Wallace Becomes Manager
Jock Wallace's managership of Rangers saw the club achieve a period of sustained success. His first season as manager, 1972–73 was the club's centenary year. After taking over the first-team managers position on 31 May 1972, Wallace set about reshaping the side. He moved on Colin Stein and Willie Johnston to Coventry City and West Bromwich Albion respectively, bringing in Quinton Young, Joe Mason and Tom Forsyth.
After a stuttering start to the league campaign, three defeats and a draw from the first six matches, the sides fortunes greatly improved. From October to the end of the season Rangers suffered only one league defeat, at home to Hearts on 2 December 1972, and went on a run of sixteen wins. However this run was not enough to become league champions as the side finished second, one point behind Celtic.
In the cup competitions, the Scottish Cup campaign was to culminate in a 3–2 win over Celtic. The final was attended by Princess Alexandra along with 122,714 other spectators. It was Rangers first Scottish Cup win in seven years. The League Cup run was ended in the semi-finals at the hands of Hibernian after a 1–0 defeat.
This season also saw compete in the first ever European Super Cup. The side played the European Cup holders Ajax in January 1973. The Dutch side were the only continental opposition the side faced that season due to the club's European competition ban. In the end Ajax proved to strong and recorded a 6–3 aggregate win, with Rangers losing 1–3 at Ibrox and 3–2 in Amsterdam.
In the summer of 1973 Rangers chairman John Lawerence retired and was replaced by vice-chairman Matt Taylor.
A nine-year period of Celtic dominance in the league was ended in 1974–75 as Rangers captured what was to be the last championship of its kind. The new ten-team Scottish Premier Division saw Rangers crowned inaugural champions, as part of a triumphant domestic treble. A barren subsequent season in 1976–77.
Wallace presided over the club's fourth domestic treble and second in three years in 1977–78. During the close season Rangers spent heavily in the transfer market, bringing in Davie Cooper from Clydebank for £100,000 and Gordon Smith from Kilmarnock for £65,000. They were joined at the club by Bobby Russell who arrived from Shettleston Juniors for free.
Despite these expensive signings the side did not make the best start to the league campaign, losing the opening two matches to Aberdeen and Hibernian. Order was restored the following week with a 4–0 defeat of Partick Thistle. A resounding 3–2 win over Celtic in the first Old Firm match of the season set the tone of the season. Rangers had been 2–0 down at half-time but recovered to win the game after outclassing Jock Stein's side in the second 45 minutes. In March 1978, second placed Aberdeen won 3–0 at Ibrox to set up a tense title run in. Rangers dropped seven points from twenty-one but held on winning the final four fixtures and the league.
The League Cup was won by defeating Celtic 2–1 after extra time. Goals from season new boys Davie Cooper and Gordon Smith completed the first leg of the treble. The 2–1 1978 Scottish Cup Final win over Aberdeen made Wallace the only Rangers' manager to win two domestic treble's. Surprisingly despite this unprecedented success Wallace resigned from his position on 23 May 1978. The reason for his departure was never revealed but it is widely believed that a breakdown in the working relationship between Wallace and general manager William Waddell was the cause. At a time when Ibrox Park was undergoing extensive redevelopment the transfer budget was to suffer. Waddell was suspected of vetoing many signings, Alan Hansen from Partick Thistle and David Narey from Dundee United among them, in favour of investing in the rebuilding project.
The burst of success under Wallace in the mid-1970s saw Rangers once again established as Scotland's most successful club. When Wallace, suddenly and unexpectedly, announced his resignation, Rangers turned to another of the stalwarts of the great side of the mid-to-late 1970s, the captain John Greig.
Read more about this topic: History Of Rangers F.C.
Famous quotes containing the word manager:
“Nothing could his enemies do but it rebounded to his infinite advantage,—that is, to the advantage of his cause.... No theatrical manager could have arranged things so wisely to give effect to his behavior and words. And who, think you, was the manager? Who placed the slave-woman and her child, whom he stooped to kiss for a symbol, between his prison and the gallows?”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)