Astonishing 132 year old Scottish football record ends after latest Prem sacking

RUSSELL MARTIN was the last of a dying breed.

The former Rangers and Scotland defender’s sacking by Southampton put an end to a unique run in English football that has lasted almost 150 years.

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Going back to the 1982-93 season of the Football League (the fifth in its history), there has always been a Scottish manager in the top two divisions in England.

That year marked the introduction of the Second Division and that record stood the test of time, right through to the present day in their current guises as the Premier League and the Championship.

That season, Scotland had George Ramsay at the helm at Aston Villa and to this day he remains one of the most successful managers in English football, having guided the Birmingham club to six league titles and six FA Cup wins.

Ramsay also holds the distinction of being the first paid manager in the history of world football.

He came from the Gorbals in Glasgow but the next crop of influential coaches to hail from Scotland tended to come from tiny mining villages.

Liverpool legend Bill Shankly came from Glenbuck in Ayrshire. Manchester United pioneer Sir Matt Busby was born in Orbiston near Bellshill.

Those two paved the way for more Scots to succeed in England but north of the border you could point to Celtic and Scotland Jock Stein, who was from Burnbank in Lanarkshire and Dundee United great Jim McLean, who was raised near Larkhall, in Ashgill.

The three major English honours – the league title, the League Cup and FA Cup – have been won by Scottish managers 89 times. And some of them, such as a certain as-yet-unmentioned Sir Alex Ferguson, won trophies on the continent with English clubs.

In the 1970s and 1980s in particular, English football was awash with Scots in the dugout. Dave Mackay and Tommy Docherty won league titles and then came player-managers such as Sir Kenny Dalglish and Graeme Souness with similar success.

George Graham became a huge figure at Arsenal just before the nineties came around, with Celtic and Rangers legends Billy McNeill and Walter Smith also being lured south to test themselves with Manchester City and Everton respectively.

Since then English teams continued to seek out Scottish managers, including but not limited to David Moyes, Billy Davies and George Burley. Alex McLeish and Steve Clarke also had spells in England as well as managing the Scotland national team.

Martin however was the only one at the time of his dismissal on Sunday evening, following the 5-0 defeat to Ange Postecoglou‘s up-and-down Tottenham Hotspur side.

Why? One obvious reason is that the style of management that made Scottish coaches so popular has all but faded from the footballing landscape.

Hard-nosed, take-no-prisoners, show-no-mercy doesn’t tend to fly in today’s world.

Another point would be the general standard of Scottish football today not being what it was in those halcyon days of Dalglish, Souness and Strachan.

Via the Times, former Everton, Manchester United and West Ham boss Moyes said: “I don’t know if it is a generational thing but there was a real tough group of Scottish managers, the likes of Sir Alex and Jim McLean.

“There was the image of the mining and shipbuilding backgrounds. I think what people in England liked was that Scottish toughness.

“There was a thing about tough Scots coming down, managing them, sorting them out and getting the teams sorted.

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“Sir Alex brought a lot more than that but there was that reputation. There was also a generation in Scotland where a lot of the coaches coached with fear, as well as toughness.

“I’m not sure that type of coaching and that type of management is what’s required in modern-day football.

“I was just at the end of that Scottish group who played under managers who were fierce with you, which allowed me to have a bit of that as well, but also I was maybe just coming out the other end where there was a new generation with a new approach.”

Former Scotland manager Andy Roxburgh expanded on that view.

He acknowledged that nowadays, the go-to hotspot for new managers tends to be continental Europe – specifically Germany, Italy, Portugal or Spain.

“People like Busby, Shankly, Jock [Stein] and Sir Alex were a fabulous part of the history of the game,” said Roxburgh.

“That is a real hall of fame there.

SCOTS MANAGERS TO WIN ENGLISH TOP FLIGHT

Sir Alex Ferguson (Man Utd) – 13 titles

George Ramsay (Aston Villa) – 6

Sir Matt Busby (Man Utd) – 5

Sir Kenny Dalglish (Liverpool, Blackburn) – 4

Frank Watt (Newcastle) – 4

Bill Shankly (Liverpool) – 3

George Graham (Arsenal) – 2

Jonny Cochrane (Sunderland)

Alex Mackie (Sunderland) – 1

Dave Mackay (Derby County) – 1

Matt McQueen (Liverpool) – 1

“But the circumstances have now changed.

“In the past the English would come to Scotland to find one of these great leaders and today they’re more inclined to look to Spain, Italy, Portugal or Germany to find the hotshot coach.

“It’s the technician now rather than the manager. We have to accept that.”

The problem isn’t limited to England either.

Indeed, it’s perhaps even more glaring and troublesome here at home.

Celtic have not had a Scottish manager for 15 years (Gordon Strachan) whilst Rangers have not appointed a Scotsman for seven (Graeme Murty – on an interim basis).

Of the 12 Premiership clubs, only FIVE have Scottish managers.

The state of play in the Scottish Championship is healthier with all but one of the men in charge representing Scotland (James McPake was born and raised in Bellshill but earned one cap for Northern Ireland).

Rhys McCabe and Scott Brown have earned plaudits for their approaches to the newer style of football management, whilst John McGlynn continues to show his class as a manager at the age of 62.

Elsewhere in the second tier is David Martindale who has been working wonders at Livingston for four years and Queen‘s Park havea double winner in Callum Davidson at the helm.

Tony Docherty, Derek McInnes, David Gray, Sutart Kettlewell and Don Cowie and flying the flag for Scotland in the top flight.

So of those names, who could be the one to restart the trend of Scottish coaches being sought after by English clubs?

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