ALEX McLeish was chuffed to have been selected in the Greatest Premier XI ahead of the likes of Scottish football greats like Richard Gough and David Narey and impressed with the starting line-up that was assembled.
“I’d fancy that team to win something in Europe,” said McLeish as he looks over the players Herald and Times sports writers judged have been the best in their position in the 45 years since the Premier Division was formed back in 1975. “It’s a great team from back to front. It has everything.”
With Andy Goram in goals, Danny McGrain at right back, Willie Miller alongside him in the centre of the defence and Maurice Malpas at left back, McLeish certainly feels the side would have little difficulty keeping clean sheets.
“I played alongside Danny when Scotland beat England at Wembley in 1981 thanks to a John Robertson penalty,” he said. “He was a very experienced player when I came in to the national team and was a huge help to me. He was a terrific full-back.
“Mo Malpas was a very accomplished and experienced left back, especially
McLeish likes the look of the players ahead of them as well – Scott Brown in defensive midfield, Paul Gascoigne in the playmaker role, Brian Laudrup wide on the right, Davie Cooper on the left and Henrik Larsson and Ally McCoist up front.
The former Rangers manager certainly knows the front two of Larsson and McCoist would have little difficulty netting with the chances supplied to them by his former Scotland team mate Cooper. “Davie was an amazing winger, absolutely amazing, just magnificent,” he said. “He is an iconic Scottish player.”
But the former Motherwell, Hibernian and Rangers manager believes two individuals who he both played alongside and coached during were unlucky to miss out on both the shortlist and selection in their respective full-back positions – Stuart Kennedy and Arthur Numan.
“I loved Arthur,” he said of the Dutch internationalist, who was in his squad during his five years in the dugout at Ibrox. “For me, he was a world-class player. He helped the Netherlands get to the semi-final of France ’98.
“He was a superb athlete with an incredible physique. For me, he retired far too early (Numan hung up his boots aged 33 after helping Rangers to win the treble).”
McLeish felt that Kennedy, the Aberdeen and Scotland defender who was forced to retire after suffering a career-ending injury following the Pittodrie club’s European Cup Winners’ Cup semi-final victory over Waterschei in 1983, should also have challenged McGrain for the right back berth.
“As I mentioned, Davie Cooper was a sensational player,” he said. “But his nemesis was Stuart Kennedy. He wasn’t a fan of playing against Stuart. Stuart was so far ahead of his time. I don’t think he gets the credit he deserves.
“People talk about how Arsene Wenger introduced proper diet to the English game after he took over at Arsenal in the 1990s. But Stuart Kennedy was brining books by Ivan Lendl about food and nutrition when we were at Aberdeen years before.
“He was all about eating the right food, drinking water, taking vitamins. He was a teetotaller throughout his football career. That showed with the runs that he made up and down the wing. He would have flourished in the modern game.”
But McLeish, who spent over 25 years in the dugout at both club and international level after retiring from playing, can appreciate the difficulties the selection committee faced singling out five outstanding individuals for each position and choosing one to start from bitter experience. “It’s an absolute nightmare,” he said.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel