Craig Brown

Favourite era watching North End? Oh,

I'm probably going to go as far back as I think Craig Brown and then a bit into the Billy Davies era.

Just the players and I think the nostalgia.

And that's when I went on the most home and away.

on the, on the Tom Finney.

And then I made my way to the old town end, which I absolutely loved.

But yeah, I think going into that Craig Brown here and yes, some of the players, I think back and Creswell's, yeah, the two who's Eddie Lewis, Ricardo Fuller.

Oh, Some of them players, some exciting players I think back to.

We just knew how big this was, and England did as well.

But I've never seen, and, and I think I've told you this before, Br- Brown, Craig Brown, the manager, decided to play a, a kind of young, inexperienced, uh, Paul Ritchie-

Mm-hmm

... at left back a- for, for his pace against...

And then I was at Everton at the time, and we were training, and there was a helicopter over our training ground 'cause we had, um, Walter Smith and Archie Knox and Davie Weir, Duncan Ferguson, myself, John Collins, Alex Clelland.

We had loads of Scottish boys, uh, playing for Everton at the time, so you know, the, the, the column inches on the, on the back pages, bought helicopters over training grounds.

It was, it was one of my favorite games, Hampden, um, even though it was a disappointment, how the days before we were obsessed, or Craig Brown was obsessed with stopping England from doing all the things that they're good at.

And we went through videos and videos and videos of where England were gonna be on set plays, corners, free kicks.

I was in my house something, he's called, "Right, so Jimmy's in." We're just sitting having a cup of tea and a blether.

And, um, it was wee Craig Brown phoned me.

"Hi, Andy.

It's Craig Brown." I, I, "Aye, fuck off," and hung up.

[laughs]

'Cause we used to always do each other in.

He's like, "What was that?" I says, "Oh, could somebody taking the piss." I says, "He's kidding on.

I've been called up for Scotland." [laughs] Then two minutes later he phoned again.

So they're always up against it.

My question was, I don't know if Peter agrees with me or not, I remember when Betty Foulkes took over for Craig Brown, I felt he took over an ancient squad.

He was left with little or nothing, really.

I think there was famous quotes out there about how many caps he gave out and all that stuff.

That's, that's what I wanted to do.

And, but even, like, my agent was smart in the sense of he was speaking to Craig Brown at the time.

Craig Brown was coming across to, to Ireland.

He was coming down to Dundalk to watch a striker.

I can't remember his name.

Fionn North, I think.

No, I think it was him.

So he's coming across to watch a match, so he's like, "Um, Craig Brown's coming over here.

So what's your perspective on, on where we go from here?

I mean, I look at the similarities between when Craig Brown left and Berti-

Yeah

...

Um-

Were you hanging out with Craig Brown and Terry Venables? [laughs]

At, at England fans v Scotland match, Matt.

Uh, th- sorry.

So is there something when...

I remember speaking to Craig Brown, God rest his sweet soul, and I said, was asking about Alex Ferguson.

I mean, why is he so successful? I mean, how do you judge a player? What, to your mind, Bobby, what do you look for? What qualities, for instance, when, when you're buying a player or looking at a player, what do you look for? What makes a great player to your mind?

Well, experienced players I brought in at Kilmarnock all had something to offer.

I don't know.

But do you know what the weird thing was? Was that all the Scottish under-16s, 18s, was all coached by Craig Brown, Roxburgh, Ross Mathey, under-21s.

And I played in all those games.

And then...

You're great.

This will be the start of your career.

never happened i was like like i was i always felt that if there was they picked maybe 22 players if they've all fit i was in the stand there's only 18 players i'd be in i'd be in the 18 so i went from playing that game against switzerland to be in the bench to be in the stand and then i just i basically said to craig brown i said look you know i want to play for scotland but um I find it soul-destroying.

You know, you're playing well for Rangers, playing all these big games.