Craig Brown's world cup diary France 98

I couldn't find part 4 either, chief. Shame, really as I was quite absorbed with it all!

Brown on Morocco: ''Remember, you're far more experienced and far more professional than these guys.''

:( :))

After the game, I remember him yaddering on about the population of Morocco being much bigger than Scotland's, so ....
Later, he denied ever having said it.
 
I prefer his big book of positives.
Page 1. we won on corner kicks.
Page 2. Colin Hendry and literally any other centre half in the world whose eaten shortbread being fit means I can continue to ignore the players at Rangers.
 
"Kieran, one of the young players, enjoying himself on the playstation".

And there the problems lie.

It's so bad it's good.
 
Realistically, could/should have had;

Goram

Gough
Bomber
McLaren?
Robertson

Durrant
Ferguson
McCall

McCoist
Durie

Anyone else I’m missing?

That’s not a formation, just insight into who could have went.
 
Many a good Rangers player was overlooked by that cretin.

Richard Gough made a scapegoat for a hammering from Portugal & lead to Gough's exclusion over the Sprinkler Incident no doubt in my mind Andy Goram deliberately Fucked Broons heed up with his not mentally attuned as a wee payback for Gough.

Broon & Roxburgh weighing in after the Portugal drubbing to blame Gough was ridiculous so got their comeuppance with Goram.
 
Goram's take on Craig Brown & the 98 World Cup. Apologies for the lengthy article, parts of it pretty much echo Gough's criticisms of Brown and his "school teacher" coaching style ....


QUITTING Scotland after being overlooked for the starting jersey at France 98 ripped me up.

I’d worked my b*****ks off for my 43 caps, and I live with the regret of never having played in a World Cup.

I did it with a very heavy heart, but I could see no other way to save my career at that time.

My decision to retire from international football would see me hung out to dry, branded a traitor to the cause and a disgrace to the nation.

But I deserved the shout to face Brazil in that World Cup opener in Paris, the biggest game my country had ever played in.

I’d earned it but Craig Brown took it away from me.

Even now, I still sit and think about that situation sometimes. My conclusion? There was no reason to think that I would not start as Scotland’s keeper at France 98.

I should have played in that tournament, not Jim Leighton.

Typically, I didn’t hear the bad news directly. Instead, a prominent member of the SFA had a quiet word in my ear.

Two weeks from the tournament I had waited all my life for, my confidant sat me down and warned me Craig Brown wasn’t picking me.

He would be going with a near 40-year-old Leighton instead.

Brown was consumed by the desire to keep everyone happy. He was a schoolteacher and a good coach, and his achievements for Scotland should be saluted, but that’s where it stops for me.

Before I got the nod on the quiet that I was missing out, I knew deep down he was going to leave it until the last minute then hit one of us with the bombshell news and leave us shattered.

I’ll never forget going back to my room in the hotel as it sank in that the manager was snubbing me.

I was sharing with my Rangers team-mate Gordon Durie. I was ashen-faced, and Jukey was worried for me when I told him I was quitting Scotland. There was no point in me sitting there on the bench at the age of 34. What would that have achieved?

He asked me to pause and reconsider what I was doing, because it was such a big step.

I couldn’t be swayed and I made my arrangements to fly back to Glasgow and see Miriam. I knew flak would fly.

Then Brown arrived at my room and said, ‘I want you to reconsider’.

I thought that this was it, the moment I would come to respect him more as a man. I expected a heartfelt plea to make me stay in the Scotland set-up, maybe even a change of heart and a pledge to play me in front of Jim.

Instead he said, ‘I want you to reconsider, because I don’t think you should fly into Glasgow. The press will be waiting for you there’. That was it. He only cared about the impending media storm and how it would reflect on him. He had no interest in trying to keep me in the camp.

I didn’t do what I did lightly. Born in Bury or not, I was a Scot, and it meant the world to me.

I believed that this tournament would set the seal on my career. Now I was being dumped. I have all the respect in the world for Jim as a goalkeeper, but nothing will ever sway me from thinking that I should have been picked for France 98. I still feel a sense of injustice.

My relationship with Brown had always been tense and uncomfortable.

We had played a couple of World Cup qualifiers at Ibrox, and he was roaming around agitated, going on about how the home dressing room was too big. It bewildered me. He kept muttering: ‘It’s too big, too big. I must be closer to my players. We have to be together.’

Then, when we played Italy there and drew 0–0, all the kit hampers had been used as a makeshift wall to cut the dressing room in half.

