Walter Smith OBE: Contribution to Scottish Football

Debate between Brendan O'Hara and Kirsten Oswald

Wednesday 17th November 2021 Commons Chamber

[Brendan O’Hara]

Yes, I will and then I will come on to how Walter began his managerial career with a remarkable conversation with Jim McLean.

Walter had what one would call a respectable career as a footballer, but I think it would be fair to say that his time at Dundee United provided little clue as to what lay ahead. The arrival of Jim McLean as manager of Dundee United in 1971 was to have a profound effect on his career—initially for the worse—as the new manager decided that he was surplus to requirements and sold him to Dumbarton. Possibly with an eye to the future, Jim McLean brought Walter back to Tannadice two years later, but a bad injury severely limited his United appearances. Walter spent more time working and playing with the reserve team than with the first team. It was his work with the reserve team that caught the attention of Jim McLean and indeed the SFA, which, in 1978, asked Walter to assist in the running of the Scotland under-18 team, which went on to win the European Youth Championship in 1982.

Walter also caught the eye of another young Scottish manager, Alex Ferguson, who on being appointed boss at Aberdeen, phoned Jim McLean to see whether he could approach Walter to be his assistant at Pittodrie. His request was somewhat robustly refused—anyone who knows Jim McLean will understand that. Perhaps it was that realisation that Walter was gaining a reputation that finally persuaded Jim McLean to have that life-changing conversation in 1980—a conversation that Walter often recalled. He described Wee Jim pulling him aside, saying, as only Wee Jim could, “Walter, at some stage in your career, you’ve got to face up to the fact of how good you are, and let’s face it, Walter, you are shite, but I think you’ve got a real talent as a coach, so would you be my coach?” As Walter said himself,

“It was hardly a marriage proposal”,

but it was one that he accepted anyway. It was an offer that took a journeyman footballer on an expedition that would lead to the very top of the managerial profession.

[Kirsten Oswald (East Renfrewshire) (SNP)]

My hon. Friend has probably already said it for me, but generations of Dundee United fans like myself see the double act of Jim McLean and Walter Smith, and what they were able to achieve working together, and applaud those two great men, who we have lost in such short succession.

[Brendan O’Hara]

My hon. Friend is right. It is no coincidence that Walter Smith’s elevation to assistant manager at Tannadice coincided with the most successful period in the history of Dundee United,

[Kirsten Oswald]

So far.

[Brendan O’Hara]

Young players who Walter Smith coached through the ranks, including Richard Gough, Maurice Malpas, Ralph Milne, Paul Sturrock and so many more, helped to secure Dundee United back-to-back Scottish league cups, and in 1983 the Scottish premier league title for the first and only time—thus far—in the club’s history. Of course, the following season Dundee United made it all the way to the semi-final of the European cup. Had it not been for a £50,000 bribe given to a French referee by Italian giants Roma, they may well have progressed further.