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Ally Mcleod - Hall Of Fame?


Annfield Red

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Listened to "off the ball" yesterday and apart from the WC draw this was a feature. Which got me thinking.

Listening to ally's son, he seemed to indicate that there were people in the media and Scottish fa that would not let ally into the hall of fame , despite meeting the criteria to get in.

His biggest crime seems to be that we failed to win the World Cup in 78, but looking at his whole career there was more to him than that campaign.

What's the view of the this forum?

Should Ally be inducted into the hall of fame, yes or no?

For the record I am a yes! Is there hidden reasons why he's not there?

All thoughts welcome

Cheers

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My full conciousness of football and Scotland began around 1975-76. I was between the ages of 7 and 8

I can vaguely remember the 2-0 game against England at Hampden in 1974 but nothing much about the World Cup later that year apart from bits of the Zaire game.

I can remember the gutted feeling of the 5-1 drubbing in 1975, mainly the hopeless (and ugly) Stewart Kennedy wrapping himself round the goalposts

The 2-1 win at Hampden the following year was the first time i really got into it - sitting down to watch the whole build up with my Dad - so by 1977 and the start of Ally's reign thats when i was switched on.

I doubt if any other manager had been in charge i would have felt the same way about the Scottish National team from then on.

The way he made me and the rest of the country feel was incredible. He was like a rock star and inspired a lot of kids and a generation to get sucked into what would eventually be the misery of following Scotland.

Only those that were there around that time know what the build up to Argentina was like. As Scotland fans we will never ever experience that feeling again.

For that alone he should be included

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Spare me the "Argentina wasn't a complete embarrassment" bullshit.

Oh it was - and it gave us a needed reality check. I doubt we have ever recovered fully from it

However it was what went on before i was referring to

He made a lot of money for the SFA i dare say too

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Of course he has to go in. Argentina is one of the main things that people associate with Scotland and world cups, for all the embarrassment of Peru and Iran to the high of the Holland game.

Argentina =Ally, and as Ally Bongo says above, the pre-tournament hype he encouraged was as big a buzz of expectation as we have ever had or are ever likely to have!

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He got us to a World Cup Finals, and it's not like th HoF is littered with managers with better than a 1-1-1 record when they got there.....

Is Ormond in it?

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Up to Argentina it was fine. However in 78 with the strongest squad we have ever had and not to qualify from a very easy group is unforgivable. He got it tactically wrong. Played Souness against Holland when it was too late. However before that he got the whole country believing. Difficult to say if he merits Hall of Fame. It may confirm to the world we are nation of losers along wi the referendum result by rewarding failure.

Edited by Doric
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Up to Argentina it was fine. However in 78 with the strongest squad we have ever had and not to qualify from a very easy group is unforgivable. He got it tactically wrong. Played Souness against Holland when it was too late. However before that he got the whole country believing. Difficult to say if he merits Hall of Fame. It may confirm to the world we are nation of losers along wi the referendum result by rewarding failure.

So, that being the case, which is a fair viewpoint. Who would be considered a successful enough manager, considering we have never been past a group stage in any major finals?

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So, that being the case, which is a fair viewpoint. Who would be considered a successful enough manager, considering we have never been past a group stage in any major finals?

The other "full time" managers in the Hall of Fame are Jock Stein, Ormond and Craig Brown.

As has been said before Ormond is included for his playing career and Stein deserves to be because of what he did with Celtic.

I'm a huge fan of Craig Brown, both as a manager and as a guy, but I don't see what he's done to warrant inclusion. Maybe the longevity of his time at the SFA and the successes he had at the age groups prior to becoming manager of the full team, but that is really stretching it.

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For the results in 1977 he deserves to be in - beating England at Wembley, beating Chile and drawing with Argentina away on the South American tour, beating Czechoslovakia (the reigning European Champions) at Hampden and, finally, the win over Wales at Anfield that took us to Argentina.

If he'd gone under a bus at the end of that year we'd probably be lauding him today as our greatest ever manager.

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I vote that we include the flawed Demi-God.Personally speaking Ally's term of office brought me more happiness and excitement than chocolate, sex, alcohol and the Nolan Sisters combined. Of course Argentina hurt but broken hearts mend - now if you'll excuse me I'm away to listen to my Jim Reeves CD.

Oh yes, and whilst I'm off on one can we 'induct' Berti into Dante's Inferno - Eighth Circle. Hic!

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  • 2 months later...

I think a lot of people are in it, not just for their Scotland career but also club career although as a player Ally didn't hit high heights with Third Lanark, Blackburn and Hibs he was still seen as a good player. As a manager of Ayr United he brought the team out of obscurity and had a team that was difficult to beat and were good to watch, there is also his Civic work on behalf of the town to consider. As Aberdeen manager he also did similar things which led to the Scotland job.

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I think a lot of people are in it, not just for their Scotland career but also club career although as a player Ally didn't hit high heights with Third Lanark, Blackburn and Hibs he was still seen as a good player. As a manager of Ayr United he brought the team out of obscurity and had a team that was difficult to beat and were good to watch, there is also his Civic work on behalf of the town to consider. As Aberdeen manager he also did similar things which led to the Scotland job.

He "only" won the league cup with the Dons ; but he gave the fans some belief after years in the doldrums

Beating Rangers 5-1 in the semis wAs a big surprise

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He's been inducted because there's been a well orchestrated campaign backed by the press to get him in.

if they hadn't included him then the headlines would have been "heartless SFA fat cats snub tragic Ally".

The easier option was to include him and it makes a bit of a mockery of the hall of fame, IMHO.

That said, there are others already inducted who have no right to be there either.

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