My peg, my space — first on the left after the door when you walk in — was where I had changed for seven years of laughs and fights, titles and glory at Ibrox. Now it was on the wrong side of this divide.

I looked at it and said: ‘F*** that. I’m going to sit in my normal seat’. Goalkeepers are superstitious animals and I wasn’t breaking with my routine for this b****cks.

Brown walked in and said: ‘Goalie, I don’t want you to change there. We need to be closer together’.

I said: ‘I’ve changed here for seven years and won all my medals from this seat. I’m not f*****g moving’. We stood and glared at each other as people stared at the floor and shuffled their feet. We ended up having this needless clash about where I should get changed! Pointless.

I sat in my normal seat behind the hampers and then came in for the team talk.

I saw all of that stuff as needless. Things like everyone having to tuck their shirts in and making sure the tape for their shinguards was the same colour as their socks is laughable.

Yet Craig gave us the impression they were deeply important. I felt like a schoolkid in one of his classrooms, and it constantly grated on me. There are rules you accept when you’re in a squad situation like codes of discipline, but matching tape on your socks? Give me a break.
 
I've seen aeen worse to he honest, and I say that as someone who hasn't much regard for Craig Brown, and virtually none at all for the SFA XI set up.
 
Goram was a mess by the summer of 1998 but still a better keeper than Leighton, mind you.

Simon Donnelly ahead of Ally McCoist

Tosh McKinlay ahead of David Robertson.

The Scottish national team has been a long-running farce in this country.
 
Many a good Rangers player was overlooked by that cretin.

Richard Gough made a scapegoat for a hammering from Portugal & lead to Gough's exclusion over the Sprinkler Incident no doubt in my mind Andy Goram deliberately Fucked Broons heed up with his not mentally attuned as a wee payback for Gough.

Broon & Roxburgh weighing in after the Portugal drubbing to blame Gough was ridiculous so got their comeuppance with Goram.

While I am a huge Gough fan and think he is the best CB we have ever had, did he not literally jump in the air and grab the ball that game? I was pretty young at the time but that's what I remember when watching it on the telly, could be wrong.

Obviously Scotland were shite and would have lost anyway, but that was a ridiculous thing to do.
 
This is ****ing solid gold. "We discussed our tactics in detail... and then we told the players the team." Mmmmm
 
While I am a huge Gough fan and think he is the best CB we have ever had, did he not literally jump in the air and grab the ball that game? I was pretty young at the time but that's what I remember when watching it on the telly, could be wrong.

Obviously Scotland were shite and would have lost anyway, but that was a ridiculous thing to do.


Yep sure it was ,he blamed a sprinkler for the bounce however the fall out was disgraceful we were absolutely stinking that night the ensuing media campaign sought to protect Broon which was the most unsavoury part of it .

Since Italia 90 & Broons tenure we've had a fair crack of the whip in terms of opposition & a good pool of players up to the mid 90's but as usual we go & blow it when it matters there was even a time the campaign grew to get Goughie back & it was obvious he was needed .

He was pretty much sin died afterwards with the beaks anyway but nowadays yer Scott browns at the drop of a hat & are welcomed back after shoddy treatment of the system yet a supremely talented word class defender is binned even when it was obvious that team needed his experience but neither the beaks or Broon would give in our International prospects were weakened by their idiocy over something in a heavy defeat that meant %^*& all in the grand scheme of things.
 
Brown's post match Morocco commentary and analysis are delusional.

Burley sent off- down to 10 men ....AND he sends on......Tosh McKinlay :rolleyes::rolleyes:
 
While I am a huge Gough fan and think he is the best CB we have ever had, did he not literally jump in the air and grab the ball that game? I was pretty young at the time but that's what I remember when watching it on the telly, could be wrong.

Obviously Scotland were shite and would have lost anyway, but that was a ridiculous thing to do.

That was Switzerland away in 1992.

Portugal away was when Roxburgh and Brown took their tactics from information they got from a Lisbon taxi driver
 
For any younger Bears wondering why a lot of us these days don't give a fuuk about the National team should heed this thread, Roxburgh and Brown between them ruined it for me and there's no way back, reading that Andy Goram story sums Brown up.

I'm sure I heard another story where Jim McInally held his red socks up with white tape and Brown coloured them in red, McInally being capped is a story in itself.
 
Prof Hillis was a friend and colleague of mine. Nice catching a wee glimpse of him here and there on the film. He really was a good bear and is still missed by those of us lucky enough to have known him.

