ASKED if he still enjoyed his football, Willie Morgan starts: “Well ….”
It was a short answer that seemed to last a very long time.
“It’s not what I grew up with, or played,” says Morgan, who particularly takes exception to how his once coveted role has changed beyond all recognition.
“When I played, there were a dozen players at any one time who could have played for Scotland, seriously.
“Scotland went to the World Cup in ’74, we took four players who were out and out wingers, or played wide – me, Jinky [Jimmy Johnstone], Peter Lorimer and big Tommy Hutchison. Four. Imagine that. Now if you get one it’s headline news.
“It breaks my heart that there is such a dearth, but there is such a dearth of talent in general because of the system. Any individualism, any flair, any desire just to run with the ball, it’s coached out of kids – all they are taught to do is take a pass, make a pass, run to space and repeat it.
“The football we have now is because of coaching. We’ve got 10,000 coaches and no players. What does that tell you? And you find the so-called best coaches never played the game at any level. So, what do you expect?
“Who the hell needs to coach a kid aged five or six or seven? Want to find the best player in a school, go to the playground and ask the kids. They’ll tell you who the most talented is, who can run, make goals, score goals. You don’t need a coach to talent spot. You don’t need a coach to say ‘remember and pass’.
“Pass for what. Because everyone has to touch the ball to justify getting a game. No, you give the ball to the best players and they will make things happen.
“In my day, you played your position. I’d be up against the left-back, and the instructions were clear; beat him, get in a cross or a shot. That was what I was told to do. In my head, I wanted to torture and make his day a misery. But I was allowed to play that way. There was nowhere to hide for either of us, so we both became better players.
“Today, look at Manchester United. They have the worst team in their history. Last week it was dreadful, dreadful. And they have the worst excuses. Oh, he was really doing this, or covering him, or playing deeper. No, just play your position. You might even score some goals.
“Could you imagine Fergie [Sir Alex Ferguson] telling Ronaldo to just sit back, and not use him to attack? If you have players, use them for what they are good at.”
Morgan, who looked across Manchester for an example of a coach getting it wrong, added: “Malcolm Allison was the first coach I could remember. Joe Mercer built a great Manchester City team, and Malcolm Allison ruined it. Why? Because players started doing what they were told to do, rather than what made them good in the first place.
“Today, the kids are being told what not to do from day one. They play to please their coaches – and too often only get to play if they do that – rather than playing for the fun of it. It is quite sad.
“You have to give kids a chance to develop. You’ll never find out if they have the makings of being a left winger, or a right winger when all they are told to do is bang the ball forward and chase it. That’s not football.”
Morgan, who played just the 681 league matches on both sides of the Atlantic at a time when booting the winger up in the air was a tolerated option, added: “There is no such thing as poor little villages, where you played in the street. No diving then or going down easily. You stayed on your feet because if you didn’t, it hurt. And you didn’t want to go down anyway. You’d never go down, because you’d never want to give your opponent the satisfaction.
“Kids have the best of everything, facility wise. So much of everything, except ability. That isn’t all the fault of the kids.”
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