Jock Stein

Jock Stein Synopsis

Archie Macpherson's compelling biography reappraises Jock Stein's career and looks closely at the personality of the man whose shrewdness and cunning stamped him eventually with greatness. Stein hugely influenced the history of football between his debut as a professional player in Lanarkshire in 1942 and his death at the side of the pitch in 1985. He redesigned the landscape of the Scottish game as the great innovator and successfully exported his values outside the country when European football was in the grip of the ice-age of defensive football. In that time he generated unprecedented adulation, created bitter enemies, and inspired myths. He also took on the established canons of sectarianism by becoming Celtic's first Protestant manager.

The author worked his entire professional life as a contemporary of Stein and travelled the world with him on different ventures. He was present at nearly all of the great triumphs associated with the Celtic and Scotland manager. The trail Macpherson so engagingly follows is from Stein's early days in the coal mines, and the hard grind of provincial football, to the grandeur of the Lisbon European Cup Final in 1967 and beyond.

In examining the strengths and weaknesses of the major figure, this biography will nevertheless lead no one to doubt the sincerity of Bill Shankly's ultimate accolade to Stein in Lisbon. 'John, you are immortal now.'