Return of a Saint tried in the furnace

IAN PAUL of the ups and downs of a life lived

to the full

ANYONE who devises a route from Glasgow to Paisley which includes

halts at Hong Kong, Zambia and Johannesburg along the way has to be

blessed with lateral thinking. And Jimmy Bone, who started his football

career in Maryhill with Partick Thistle, was never short of innovative

ideas as he plotted a career which did indeed lead him to the most

unlikely outposts before he landed at Love Street, Paisley, as manager

at the start of this season.

This is not the first time he has been with St Mirren, of course. He

was a player there at one of his stop-offs and assistant manager there

when they won the Scottish Cup. He might never have left had he not been

involved in what could be termed the unofficial light welterweight

championship of Renfrew and District with star player Frank McGarvey,

for which misdemeanour he was eventually dismissed.

But we are ahead of ourselves. The man born in Bridge of Allan was a

rugby player first, stand-off or full back, with his non-football

playing school, Stirling High. He was captain of the team, took part in

Scotland schoolboy trials but his real skills lay with the other code

and eventually he made his way to his first senior team, Partick

Thistle, where he was to become a member of the most famous Firhill side

of the post-war era. For a young apprentice electrician who had served

his time down the Polmaise pit, it was a remarkable transformation to be

paid and lauded for doing what he had done as a relief from the tough

shift work.

Bone was the scorer of the last goal in Thistle's 4-1 win over Celtic

in the 1971 League Cup Final, a result that has made legends of the

eleven who achieved it.

''In playing terms it was the most memorable moment of my career,'' he

says. ''Oddly enough, the thing I remember most was how confident we all

were before the game.'' In spite of the travels that were to follow Bone

insists that he would have been happy to stay at Firhill, where he

enjoyed his football but, proving that nothing much has changed in the

world, Thistle had to sell him to stay solvent. Off he went to England,

to Norwich City and from there the trail really starts to wind.

Sheffield United were next, followed by Celtic, Arbroath, St Mirren,

Toronto Blizzard, Hong Kong Rangers, Hearts, and then, as he reached the

twilight of his playing days, back to Arbroath as player-manager.

He collected two caps along the way, against Yugoslavia and Denmark

and might have had more if Tommy Docherty, the manager then, had stayed

on.

His experiences as a player under a litany of star teachers meant that

his own management days would be enhanced by material gleaned over a

long period -- he was still playing at 37 -- and when he joined Alex

Smith as the new partnership at Paisley, there were many who felt Saints

had got it right.

So it seemed, too, when the new double act steered the club to its

first major victory, the Scottish Cup, in 28 years.

But the following year during a European match with Tromso Bone and

McGarvey had their confrontation. ''Frank thought I was respons-

ible for having him substituted, and he told me so.'' The response

from Bone was immediate and resulted in what is alleged to have been a

punch-up in the dressing room which would have sold out the Kelvin Hall.

McGarvey let it be known he was finished with the club, the story

lingered on and eventually, three months later, Jimmy was asked to

leave. ''The irony is that a few months later Frank got my job,'' Alex

Smith had been dismissed by then, too, and, by another touch of sweet

irony, is now in charge of Clyde and their evergreen striker, Frank

McGarvey. ''It is all water under the bridge now but I think I have

mellowed since those days.'' After his exit from the St Mirren HQ,

which, naturally, would have to revel under the title Love Street, Bone

became assitant to Jim McLean with Dundee United and then in charge of

Airdrie.

It was at Broomfield that he inspired his men to win promotion to the

premier division. But, this being the Jimmy Bone story, the tale has a

twist in the tail. As Airdrie got close to clinching their place among

the elite, Bone was tempted by, and eventually accepted, a lucrative

offer to join Zambian team Power Dynamos. And, to the astonishment of

the Scottish football aficionados, a new chapter had begun.

It was, according to the man himself, to result in the finest

achievement of his managerial career to date. ''Although winning the cup

with St Mirren was the most memorable for me as assistant to Alex Smith,

I think the best thing I ever did was to win the African Cup-winners Cup

with Dynamos.

''It was the first time ever that any team from below the Equator had

won any of the African tournaments. It had always been won by Cameroon

or Algeria or Egypt, or Ghana or Tunisia, and we were from one of the

poorer countries.'' The celebrations didn't last long, he recalls.

