Walter Smith has been around long enough to have seen many sporting greats in action, and a man of his managerial stature can claim to know a thing or two about spotting a winner. But when In The Winning Zone asked Walter who has inspired him the most in his career, it wasn’t the answer we expected.

“I’ll tell you about a young man called Dougie Smith at Dundee United,” he started.  “He was a very quiet, very unassuming boy.  He couldn’t hold up a bunch of medals or anything like that at the end of his career.  But I don’t think I’ve met many people who wanted to win as much as he did.  His personality wasn’t always what people would hold up as being a winner’s, but he had a winning attitude.”

Dougie, who signed for United in 1958, was a softly spoken but hard-playing centre-half.  He was known as United’s ‘Mr Dependable,’ having missed only four competitive games in ten seasons. “Dougie wanted to win,” continued Walter. “A lot of times players run around kicking people and shouting at referees, and people view that as a desire to win.  But he didn’t do that, he just wanted to win.  It was a desire that was within him.”

Just as Walter defines Dougie, what defines Walter, and justifies his position as one of Scotland’s greatest managers, is that he is a winner.  He has a proven track record of trophies, championships and glory, not least the small matter of a record equalling nine consecutive SPL Championships in his first spell with Rangers in the mid 90s.  Following his now legendary victory over France as Scotland coach, he has now moved back to Rangers, where he has already made an impression.

But though Smith’s career achievements confirm his status as an absolute winner, lifting trophies doesn’t necessarily feature in his interpretation of the term winning:  “There are guys who don’t have a lot of ability who can bring themselves up to a tremendous level in any sport, and though they may just fall short of winning, in their own right they are actually winners, because they have dragged themselves from being not the most naturally gifted to being among the best.” 

In fact, Smith, who was recently awarded the accolade of ‘Top Scot’ 2006 in the Spirit of Scotland Awards, seems to have almost an extra layer of respect for such people, continuing: “In some respects, in doing so, they may have almost achieved more.  It may not look that way from outside, but a lot of managers in football do a terrific job without getting an end product in terms of trophies and championships.” 

Having moved from a spell laden with triumph at Rangers, Lanark born Walter took the same productive mentality through to his time at Everton from 1998-2002, and then on to Scotland, before returning to the Glasgow club earlier this year.  The expectations may not always be the same, but the challenge to win, and the desire, never changes for Smith: “The same rules always apply; you have to strive for it, even though the ambitions may be different.  So therefore, at Everton, there wasn’t going to be a situation where you would be striving to beat Manchester United every week.  But there was no reason why we couldn’t accept the challenge to be as good as we can be.  We would have hoped it would take us to the top six, or the top eight teams in England. 
“You have to play to that challenge, and once you achieve it, then you find another challenge.  And that’s what it is, a continuing challenge that you have to get up and make.”

On the subject of Manchester United, it is frequently forgotten that Smith twice enjoyed brief spells as assistant coach to the great Sir Alex Ferguson, first in 1986 during the World Cup with Scotland in Mexico, and then again in Spring 2004 with United.  And, having worked with a man of the calibre of Sir Alex, it is no surprise that Smith sees the Red’s supremo as the cream of the coaching crop.

“I think the obvious fact that I know and have worked with Sir Alex maybe makes me a wee bit biased, but when you talk about creating a winning environment, there has been nobody better.  Not just at Manchester United who are an enormous club, but also at Aberdeen.  They are not as powerful a club as Rangers or Celtic, but he still managed to achieve a winning team and brought a winning attitude to Aberdeen.  So probably he, more than anybody else, is someone that I admire in our sport.”

Of course the pinnacle of Ferguson’s career at United was winning the Champion’s League in 1999, for which Smith feels Ferguson and the club maybe didn’t quite get the credit they deserved: “Everyone said when they scored those two goals late in the game they were lucky to do so.  But if you looked at Alex Ferguson’s teams down through the years, his teams were never beaten.  They scored lots of late goals, and their urgency to win is something that comes through in his management all the time.”

One of those famous late goals came quite recently against Milan at Old Trafford, as many United fans will recall proudly.  But what is it about Ferguson’s fabled Man United sides that has made them so special, and so successful?

