Arch Angel

Stewart Fisher talks to Archie Gemmill about his impact on Scotland’s Under-19s

EVEN at the age of 59, Archie Gemmill still knows how to wrongfoot people. The Scotland legend and current Under-19 coach, who has led the country to their first appearance at a major finals at this age level for 20 years, revealed last night that he has yet to hear if he will retain his job after the tournament under the recent coaching shake-up which saw Archie Knox installed as the SFA’s youth tsar.

Gemmill, who operates without a contract, was scathing at the suggestion that Scottish football’s governing body could be waiting to see how the team performs in the next week’s European Championship finals before committing to continue his current arrangement.

“If it comes down to what happens in Poland, whoever runs the Scottish Football Association is a fool,” said Gemmill, who has shared the Under-19 coaching duties with Tommy Wilson since Berti Vogts put him forward for the role two years ago. “You look at the last two years and I would defy anybody to have done a better job.

“I never have been on a permanent contract, just on a tournament-to-tournament basis,” he added. “You would like it to be confirmed, but football like life is very fickle, so you never know.

“Archie [Knox] is coming over to the competition so he could obviously have a word with me then. I am not saying you could automatically do any better if you get things on a permanent basis, but it is nice to know you have got something there. If I get sacked on the 28th or the 29th of this month, then it won’t be the end of the world, because it has happened to me before and I have managed to survive.”

Gemmill, a man so patriotic he christened his son Scotland, is nothing if not a grafter. It is now 10 years since he was sacked after two middling years in charge at Rotherham along with his former Nottingham Forest teammate John McGovern. Despite spells as reserve coach at both Derby County and the City Ground and sundry separate scouting assignments, it is still his only period in top-flight management. Yet Gemmill learned from the best, winning three First Division league titles for two different clubs, both under his mentor Brian Clough, whom he nonetheless had a major falling out with when dropped for the European Cup final in Munich in 1979.

“I haven’t been reluctant to go into management, I got sacked,” he says. “I think when you go into management for the first time, if you can be successful in your first year then you will always get other jobs, because people get blinded by it. During my time at Rotherham we were reasonably successful without being overly so, but I think if I had got Rotherham into a promotion play-off or I had got them promoted, I would still be a manager now.

“But this has been a breath of fresh air for me,” he added. “I thank Berti Vogts for it, because he was the one who suggested I come in and take over with Tommy. I have thoroughly enjoyed my two years. We just missed out last year, and this year we managed to get there. So hopefully we can get our fair share of luck. It can be the difference between being successful and being … if you want to call it … a failure.”

Gemmill hesitates to use the word, and for his squad – born either in 1987 or 1988 – it is too early to declare one way or the other. Only one player, Norwich City’s exotically named full-back Andrew Cave-Brown, makes it into the squad from an English academy, a testimony both to the dwindling amount of Scottish talent down south and the burgeoning youth scene north of the border. Spain, Portugal and Turkey, all among the world’s best, will test them to the full, but people said that about Switzerland and reigning Under-17 champions France, both of whom the Scots have outlasted.

There are other positive signs. The squad benefits from a number of players with at least a good 12 months of first-team football to their name, in the form of Hearts’ Calum Elliot and Lee Wallace, and Livingston’s Robert Snodgrass and Graham Dorrans, while with seven goals in six qualifying games Steven Fletcher of Hibs is so crucial he has been given special dispensation to be excused the second leg of Hibs’ Intertoto clash with Odense. Half a dozen Celtic youngsters, particularly captain Scott Cuthbert, and midfielders Charlie Grant and Simon Ferry, have been less exposed to it, which in theory could weaken the team. Gemmill is having none of it.

“If I was the manager of Scott Cuthbert then he would play in my team,” Gemmill said. “That is only my opinion. He has been my captain for two years and he has been nothing short of incredible.”

Such is Celtic’s current plight that they could perhaps have done with him on their US tour, but Cuthbert may yet consider going out on loan. “I’ve got two years left on my contract but I’m quite happy playing in the reserves,” he said. “Gordon Strachan pulled me in and said if a loan was the best option we’d do it. We’ll see what happens.”

When they do actually qualify, Scotland have decent pedigree in this competition, including a famous victory for a 1982 side which included Pat Nevin and Paul McStay. Leading Scotland to similar triumph in Poland – even third place in the group would secure a place in next year’s World Cup in Canada – may finally allow Gemmill to move on from the endless re-runs of that mazy dribble against Holland in 1978. “I believe the youngsters respect me for my ability and not just for one goal,” he said. “I am quite good at what I do actually.”

If any further illustration is required of just what is possible, they need look no further than their manager. He barely played any youth football prior to joining St Mirren, and was never selected for a Scotland representative youth side, but went on to win 43 caps for his country. “There were 23 ahead of me in my age group, so I didn’t make the grade at all,” Gemmill said. “Sometimes people make mistakes.”

On top of all this, Gemmill also holds the distinction of being the first substitute to be used in Scottish football history. The last thing he should be doing this week is worrying about his own replacement.

Scotland v Portugal, Szamotuly, Tuesday, 6pm; Scotland v Spain, Pobiedziska, Thursday, 6pm; Scotland v Turkey, Swarzedz, Sunday, 6pm.

Taken from the Sunday Herald