He lecture me in my masters year at uni in 2005-6, lovely man but was completely haunted by the Daniel prodan saga!
 
He lecture me in my masters year at uni in 2005-6, lovely man but was completely haunted by the Daniel prodan saga!

He really wasn't, to be honest. It was rushed through and he was put under pressure to make a snap decision. Some you win and some you lose. He wryly joked about it, in a self-deprecating way, a few times.
 
Prof Hillis was a friend and colleague of mine. Nice catching a wee glimpse of him here and there on the film. He really was a good bear and is still missed by those of us lucky enough to have known him.
that the guy who passed daniel prodan as fit to sign? sorry never seen the last few posts.
 
Pre 1995 we had to beat Yugoslavia and USSR. They have fragmented into Serbia,Croatia,Bosnia,Slovenia,Kosovo, Russia,Georgia,Ukraine,FYR,Montanegro, all smaller obviously yet I think they've all beaten us. Our football hasn't developed unlike the rest of Europe where technique is all important.
 
I haven’t read all of this but the amateurism in what I have have (the subject matter not the posts per se) is typical and unexpected.
 
Well I was at the opening game having paid a mind boggling (to me) £750 for the ticket. Yup the result wasn't great but I can say without any doubt it was the best £750 I spent in my life. The memories are special. The whole build up in Paris and the fun was amazing. The 500 a side footy march between Brazil fans and Scotland fans, the partying and of course serious drinking fun. I know following Scotland doesn't get many interested on here and I ain't that interested now either, but I can tell you that on that occasion it was amazing to support Scotland. I would love to see the younger bears getting a chance to sample what it can be like. For me Brown, Roxboutgh and even Ally gave us something that we have not had since and that was actually getting their and giving as hope and the fun that brings. Manchester was the only thing that was close to that event. Very similar actually.
 
Well I was at the opening game having paid a mind boggling (to me) £750 for the ticket. Yup the result wasn't great but I can say without any doubt it was the best £750 I spent in my life. The memories are special. The whole build up in Paris and the fun was amazing. The 500 a side footy march between Brazil fans and Scotland fans, the partying and of course serious drinking fun. I know following Scotland doesn't get many interested on here and I ain't that interested now either, but I can tell you that on that occasion it was amazing to support Scotland. I would love to see the younger bears getting a chance to sample what it can be like. For me Brown, Roxboutgh and even Ally gave us something that we have not had since and that was actually getting their and giving as hope and the fun that brings. Manchester was the only thing that was close to that event. Very similar actually.
Without being funny, it would also be the best money you've ever spent in that you'll be one of the last fans to see Scotland at a major tournament.
 
I’m sorry. Andy Goram wasn’t fit to remain at Rangers in June 1998

He hadn’t even played for Scotland in the qualifiers.

Jim Leighton played most if not all the games

Delusional from Goram
 
My mate and me were absolutely pishing ourselves laughing at Scotland getting pumped 3-0. So funny seeing these pricks who thought they could do better without McCoist while a donkey like Tosh McKinley was out there.
 
I’m sorry. Andy Goram wasn’t fit to remain at Rangers in June 1998

He hadn’t even played for Scotland in the qualifiers.

Jim Leighton played most if not all the games

Delusional from Goram

Goram played 3 qualifiers and conceded no goals that campaign.

Leighton was coming off the back of 3 seasons where had conceded over 160 league goals at Aberdeen and Hibs.

Neither should've played. It should've been Neil Sullivan in goals for Scotland
 
Goram played 3 qualifiers and conceded no goals that campaign.

Leighton was coming off the back of 3 seasons where had conceded over 160 league goals at Aberdeen and Hibs.

Neither should've played. It should've been Neil Sullivan in goals for Scotland


Pretty sure that Leighton had been threatening through the media that he'd walk away from the national team if he didn't get the No.1 jersey, and Brown duly capitulated.

Sure he also alluded to McCoist not being 100% fit and would only cause distraction in the camp had he been selected as part of the squad, despite McCoist finishing the season strongly.

Brown actually admitted last year in an interview he should have taken McCoist to France.
 
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Pretty sure that Leighton had been threatening through the media that he'd walk away from the national team if he didn't get the No.1 jersey, and Brown duly capitulated.

Sure he also alluded to McCoist not being 100% fit and would only cause distraction in the camp had he been selected as part of the squad, despite McCoist finishing the season strongly.