“I think that first and foremost you would take togetherness and the opportunity to create a winning atmosphere as a big part of Alex Ferguson’s make-up, and then the technical aspects fall in place alongside that.  It’s his people skills that can generate an atmosphere where the players can have that winning, competitive attitude.”

In men like Smith and Ferguson, Scotland has produced two of the finest football managers of the modern professional era.  But they were around a long time before the exceptional periods of success they enjoyed in the 1990s.  Smith actually began his coaching career with the Dundee United youth team when he was 27, so by the time he joined Rangers in 1991, he had already been involved in football management for over fifteen years.  And now, another sixteen years on, how does Walter continue to motivate himself, let alone his players, at the current stage of his career?

“It’s just always been there.  I like winning.  I say that knowing that the majority of people I’ve worked with, and played against, all like winning, but that’s what drives me on.”  And his desire to be the best doesn’t just stop at football: “If I am involved in something competitive, I like to win it.  I know at times, such as when I’m playing someone who is a better golfer than me, that maybe I won’t win, but it doesn’t stop me from liking to win, and it doesn’t stop me from going back and trying to win again.  It’s actually winning that keeps me going.  And I am lucky enough to have a job where there is a tangible reward.”

The desire to win at all costs epitomises the former national coach’s own individual ethos for success, but it is a different story to translate personal ambition into eleven individual (and often inflated) egos on the pitch.  But Smith, as mentioned, has been around a long time, and knows what it takes to shape a squad of players into a team of winners.

“There is no doubt that in team sport you need a degree of togetherness.  Teamwork is the most essential aspect of a team sport.  I know that is a bland statement, but it is the formation of a team, the coming together of a team, that is the most important aspect.  That becomes a cornerstone for anything that the team is going to achieve.”

From that foundation, Smith commented, you can work on the individual man-management.  And he has worked closely with many bold personalities in his coaching career, including his current assistant Ally McCoist, the flamboyant and often fiery French star David Ginola and, most notably, Rangers hero and eventual Scottish heartbreaker, Paul ‘Gazza’ Gascoigne, on two occasions:  “Gascoigne wasn’t actually a difficult player to work with or handle.  He enjoys his football and he likes winning.  There wasn’t a great deal that you had to do, except for making sure there was the correct environment and a decent balance within the team around him that allowed him to show his best.  And if that was the case then it was a big plus for the team to have someone of his ability.”

And when teams are playing well and performing to their best ability, it is then down to the manager to ensure that they continue to perform, and continue to win.  It is no good to Walter if you win once and then put your feet up: “You have to keep challenging your players all the time in terms of where they want to be and what they want to achieve.”  He added: “I just have an admiration for people who win.  And not only win once, but continue to win.  I think that shows a tremendous drive and determination from within the person. Take Colin Montgomerie, who wins the Order of Merit seven times in a row, or Stephen Hendry, who wins the World Championship seven times in a row.  It is a fantastic achievement to keep going and keep winning.  That takes far more than just ability.”

So, for Smith, it takes more than talent to become a Montgomerie or a Hendry.  It takes desire, drive and determination.  And not very many of us will emulate the achievements of these individuals, because we may not have the talent.  But we can still have the passion, and that is all that matters, according to one of the main men of the main sport in all of Scotland: “Essentially speaking, high performance is winning.  It doesn’t matter what level you play.  If you manage to play football at professional level, that’s fine, but if you’re only a medium handicap golfer, you should still want to win.  It doesn’t mean to say that you have to have a phenomenal level of performance.  You’re not going achieve that across the board in all sports.  It is a willingness to want to win.  I think it is within the person to say ‘I’ll compete to the best level I can’.  It is about trying to win.” 

The most sought after man in Scottish football triggers a new wave of enthusiasm wherever he goes, and generally harnesses success in whatever position he takes up.  His move to Rangers in January may have been controversial but, ultimately, Smith is a man driven by the desire to coach footballers, a luxury which was somewhat limited in his role with the SFA, as it would be with any national setup. 

Rangers’ gain may be Scotland’s loss, but it doesn’t detract from the fact that whenever Walter Smith takes charge of a football team, his influence makes an immediate impact.  Hampden will always remember 7th October 2006, and for that, they should be thankful.  Walter may have moved on, but if it weren’t for him, Scotland may still have been stuck on the starting line.

RO

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