picture in Scotland at the time is set out in our Historical Timeline. In he left school at 15 to work in a carpet factory before going down the pits as a miner.
In he joined Blantyre Victoria junior football club, becoming a semi-professional player in with Albion Rovers while still working as a miner.
He became club captain the following year and continued to play with Celtic until When he retired he had played games for Celtic and scored 2 goals.
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