Craig Brown led Scotland to two major tournaments and was involved in another three but it was only later that his services were truly appreciated.
The former schoolteacher succeeded where bigger names would go on to fail by taking Scotland to both the World Cup and European Championship.
Brown also led Scotland to an Under-16 World Cup final and a European Under-21 semi-final.
With his Scotland side built on a solid 3-5-2 formation, Brown’s critics often called for more flamboyance but his approach proved even shrewder with hindsight.
Brown was born in Glasgow in July 1940 and, with his father in the RAF, spent his early years living along with his mother at his grandfather’s house in the city’s Corkerhill area, where air raids were common.
Brown’s father, Hugh, was a major influence on his future career choices. The former Hamilton player was a PE instructor and held several roles, including director of training at Jordanhill education college. The family moved around the west of Scotland until settling in Hamilton.
Brown was one of three brothers. Jock became a lawyer and football commentator who had a spell as Celtic general manager, and Bob was a Church of Scotland minister.
Brown represented Scotland Schoolboys alongside Billy McNeill and Alex Ferguson and had a trial with Celtic before joining Rangers aged 17.
He combined playing for Rangers reserves with PE and primary teaching qualifications at Jordanhill but the left-half’s first-team route was blocked by the likes of Jim Baxter along with a niggling knee injury, which blunted his potential.
He had the first of five operations on his left knee after joining Dundee in October 1960, although he won a league winners’ medal in 1962. Manager Bob Shankly delivered his bonus to his hospital bed, a gesture which helped inspire the respect Brown would go on to show as a manager himself.
Brown remained a peripheral figure at Dens Park and supplemented his income by working part-time as a teacher before joining Falkirk in 1965. He quit playing in 1967, weeks after joining Stranraer, after being diagnosed with a bone disorder and arthritis in his troublesome knee.
Brown moved up the teaching ladder, becoming a headmaster in Uddingston and lecturer at Craigie College in Ayr, but football remained a major focus. He coached school teams, had a role at the Scottish Football Association coaching centre at Largs, and a spell as a match reporter for the Sunday Post.
He became assistant to Motherwell manager Willie McLean in 1974 before becoming Clyde boss in 1977, retaining his lecturing post all the way. In nine years with Clyde, he twice led them to the Second Division title.
Brown accepted an invitation to form part of Ferguson’s coaching staff at the 1986 World Cup and remained with the national team when new Scotland manager Andy Roxburgh asked him to be his assistant as well as under-21 manager.
Scotland qualified for the 1990 World Cup and the European Championship two years later and Brown was named manager in November 1993 after Roxburgh quit in the wake of failure to qualify for USA 94.
With media and fans expecting a big-name appointment, Brown had some sceptics to win over but his team only conceded six goals in 20 qualifiers during his first two campaigns as Scotland reached Euro 96 and the World Cup two years later.
Scotland came within a goal of qualifying for the Euro 96 knockout stages, before a 3-0 defeat to Morocco consigned them to another early exit at the 1998 World Cup in France.
Brown led Scotland to victory over England at Wembley in 1999 but ultimately they lost out on the European Championship after an aggregate play-off defeat to Kevin Keegan’s side, and he resigned after missing out on the next World Cup.
Speaking in 2018, Brown said: “They might have sacked me, I don’t know. But I thought the fans were fed up with me, the press were fed up with the same old guy. I’d had a right good innings. I think I did the right thing, I think they needed something fresh.”
Brown managed Preston for just over two years before being replaced by assistant Billy Davies, with whom he later worked at Derby on a consultancy basis.
His club career looked long finished when Motherwell asked him to take over on a caretaker basis following the departure of Jim Gannon late in 2009. But he did so well he was offered the job on a permanent basis.
Within a year and at the age of 70, Brown left Fir Park following an approach by Aberdeen. He steadied the struggling Dons but could not lead them to the top six in his two full seasons in charge and stepped up to a director’s role in May 2013.
Brown had life-saving surgery in 2020 after suffering an aneurysm. He was on stage at the PFA Scotland awards last month to hand a Special Merit Award for Ferguson to the pair’s former colleague, Archie Knox.
Brown, who died in hospital in Ayr after a short illness, is survived by his two sons, Hugh and John, and his daughter, Val.