Brown actually admitted last year in an interview he should have taken McCoist to France.

Spot on re Leighton. Threw a wobbler at Euro 96 after Goram was selected and told Brown if ever got back in and was dropped that he'd chuck it. The fact Leighton was still allowed to chuck goals into the net during the Euro 2000 qualifiers before finally being dropped was an utter embarrassment on Brown's part.
 
that the guy who passed daniel prodan as fit to sign? sorry never seen the last few posts.
The actual truth of the matter was that David Murray called a press conference to announce the Prodan signing before a detailed physical medical could take place. The Doc was then forced to assess Prodan's medical records sent to Rangers in the 45 mins before the press conference.

It later transpired that the medical records had been falsified to hide the extent of Prodan's injury.

That's the problem with football - full of Egos; Lies; and Shysters!

Loyal fans and good guys invariably get shafted!!
 
Craig Brown is an absolute fud and I've always found it difficult to take him seriously as a football manager.

Back in the days when Only an Excuse was decent he did a sketch of Brown in a restaurant with a woman and he's ordering food and the waiter asks what his lady friend would like and Brown replies "Do you have any spaghetti hoops"? haha
 
What was the reason for the lack of Rangers players being selected in the squad for France 98?

Most of our Scottish players were finished IMO.

We lost 10 and the majority were a shambling mess. Gorams form all season was appalling.

Only McCoist really had a decent season in the second half of the year playing in midfield for a portion of it as well.
 
Spot on re Leighton. Threw a wobbler at Euro 96 after Goram was selected and told Brown if ever got back in and was dropped that he'd chuck it. The fact Leighton was still allowed to chuck goals into the net during the Euro 2000 qualifiers before finally being dropped was an utter embarrassment on Brown's part.

Mental that Neil Sullivan didn’t get the nod for France 98.

Both Leighton and Goram were done.
 
The actual truth of the matter was that David Murray called a press conference to announce the Prodan signing before a detailed physical medical could take place. The Doc was then forced to assess Prodan's medical records sent to Rangers in the 45 mins before the press conference.

It later transpired that the medical records had been falsified to hide the extent of Prodan's injury.

That's the problem with football - full of Egos; Lies; and Shysters!

Loyal fans and good guys invariably get shafted!!

Saved me replying!

Also wondering if we know each other!
 
Prof Hillis was a friend and colleague of mine. Nice catching a wee glimpse of him here and there on the film. He really was a good bear and is still missed by those of us lucky enough to have known him.
My pal bought his house on Arran. Loads of signed rangers stuff left behind
 
It is indeed a small world. I was discussing that very same house earlier today. Was fortunate enough to stay there once.
It's a cracking location. My mate can leave work at 4 on a Friday in Glasgow and be having his dinner in Arran by 7. It is really close to the ferry terminal
 
As for Craig brown, his shite commentary nearly ruins my recollection of super Allys last goal against Celtic
 
I took my fortnights holiday that year to watch our three matches, starting with the Brazil game in the Tunnel of all places where they’d put artificial grass and seats out over the dance floor.

Last time I had a real interest in a World Cup although I did really enjoy last years but not the same without your own team to support
 
LOL! Thankfully your pal is talking out his legal hole! All Rangers memorabilia has been safely retained!
There are definitely a few books there! I read them. Suffice to say he won't be reading them but when I stayed I saw several signed autobiographies.
 
I was at a league dinner years ago and Craig Brown was a speaker at it. He told a story that happened when he was manager of Clyde. They were playing Queens Park at Hampden and he was out at the touchline giving instructions to his team and walked backwards into the queen's park bench by mistake and the Queens Park fans behind the dug out shouted to him to GTF out of their dugout. He made his way back to his own dugout and the Clyde fans behind him shouted "and you can fuck off out of that one as well." To think he went on to manage Scotland at a World Cup, after that.

When he was going with Louise Port he was up in Golspie visiting her at her parents house. Anytime he was out and about and was asked for an autograph he would reach into his jacket and produce a pre signed photo :))
 
I prefer his big book of positives.
Page 1. we won on corner kicks.
Page 2. Colin Hendry and literally any other centre half in the world whose eaten shortbread being fit means I can continue to ignore the players at Rangers.
"I felt we were gubbed with flair" :D
 
Just watched the final part there. That Morocco game! Also, my wife and I's first date-night.

Broon was so deluded. Kept gibbering on about creating chances - but, in truth, barely a half chance amongst the lot of them.

The man has the personality of a fence.
 

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