Boro Vikings

Några citat ur hans bok My life in football (2006):

Like most families in Muirhouse , my own did not have much money. We were not destitute but both my parents had to go out to work – my father Jim was a scaffolder and my mother Catherine had a job in a whisky bond- and even then, it was a struggle for them to buy enough food to last us the entire week comfortably. Up to leaving home at fifteen, I felt as if I was an only child, because, although I have a sister , she is eight years younger than me. That, combined with the amount of time I spent on my own while my parents working, made me quite independent. I often joke that I was a latchkey kid.

For all this, my general conduct and behaviour was good. Though I was inclined to be checky and always wanted to get the last word (a bit like I am today), I was never allowed to progress beyond that.

The path towards my own happiness in that department started when Lesley and I, both seventeen, met at a Dundee disco. I was looking for someone shorter than me – a mission impossible, you would say - but as Lesley was so stunning, the fact that she did not meet that criterion bacame irrelevant. At last I could look her straight in the eye – well, almost. So it was quite a shock to both of us when we realised that the height difference between us was greater than we had originally thought, we had not noticed it before, because she had been dancing in her bare feet and I was bearing platforms

Fotunately for me, Lesley likes football, which means that whatever I do go to watch a match, I can take her with me. She has accompanied me to so many games that people must think she, rather than Gary Pendrey, has been my assistant manager at Coventry, Southhampton and Celtic

I am proud to say that, despite that private world I inhabit as a manager, we still have an exceptionally strong, happy marriage. I think it is unusual in this day and age for a couple to remain close as we have. Generally, I am always at my happiest when I am with Lesley. There is now way that I would ever allow football seriously to threaten our relationship.
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I am sure the most managers will confirm that the aspect of the job that gives the greatest pleasure is just working with the players – the training and coaching, combined with the dressing room banter. In some ways, it gives us the chance to become player again ourselves. It is what we know best and, by and large, what we feel the most comfortable with

I feel less comfortable with the financial side. As in most walks of life , the amount of money washing around in football has inevitably generated greed and dishonesty. There is no shortage of people striving for a piece of cake, and I can get quite sensitive sometimes over the ease with which some allow any sense of integtity they might have to fly straight out of the window . At Coventry, where my lack of experience as a manager meant that my skin was probably thinner than it is today, it could really get to me

During the week , some managers are out watching matches almost every night. How they can do that, and still be fresh for training in the morning, is difficult for me to get my head around. Coaching is one of my strengths and, as someone who needs his sleep, I doubt wheather I could be much good to anybody in that department if I started work tired and grumpy

I do not care who he is – if any manager claims that he does not feel the pressure, then in my opinion he is not telling the truth

Any form of training without the ball is possibly the least enjoyabl aspect of football. A lot of players, believing that their technical ablity is more or less all that matters , will cut as many corners as they can with their physical preparation, but I was different. I relised from a very erly age that all players – even the most grifted – need a high degree of fitness and physical strength in order to use their skills and those factors are also crucial in helping them maintain concentration and avoid mistakes

In my experience , nothing can give a player a greater psychological boost than the knowledge that he is fitter and stronger than the man marking him and that, sooner or later, he is bound to run his opponent to the ground

Everybody is entiteld to his or her opinion, but not – surely – when criticism becomes personal. If there is one aspect of football that is always liable to raise my blood presssure is that of supporters belittling players on those phone-in-programmes – I keep asking people if they know one of these idiots, but I´ve yet to find one who has.

One common characteristic of short people is their tendency to be ”gobby”. I daresay a number of the people I have worked with would suggest that I am a good example of such a person. When I was picked on by bigger lads, I found I could invariably talk my way out of trouble. I often did it by making them laugh, which is something I seem to be quite good at to this day and which has become a part of my public image. I can usually see the funny side of most things. This does have its disadvantages, its occasionally bothers me that it might cause people not to take me seriously as coach or manager
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As he has been the most succesful manager in the history of British football, most people assume that my expeience of working with him for nine years – at Aberdeen from August 1978 to August 1984, and at Manchester United from November 1986 to March 1989 – was the making of me. They are right up to one point. Until his arrival at Aberdeen, my career was going nowhere. In the early days, he was the manager who gave me the strongest platform for my ability, with the standard of the team he built at Aberdeen and his disciplin and organisation. His confrontational methods helped me to develop my mental strength. If I could handle Fergie, then as a player or manager I could handle almost anything.

Fergie is a man who thrives on conflict, and it is no coincidence that the vast majority of the players who established themselves under his management at Aberdeen were strong enough characters to stand up to him when the need arose. I think it is significant that a number of those players have since become managers

Those trademark Fergie ”hairdryer” tirades- with the person on the receiving end looking as if he is standing in a wind tunnel- have long been a favourite topic of conversation among those who have worked with him. I could reckon I could keep an audience entertained for hours with my own collection of them

There is more than one way to be a successful manager. Certainly, the approach to the job of the three men under whom I achieved the most success as a player at club level – Fergie, Ron Atkinson and Howard Wilkinson- differed considerably
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Since becoming a manager, not all my relationships with players have been harmonious - far from it- Football is a highly emotional game, and the occasional bust-up with colleagues are an unavoidable part of the job, especially for someone like me. I do not think that some of my players have treated me properly (and I daresay some have an equally good reason for believing the reverse).

While recognising the macho aspect of the game can be taken to far, I have always appreciated the importance of teams having one or two men with social hard man reputations. Quite often these figures can create space for others to play just through their presence.

Money has become more important in professional football. Teams can no longer get by simply on physical power, determination and the right tactics as much as they did when I was a player.At the top level , it all boils down to how much individual technical quality you have – how much you can afford.

I do have sympathy for club chairmen on this because realism can easily be interpreted as lack of ambition. We managers might not always like the transfer budgets we have been given. We always tend to want them bigger. But as few of us have the full picture of our club´s situation and are not financial wizards.

The manager should be the best paid employee at any club in my opinion

I have always been sensitive about the officious manner in which some match officials talk to you. They make you feel like a schoolboy being lectured by a teacher, which for somebody with my personality and temparament is always bound to be difficult to handle

Nothing is more frustrating to a manager or coach than seeing a player not making the most of his ability

An odd aspect of my managerial career is that, whereas the appointment of a new boss often has the effect of giving a team an immidiate lift, I appear to have the opposite effect. I reckon that the next club I join would be well advised to send me away on holiday

Strikers are by far the most important players in any team as far as i am concerned, not just because of their goals – priceless commodities in themselves – but the psychological effect their records have on the other players in their side and the opposition. If any footballer can make or breake a manager - it is these.

It was really no laughing matter for me, bacause the loss of Robbie Keene and Gary Mac Allister – or to put it in an another way, the loss of twenty-three goals a season from a team with a 1999/2000 league total of forty-seven – was the signal for our drop into the Football League , and my eventual sacking

Managers under pressure can be a bit like caged animal, if you prod them, they are bound to snap back at you. This characteristic has always been part of my nature
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Vem är Gordon ?

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