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Tommy Docherty spent a lifetime breaking convention. From a loft, a “doocot” to Docherty, atop the main grandstand at Stamford Bridge, he could be found looking towards Chelsea. Docherty, the club’s manager from 1961 to 1967, decided he could get a better view of the game from on high.
If that was a footballing break from the norm, Docherty’s departure from Manchester United in the summer of 1977 due to an affair with the physiotherapist’s wife dominated Britain’s news agenda. Docherty later married Mary Brown (the couple stayed together until her death at 92) and apparently held no grudge over her firing, but the setting was tabloid gold. It helped that Docherty was and remained one of soccer’s great personalities.
Legend has it that Docherty grew up in the tough Gorbals district of Glasgow. In fact, it came from Shettleston Road at the eastern end of the city. Whence, in the 1930s, you also had to be as tough as a coffin nail to survive. Docherty would later joke about her mother’s visits to charity shops. “You want to try walking to school in a third-hand Japanese admiral outfit.” That humor was typical of “the Doc”: modest and sharp.
His standing routine included promises made to Mary. I’ll take you places no other man could. First stop, Old Bailey. “This was in reference to the famous defamation case served by Docherty on Granada TV and Willie Morgan, one of his former players. Morgan said on a television show that Docherty was” the worst manager ever. ” Denis Law, Pat Crerand and Lou Macari were among those forced to testify as witnesses. Docherty dropped the case on the third day. “The ordeal is one of the worst times of my life and the stress on my family was incredible,” he said. Morgan in his autobiography, “But it was worth it in the end.” On second thought, the offense taken by Docherty was strange, he was not lacking in opinions, and indeed he delighted in being frank.
Docherty’s playing career began at his local club, Shettleston Juniors, before his beloved Celtic picked him up after World War II. He had served in the Highland Light Infantry while also representing the British Army in football. Right half, he only lasted two years at Celtic Park before setting off on a streetcar filled with a brown bag full of cash given to him by the club’s secretary, Desmond White. Of course, due to emotional attachment, Docherty called his departure one of his great disappointments. In the end, he couldn’t displace a great Celtic, Bobby Evans.
The next stop was Preston North End, where Docherty would play nearly 300 games in a nine-year span. If Tom Finney was the undisputed king of Deepdale, the winger was always reverent towards the club’s strong Scottish contingent. Davie Sneddon, who died on Christmas Eve, was another of that number. Docherty, who had played in the 1954 World Cup, was part of the 1958 Scotland team shortly before the bright lights of London – specifically Arsenal and Chelsea – called him quite appropriately.
That the 33-year-old Docherty was unwilling to appear at the ceremony when he took over as Chelsea’s manager in 1962 became instantly apparent. He sent out the old guard while showing faith in players like Terry Venables, Ron Harris and Peter Bonetti. Promotion back to Division One was accomplished instantly, with a top-tier fifth spot in 1964-65, one more sign of great progress. The 1967 FA Cup final loss to Tottenham came just months before Docherty left. As had happened when I was a player, he could be volatile but he was a great motivator. His Chelsea team had been famous for wowing crowds with high entertainment value; his successor, Dave Sexton, felt the benefit of winning the FA Champions Cup and the Cup.
A nomadic spell followed, quite possibly because Docherty would never rank on any short list of employees without complications. The feeling was mutual. “If soccer managers are too old to do it to their wives, they will do it to their coaches,” Docherty once said.
International football, then, seemed to fit perfectly. After brief spells at Rotherham, Queens Park Rangers – this one only lasted 29 days – Aston Villa and Porto it was Scotland who offered Docherty a semblance of stability. Willie Ormond continued Docherty’s resurgence of the Scots when he led them to the 1974 World Cup, a first appearance in 16 years. Docherty had lost just three of a dozen games in charge, including 1-0 losses to Brazil and England.
He regularly expressed regret at leaving his country, even if a sick Manchester United meant a seismic opportunity. United’s hierarchy, desperate to progress properly from the Matt Busby era, was seduced by Docherty’s mix of talent and charisma. There was no prospect that the mail would intimidate the Scotsman. From the Second Division, Docherty – who was in charge of relegation in 1974 – had a canvas to rebuild United and he did it properly. Law continued to hurt at being fired, but so did Bobby Charlton and George Best. Acts once unthinkable that Docherty would not avoid.
With United re-established, Docherty’s best moment was preventing Bob Paisley’s Liverpool from winning the triples thanks to the glory of the FA Cup final in 1977. “If they had kept me for a couple more years, the trophies would have been. been coming, “Docherty said. Instead, his love for Mary, then-wife of Laurie, the United physio, turned out to be a problem no one could avoid.
Docherty served Derby, QPR – again – Sydney Olympic – twice – Preston, South Melbourne, Wolves and Altrincham at the conclusion of an extraordinary career. It was the original Mr More Clubs Than Jack Nicklaus.
The tabletop circuit, with success and success, was a later and natural habitat. The Doc was inducted into the Scottish Football Hall of Fame in 2013 and last appeared in Hampden Park five years later, where he spoke warmly and hilariously, then at age 90, about goalkeeper Bobby Brown, who died in January. Craig Brown, who was in attendance that night, recalled how hardly a Scotland game under his own direction would go by without Docherty’s words of support and encouragement.
Tommy Docherty was far from just a lighthearted joker and colorful character; as much as he may have tried to mask such a formidable football brain.
