Tormusk1872
Well-Known Member
Walter Smith
Formidable football manager who led Scotland’s national side and won 10 league titles with Rangers
WALTER SMITH, who has died aged 73, was manager of Rangers during one of its most dramatically successful periods, winning seven consecutive Scottish league titles in the 1990s before moving to Everton, and then spending two years leading the Scottish national side, during which time he raised the country’s world ranking dramatically.
A return to Rangers in 2007 brought more glory as he secured a further three league titles and took his team to a Uefa Cup final, before retiring in 2011.
Statistically speaking, Smith’s 21 league and cup trophies did not make him the most outstanding leader of Rangers: that honour belongs to Bill Struth, who won 30 major competitions at the Glasgow club over a much longer period during the inter-war years. Nevertheless, Smith was without question one of the best managers to have emerged from Scotland.
Stern and forbidding, with a steely glare and strong disciplinary air, he could be an aggressive figure in the dressing room. But he also had a reflective, friendly side, a dry sense of humour, and was a good listener who engendered great loyalty in his players, not least for his shrewd tactical nous and sense of fairness. He was also a humble man who habitually made it clear that he was lucky to be doing what he was doing.
Playing for Dundee Utd in the 1974 Scottish Cup final he dashes forward from Celtic’s Kenny Dalglish (on ground) and Davie Hay
Smith’s first spell at Rangers was mesmerising in its dominance, as his teams won most of the domestic honours that were laid in front of them – at one stage going 44 matches unbeaten in all competitions, and reaching the brink of the Champions League final in its inaugural 1992-93 season.
He was fortunate during that era in being able to spend large sums of money on big-name signings, including Paul Gascoigne (on whom he practised his fabled man-management skills). But he was much more than a good-times manager, as he proved when he returned to a more uncertain atmosphere at Rangers in 2007, guiding them to their first European final for 36 years and delivering a hat-trick of Premier League titles before stepping down to universal praise.
Although Smith fared less well at Everton, where money was tighter, and with Scotland his failure to qualify for the 2006 World Cup finals was a disappointment, there was no doubting his pedigree. As a club and international manager he took charge of 810 games, winning 464 and losing only 170, with a win rate of 57 per cent.
Walter Ferguson Smith was born in Lanark on February 24 1948, but grew up as a Rangers supporter in Carmyle in the East End of Glasgow, where he became an apprentice electrician with the South of Scotland Electricity Board. In his spare time he played junior league football with Ashfield in Glasgow and in 1966, at the age of 18, he signed for Dundee United as a defender, making his debut in 1967.
Something of a journeyman at the top level, he was unable to establish himself fully in the first team until 1970, but shortly afterwards Dundee United began to make headway under a fearsome new manager, Jim McLean, and the highlight of his playing career was an appearance in the 1974 Scottish Cup final against Celtic, which United lost 3-0 at Hampden Park.
Transferred in 1975 to Dumbarton, Smith played more than 40 games over two seasons there before returning to Dundee United in early 1977. But a pelvic injury effectively ended his league career at 29. Soldiering on mostly in the reserves, he began to assist McLean with coaching duties, and was eventually appointed as the manager’s assistant, helping the club to its first ever Scottish league title in 1982-83 and a European Cup semi-final in 1983-84.
With a growing reputation shaped in McLean’s hard-nosed image, in 1978 Smith was appointed as coach to Scotland’s Under-18 side, and by 1982 was the team’s assistant manager under Andy Roxburgh when, remarkably, they won the European U-18 championship, Scotland’s first tournament victory at any international level.
That year Smith went on to become coach of the Under-21s, and was also taken on by the full Scotland side as assistant manager to Alex Ferguson – a long-time admirer and friend – for the World Cup finals in Mexico.
When Graeme Souness was appointed player-manager at Rangers in 1986 he asked Smith to be his assistant, and together they guided the club to its first league title in a decade, in 1986-87. Although Celtic won the following year, Rangers then took the title twice again in 1988-89 and 1989-90, and after Souness had left for Liverpool towards the end of the 1990-91 season, Smith was made interim manager, leading the club to its fourth title in five years with a nerve-wracking final day win over Aberdeen, who had only needed a point to become champions themselves.
He was given the full job shortly afterwards, trumping Souness’s achievements by winning the title again in 1991-92 and delivering a domestic treble of league, League Cup and Scottish Cup in 1992-93 – the season Rangers had their 44-match unbeaten run and came agonisingly close to a place in the Champions League final, having gone 10 games without defeat and finishing as runners-up in one of the competition’s two final qualifying groups to eventual winners Olympique de Marseille.
Smith signed Gascoigne in 1995 on something of a whim. Travelling to Rome, where the Englishman was playing for Lazio, he arrived unannounced outside the player’s gated villa, where a brief shouted conversation ensued through the security fence. Gascoigne, sitting on a quad bike, asked him what he was doing there; Smith replied that he wanted him to play for Rangers, and the answer was an immediate yes.
With Gascoigne on board, by 1997 Rangers had equalled Celtic’s record of nine consecutive championships, and Smith had been appointed OBE in recognition of his achievements. But when a 10th consecutive domestic title proved out of reach in 1998, he left the club by mutual consent before taking up a new challenge with Everton.
Times were tougher, however, at Goodison Park, where with less cash to spend he found it difficult to arrest the club’s slide into the lower reaches of the Premier League. After four dignified seasons in which he could produce nothing better than 13th place, he was sacked in 2002.
A short stint followed as Ferguson’s second in charge at Manchester United, before he replaced Berti Vogts as Scotland manager in late 2004, a spell during which the team’s world ranking improved from 86th to 26th and there were some creditable victories, including against France in 2006.
Despite Scotland’s failure to qualify for the World Cup finals after a 2005 home defeat to Belarus, it was a period that did much to re-upholster Smith’s reputation, and as a consequence, when a managerial vacancy opened up at Rangers in early 2007 he was welcomed back for a second tenure.
Smith was almost immediately able to repay the club’s confidence with an exciting run to the 2008 Uefa Cup final, which was lost 2-0 to Zenit Saint Petersburg, and over the next four years there followed three league titles, two Scottish Cups and three League Cups. With the last of the league wins sealed in 2011, he ended his managerial career by standing down at the age of 63.
The following year Smith was appointed as a non-executive director at Rangers, and in 2013 he became non-executive chairman, although he quit shortly afterwards to extricate himself from board wrangling and to distance himself from the club’s descent into financial ruin.
A self-taught man, in his retirement he liked to keep abreast of politics, read, and listen to the music of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young.
He is survived by his wife, Ethel, and their two sons.
Walter Smith, born February 24 1948, died October 26 2021
Formidable football manager who led Scotland’s national side and won 10 league titles with Rangers
WALTER SMITH, who has died aged 73, was manager of Rangers during one of its most dramatically successful periods, winning seven consecutive Scottish league titles in the 1990s before moving to Everton, and then spending two years leading the Scottish national side, during which time he raised the country’s world ranking dramatically.
A return to Rangers in 2007 brought more glory as he secured a further three league titles and took his team to a Uefa Cup final, before retiring in 2011.
Statistically speaking, Smith’s 21 league and cup trophies did not make him the most outstanding leader of Rangers: that honour belongs to Bill Struth, who won 30 major competitions at the Glasgow club over a much longer period during the inter-war years. Nevertheless, Smith was without question one of the best managers to have emerged from Scotland.
Stern and forbidding, with a steely glare and strong disciplinary air, he could be an aggressive figure in the dressing room. But he also had a reflective, friendly side, a dry sense of humour, and was a good listener who engendered great loyalty in his players, not least for his shrewd tactical nous and sense of fairness. He was also a humble man who habitually made it clear that he was lucky to be doing what he was doing.
Playing for Dundee Utd in the 1974 Scottish Cup final he dashes forward from Celtic’s Kenny Dalglish (on ground) and Davie Hay
Smith’s first spell at Rangers was mesmerising in its dominance, as his teams won most of the domestic honours that were laid in front of them – at one stage going 44 matches unbeaten in all competitions, and reaching the brink of the Champions League final in its inaugural 1992-93 season.
He was fortunate during that era in being able to spend large sums of money on big-name signings, including Paul Gascoigne (on whom he practised his fabled man-management skills). But he was much more than a good-times manager, as he proved when he returned to a more uncertain atmosphere at Rangers in 2007, guiding them to their first European final for 36 years and delivering a hat-trick of Premier League titles before stepping down to universal praise.
Although Smith fared less well at Everton, where money was tighter, and with Scotland his failure to qualify for the 2006 World Cup finals was a disappointment, there was no doubting his pedigree. As a club and international manager he took charge of 810 games, winning 464 and losing only 170, with a win rate of 57 per cent.
