This is de club we talkin 'bout.
source: Scotland on SundayScotland on Sunday
Sun 1 May 2005
Yogi's bairns
Moira Gordon
TEAM can be defined as either a group of people forming one side in a game, or a group of people working together. Visit a variety of football grounds and every one will have the former, but only the lucky have the latter. At Falkirk FC, they have both and that togetherness has guaranteed them Premierleague football next season.
But the ethos is hardly surprising, given the two most influential men at the club. In the boardroom, there’s chairman Campbell Christie, a man from a union background where the mantra is "one out, all out", while, in the dressing room, manager Yogi Hughes still abides by a set of working-class principles which value people over assets. No-one gets anything for nothing in the world he inhabits, and success and respect have to be earned. Which is why he works 16-hour days in the quest for constant improvement and refuses to have anyone call him gaffer.
Basking in the sunshine at the Grangemouth training ground, youngsters refer to their boss simply as Yogi. The tone may not be reverential but it is respectful, the playful salute teased out of them by the gregarious manager, mock but never mocking. At this club there are several key ingredients; team-work, hard work, mutual respect and laughter.
"I want everyone to be together and this to be a club where no-one gets to think they are better than someone else. Everyone deserves respect. I want an environment where everyone is smiling. That’s the rule at this club, ‘If you’re not smiling then get your boots and piss off!’ It’s hard enough at times and the last thing anyone needs is a miserable face looking back at them and bringing them down. The players here know there are standards and they have to meet them but you can still have fun. I love it when the place is booming with noise and the banter is flying. I never want to be manager of a club where people are scared to be the first to speak."
Scared to speak? No. Finding difficulty in getting a word in edgeways? Definitely. That’s the thing at Falkirk. The spirit of togetherness extends as far as interviews. A one-to-one with Yogi soon involves a gaggle of players, all eager to chip in, the backroom staff, the physio, the man responsible for the scouting set-up, another in charge of the young players’ education. Then there’s a female member of the office staff, one or two more players, then, heck, even the chap tarting up the paintwork outside the changing block is asked for an opinion or two. It hardly makes for succinct conversation but it does make for the kind of welcoming atmosphere the manager is striving for.
With a budget for next season’s campaign that is likely to rival only Inverness Caledonian Thistle’s, the manager knows that other perks are necessary if he is to continue eking the best out of his squad, enlist new faces and, on top of that, he is sharp enough to realise the importance of the club’s youngsters in the equation.
He’s in it for the long-haul. "If we keep things moving in the right direction, I’d love to still be manager here in ten years’ time. You never know what’s round the corner and someone might come in and offer me three times what I’m on and I’d find that hard to turn down, or I might not have what it takes, but whether it’s me or another manager here a few years down the road, they’ll have some cracking young players coming through." Hughes sees youth development, peppered with some seasoned pros, as the only way forward for a club with Falkirk’s financial shackles.
At the moment the search is on for unearthed gems. Scouring the length and breadth of Britain, the number of quality players in Falkirk’s price range isn’t plentiful but there is always the hope that there is another "diamond" like Daryll Duffy out there. "We gave him the platform to play on this year and he has been brilliant but he knows the Scottish Premierleague is the real acid test for him. But we are aware we need to freshen it up and maybe get two or three in but there is so much more required at a club than just getting players in.
"You come here and we make sure that the medical side is right, the scouting is right, the goalkeeping coaching, the fitness guy, the psychologist, if need be. We want to make all that available but you need to pay for it and that all comes out my budget and maybe we can’t do that on a full-time basis but you can still put things in place that maybe folk can come in once or twice a week.
It was only five months ago that we had to hold a champagne breakfast to raise some money because we wanted new goals and new balls for training but, while the club has been fantastic and we all pull together, if we want more training kit, or if we are serious about a dugout for across at that pitch," he says pointing at one of several playing surfaces at the 35-acre training complex, "then we will have to hold a race night or something like that."But the trimmings are important when it comes to setting standards for the players to live up to and also when it comes to luring the best young players from all over Scotland. "We don’t want to be playing second fiddle to the Old Firm or Hibs or Hearts, we want to get the best young players in here because if we get them at 11 and work with them and have them about the club by the time they are breaking into the first team, they will really care about the club. They will feel at home here and they will know what we expect from them. We have fantastic facilities here now and are one of only four or five clubs in Scotland with our own training ground, so we have to make the most of that."
At a club where football is the obvious focus, the well-being of the young players is another pulling point though. Education is a priority and all abilities and interests are catered for. Instead of lumping them all on to a generic sports course and should they fail to make the improvements on the football pitch anticipated in the younger age groups, there are safety nets in place to keep hold of them in case they are late bloomers. No-one is simply spat back out on the street.
Looking after people is vital as far as Yogi is concerned. Having grown up with people who chose the wrong route and well aware how easy it would have been for him to follow suit had he not had the positive influence of football, he is heading to Polmont Young Offenders Institute the moment the interview is wrapped up to talk to inmates and his interest in the welfare of his young charges at the club is more than just a token gesture. But it is not all bleeding hearts, he realises there is method in the madness.
"I think its also evident at a club like this that we need to get the young kids coming through. I have to say that here we do have kids coming through but the best are still two years away from being regulars for the first team. We need to nurse them but saying that, there are guys like Ryan McStay, who is in the first team at 19 and is a real football talent. There are things Ryan has to work into his game and that’s the defensive side of things but as far as pure football talent goes, he definitely one of the best I’ve seen. He’s in among the senior pros and he’s still the one pulling the strings on the training pitch!
"I think it’s so important that you introduce the kids into training with the seniors or just have them hanging about the same environment and that’s what happens here. You see me mucking about with the kids and having a laugh and joke and the reason I do that is because I want them to come out of their shell now. I don’t want them to be sitting here scared to speak. Everyone gets on together and we all eat dinner together and just sitting rubbing shoulders with guys like Alan Kernaghan, John O’Neil, Russell Latapy, has to give them a lift. Squads are so much smaller and you never know when you might have to draft one of these kids in and I don’t want them being terrified. I want them to immediately feel part of the team."
A group of people working together, Falkirk have moved up a division and they know it’s only another season of hard work and teamwork that will keep them there.