''Next day we had lunch with the president and after that the subject

was never mentioned. It was on with the job.'' He spent nine months in

Zambia, where he won the league with the Dynamos, only the second time

they had lifted the title.

Bone had been quickly disabused of any preconceptions he may have held

about football in that unlikely part of the world. ''In the first

training session with them I saw that their ability and skills were

sensational. On the ball they were second to none.'' He also enjoyed the

opportunity to hone those skills without worrying about weather

vagaries. ''Every day it was 80 degrees and you could go and work as

long as you liked without having to run in out of the rain. We trained

at the cooler times of the day but the heat didn't bother me. I enjoyed

it.''

He enjoyed a decent lifestyle, in spite of the fact that he was

working in a third world environment. He and his wife lived in a

colonial-style house, with a colonial style social life, at the cricket

club, for instance. Across the road was a nine-hole par three golf

course and further up the road an 18-hole course where it was #5 for a

year's membership. Not suprisingly, he took up golf for the first time.

He confesses that he enjoyed the Zambian way of life so much that had

he still been there when St Mirren came along for him he might have had

a tough decision to make. ''I think the lure of St Mirren would have won

anyway, but it would have been a hard decision.'' As it was, he left

Zambia unwillingingly as a victim of politics. When President Kenneth

Kaunda lost the election and was replaced by Frederick Chiluba who

changed the policy affecting expatriates who were paid in sterling in

British banks. Other remarkable perks, like school fees paid and paid

trips home, were also the norm. As part of his economic changes, the new

president decided to get rid of as many of them as he could, if a

Zambian could do the job. Bone was given three months' notice and, a

nice touch, asked to train the man who would assume his job.

The enthusiasm for the Zambian experience is not mirrored in Bone's

description of his South African stint.

He was coach to a team of all colours based in an Asian township near

Johannesburg. ''They only played for the beer money and didn't have the

same pride in their work as the Zambians. The players thought they could

play, had a touch of arrogance. The Zambians were humble and eager to

learn. The South Africans were ready to tell you what to do. And I am

talking about all of the different coloured players, white, black,

coloured, Asians, the lot.''

The contrast with the well organised facilities in Zambia was

considerable, too, but Bone's personal lifestyle was ''fantastic''. He

and Liz could have a good meal with wine for a tenner for two. ''We

rented a house with a view to buying it. It had three bedrooms, big

garden, swimmming pool, the works. And it would have cost something like

#35,000.'' But the undercurrent of violence was hard to ignore -- ''You

would go out for a meal and the guy sitting opposite would have a gun in

his holster'' -- for a man who saw apartheid at close hand. Liz, too,

was uncomfortable at being left for four hours at a time when Bone had

to go off training, even although their own place in Albertown was as

nice a suburb as could be imagined. ''You were reading things every day

about break-ins and people getting shot as they left their house. It was

hard to take.

''Holidaymakers would probably see nothing of apartheid -- and it is a

wonderful country -- but when you are going about every day you see it

all right. And it is upsetting.'' So when the word reached him that St

Mirren were keen to have him back, Bone did not take long to ponder.

''I have always cared for the club and I just knew one day I would be

back.'' There have been board changes since his dismissal -- St Mirren's

board changes with the regularity of an Italian cabinet -- and the

current regime was prepared to forget that heat-of-the-moment clash with

McGarvey. ''I have mellowed since then,'' says the man whose new

maturity was put to the test after his first competitive match on his

return. They lost 7-0 to Raith Rovers, but if the players cowered in the

dressing room expecting all hell and Bone to break loose, they were

disappointed or, more accurately, relieved. ''I didn't say a lot, I told

them we would talk it over on Monday. And we did.'' He felt that it was

a one-off (''Everything they tried worked''), although he spent a

miserable hour or so discussing the devastation in Alex Smith's bar in

Stirling.

But the worst, he hopes, was over. Saints have recovered, if not

spectacularly, at least diligently. His ambitions for the club are

simple, to take them into the higher regions of the Scottish game where

he believes, with some passion, they belong. He would also love to get

the chance to bring a couple of Zambians to Love Street.

Given the chance, he would bring two particular players over

immediately, but the limited work permit arrangements for Scottish clubs

makes it impossible for the moment. He would like to see that changed,

so that home fans could see the skills of the African players.

Meanwhile he will get on with the job at Love Street, where the

turnover in managers has been such that forecasting a future beyond a

few months is a risky business. To date, however, Bone has not shown a

fear of the unpredictable.