Cabal becomes second Juventus defender to suffer ACL injury
Juventus' Juan Cabal will undergo surgery after tearing the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) in his left knee, intensifying the Serie A giants' defensive injury crisis.
The 23-year-old was forced to return to Turin after injuring his knee during training with the Colombia national team ahead of their World Cup qualifiers against Uruguay and Ecuador.
Cabal is the second Juventus defender to suffer an ACL injury this season after Gleison Bremer, who hurt his left knee during their 3-2 Champions League win over RB Leipzig last month.
Cabal has so far made nine appearances across all competitions this season.
Juventus are sixth in the Serie A standings and 11th in the Champions League's new-look league phase.
Real Madrid hit Twente for seven, five-star Wolfsburg also win big
Real Madrid had six different goalscorers as they trounced Twente 7-0 in the Women's Champions League on Wednesday, while Wolfsburg beat Galatasaray 5-0.
Signe Bruun opened the scoring three minutes into the Group B encounter at the Estadio Alfredo Di Stefano, then Maria Mendez's header gave Madrid a 2-0 half-time lead.
Madrid, who had won one and lost one of their opening two games in the tournament, got a third through Naomie Feller five minutes into the second half, then Caroline Weir made it 4-0 with a brilliant free-kick.
Mendez headed home her second of the encounter shortly after the hour mark, while Oihane Hernandez and Carla Camacho got on the scoresheet late on to complete the rout.
The victory took Madrid second in the Group B standings ahead of Chelsea's trip to Celtic.
Wolfsburg were also convincing victors in Group A, getting off the mark for this season's competition as Rebecka Blomqvist scored a hat-trick in their 5-0 thrashing of Galatasaray.
The Bundesliga side – who failed to pick up a point or score a goal in their opening two matches – had a narrow 1-0 lead at half-time through Joelle Wedemeyer, before Blomqvist took centre-stage in the second period.
She tapped home after Janina Minge struck the crossbar, then added her second goal in the 77th minute and her third six minutes into stoppage time.
Vivien Endemann powered home a fifth for Wolfsburg one minute later, as they provisionally moved within three points of Lyon and Roma ahead of their meeting.
Taylor pleased with City's physical test during Hammarby win
Manchester City head coach Gareth Taylor was pleased with how his team stood up to the physical challenge of Hammarby in their 2-0 Champions League victory on Tuesday.
City's win extended their unbeaten start to the season, having won every game in all competitions following a 2-2 draw against Arsenal on opening day.
“Difficult game for us, physical challenge, a physical team in Hammarby. I think they outnumber us a little bit in terms of size, considering when you look at our midfield. But I thought the girls handled it really well," Taylor said after the game
“I thought we dominated the game. In the early parts we were just a little bit off in our final action. We just needed to speed up a little bit in terms of being on the end of it, and we spoke about that at half-time, and we score with Laura getting into that type of position we’d been talking about.
“[The physicality was something] we were prepared for, but dealing with it is a different thing. Having Bunny [Khadija Shaw] and Alanna [Kennedy] on the pitch, two of our more physical players, is really important, particularly for set-plays.
“At 1-0 we were defending a couple of scenarios like that, Yama [Ayaka Yamashita] making a really good save at one point. Then Aoba [Fujino] got the goal that maybe allowed us to change things up a little bit more, get some people off that we’d like to manage.
“I think the girls have dealt with it really well tonight. We expected it, we thought it would be difficult, and they rose to the challenge.”
The victory leaves City top of their Champions League group with a 100% record after three matches, three points above second-placed Barcelona.
Taylor had made changes to City's starting XI, with Lauren Hemp among the trio to drop out from the weekend and she did not feature in the squad. Ahead of their weekend game against Chelsea, who are second in the WSL, Taylor explained the reasoning behind Hemp's absence.
“We’ve just got an issue with Lauren that we just need to analyse a little bit further, that’s all," he said.
“It’s something that potentially happened in the Palace game [on 3 November]. She was able to play in the Tottenham game [last Friday] but wasn’t able to tonight, so we’ll just take a little bit longer to assess and find out more.
“Hopefully [she can play against Chelsea]. There’s an opportunity there, we’ll just have to take a moment tomorrow, have a good conversation and find out where we’re at with the medical staff.”
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