Walter Ferguson Smith was born in Lanark on February 24 1948, but grew up as a Rangers supporter in Carmyle in the East End of Glasgow, where he became an apprentice electrician with the South of Scotland Electricity Board. In his spare time he played junior league football with Ashfield in Glasgow and in 1966, at the age of 18, he signed for Dundee United as a defender, making his debut in 1967.
Something of a journeyman at the top level, he was unable to establish himself fully in the first team until 1970, but shortly afterwards Dundee United began to make headway under a fearsome new manager, Jim McLean, and the highlight of his playing career was an appearance in the 1974 Scottish Cup final against Celtic, which United lost 3-0 at Hampden Park.
Transferred in 1975 to Dumbarton, Smith played more than 40 games over two seasons there before returning to Dundee United in early 1977. But a pelvic injury effectively ended his league career at 29. Soldiering on mostly in the reserves, he began to assist McLean with coaching duties, and was eventually appointed as the manager’s assistant, helping the club to its first ever Scottish league title in 1982-83 and a European Cup semi-final in 1983-84.
With a growing reputation shaped in McLean’s hard-nosed image, in 1978 Smith was appointed as coach to Scotland’s Under-18 side, and by 1982 was the team’s assistant manager under Andy Roxburgh when, remarkably, they won the European U-18 championship, Scotland’s first tournament victory at any international level.
That year Smith went on to become coach of the Under-21s, and was also taken on by the full Scotland side as assistant manager to Alex Ferguson – a long-time admirer and friend – for the World Cup finals in Mexico.
When Graeme Souness was appointed player-manager at Rangers in 1986 he asked Smith to be his assistant, and together they guided the club to its first league title in a decade, in 1986-87. Although Celtic won the following year, Rangers then took the title twice again in 1988-89 and 1989-90, and after Souness had left for Liverpool towards the end of the 1990-91 season, Smith was made interim manager, leading the club to its fourth title in five years with a nerve-wracking final day win over Aberdeen, who had only needed a point to become champions themselves.
He was given the full job shortly afterwards, trumping Souness’s achievements by winning the title again in 1991-92 and delivering a domestic treble of league, League Cup and Scottish Cup in 1992-93 – the season Rangers had their 44-match unbeaten run and came agonisingly close to a place in the Champions League final, having gone 10 games without defeat and finishing as runners-up in one of the competition’s two final qualifying groups to eventual winners Olympique de Marseille.
Smith signed Gascoigne in 1995 on something of a whim. Travelling to Rome, where the Englishman was playing for Lazio, he arrived unannounced outside the player’s gated villa, where a brief shouted conversation ensued through the security fence. Gascoigne, sitting on a quad bike, asked him what he was doing there; Smith replied that he wanted him to play for Rangers, and the answer was an immediate yes.
With Gascoigne on board, by 1997 Rangers had equalled Celtic’s record of nine consecutive championships, and Smith had been appointed OBE in recognition of his achievements. But when a 10th consecutive domestic title proved out of reach in 1998, he left the club by mutual consent before taking up a new challenge with Everton.
Times were tougher, however, at Goodison Park, where with less cash to spend he found it difficult to arrest the club’s slide into the lower reaches of the Premier League. After four dignified seasons in which he could produce nothing better than 13th place, he was sacked in 2002.
A short stint followed as Ferguson’s second in charge at Manchester United, before he replaced Berti Vogts as Scotland manager in late 2004, a spell during which the team’s world ranking improved from 86th to 26th and there were some creditable victories, including against France in 2006.
Despite Scotland’s failure to qualify for the World Cup finals after a 2005 home defeat to Belarus, it was a period that did much to re-upholster Smith’s reputation, and as a consequence, when a managerial vacancy opened up at Rangers in early 2007 he was welcomed back for a second tenure.
Smith was almost immediately able to repay the club’s confidence with an exciting run to the 2008 Uefa Cup final, which was lost 2-0 to Zenit Saint Petersburg, and over the next four years there followed three league titles, two Scottish Cups and three League Cups. With the last of the league wins sealed in 2011, he ended his managerial career by standing down at the age of 63.
The following year Smith was appointed as a non-executive director at Rangers, and in 2013 he became non-executive chairman, although he quit shortly afterwards to extricate himself from board wrangling and to distance himself from the club’s descent into financial ruin.
A self-taught man, in his retirement he liked to keep abreast of politics, read, and listen to the music of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young.
He is survived by his wife, Ethel, and their two sons.
Walter Smith, born February 24 1948, died October 26 2021
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