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 Docherty in 2017 | |||
| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Thomas Henderson Docherty[1] | ||
| Date of birth | (1928-04-24)24 April 1928 | ||
| Place of birth | Glasgow, Scotland | ||
| Date of death | 31 December 2020(2020-12-31) (aged 92) | ||
| Place of death | Marple, England | ||
| Position(s) | Right half | ||
| Senior career* | |||
| Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) |
| Shettleston | |||
| 1947–1949 | Celtic | 9 | (2) |
| 1949–1958 | Preston North End | 324 | (5) |
| 1958–1961 | Arsenal | 83 | (1) |
| 1961–1962 | Chelsea | 4 | (0) |
| Total | 420 | (8) | |
| International career | |||
| 1951–1959 | Scotland | 25 | (1) |
| 1952–1953 | Scotland B | 2 | (0) |
| 1955[2] | Scotland A vs B trial | 1 | (0) |
| 1958[3] | SFA trial v SFL | 1 | (0) |
| Managerial career | |||
| 1961–1967 | Chelsea | ||
| 1967–1968 | Rotherham United | ||
| 1968 | Queens Park Rangers | ||
| 1968–1970 | Aston Villa | ||
| 1970–1971 | Porto | ||
| 1971–1972 | Scotland | ||
| 1972–1977 | Manchester United | ||
| 1977–1979 | Derby County | ||
| 1979–1980 | Queens Park Rangers | ||
| 1981 | Sydney Olympic | ||
| 1981 | Preston North End | ||
| 1982–1983 | South Melbourne | ||
| 1983 | Sydney Olympic | ||
| 1984–1985 | Wolverhampton Wanderers | ||
| 1987–1988 | Altrincham | ||
| *Club domestic league appearances and goals | |||
Thomas Henderson Docherty (24 April 1928 – 31 December 2020), commonly known asThe Doc, was a Scottishfootball player and manager. Docherty played for several clubs, most notablyPreston North End, and representedScotland 25 times between 1951 and 1959. He then managed a total of 13 clubs between 1961 and 1988, as well as theScotland national team. Docherty was manager ofManchester United between 1972 and 1977, during which time they were relegated to theSecond Division but promoted back to theFirst Division as champions at the first attempt.
Born in Shettleston Road in Glasgow's east end, Docherty began his playing career when he joinedjunior football clubShettleston. The turning point in his playing career came in 1946 when he was called up fornational service in theHighland Light Infantry.[4] While completing his national service, Docherty represented theBritish Army at football. On demobilisation, he was offered a contract withCeltic in 1947. Docherty would later say thatJimmy Hogan, the club's coach, was his greatest influence.[5]
In November 1949, after spending over two years with Celtic, he moved to England and joinedPreston North End. With them he won the1951Second Division title and got to the1954 FA Cup Final. Altogether Docherty made close to 300 appearances for the club.[6] He leftDeepdale in August 1958 to joinArsenal for £28,000 (£826,000 today). With them he made 83 appearances, scoring once. He then went to play forChelsea where he brought an end to his playing career in 1962.[7]
At Preston, Docherty received the first of his 25 fullScotland internationalcaps. His solitary goal came in a 7–2 defeat byEngland in 1955.[8] He was part of the Scotland squads that played at the1954 and1958 FIFA World Cup finals which were held in Switzerland and Sweden, respectively.[8]
In February 1961, Docherty was offered the post of player-coach ofChelsea. Less than twelve months later, uponTed Drake's departure and with the club facingrelegation from the top flight, Docherty took over as manager. He was unable to keep the club in the First Division and the team was relegated at the end of the1961–62 season.[9]
During his first year in charge he sold many of the club's older players and brought in new ones such asTerry Venables,Bobby Tambling,Peter Bonetti andBarry Bridges.[10] He also changed the club's home colours, switching from white shorts to blue shorts, the combination that remains as of 2022. The team, nicknamed "Docherty's Diamonds", achieved promotion back to Division One in their first attempt and finished fifth the following year. In1964–65, Chelsea won theLeague Cup in April with anaggregate win overLeicester City, but in the FA Cup were beaten 2–0 in the semi-final by eventual winnersLiverpool.[9] In that season the club finished third in the league which is the best performance since1954–55, the season Chelsea won their first league title.
Docherty led Chelsea to the FA and theInter-Cities Fairs Cup semi-finals a year later, before reaching theFA Cup Final in 1967, which they lost toTottenham Hotspur. He resigned in October 1967. The core of the team Docherty had put together, includingPeter Osgood,Charlie Cooke,Ron Harris, Bonetti andJohn Hollins, went on to win the FA Cup andCup Winners' Cup under Docherty's successor,Dave Sexton. A decade later Sexton succeeded Docherty as manager of Manchester United.[9]
The month following his departure from Chelsea, Docherty became manager ofRotherham United. He said of his year there: "I promised I would take Rotherham out of the Second Division – and I took them into the Third. The old chairman said 'Doc, you're a man of your word!'"[11] He was then appointed manager atQueens Park Rangers, only to leave 29 days later after arguing with the club chairman over transfer policy.[12] He then becameDoug Ellis' first manager atAston Villa in December 1968, for 13 months. On 19 January 1970, with Aston Villa bottom of the Second Division, Docherty was sacked.[13]
From there he went toPorto, where he stayed for 16 months before resigning in May 1971, having failed to usurpBenfica andSporting CP.[14] On 2 July 1971, he was appointed byHull City as assistant manager toTerry Neill, but on 12 September he left to become the caretaker manager ofScotland, with that position becoming permanent in November 1971.[15] Scotland were on course to qualify for the1974 World Cup under Docherty,[15] having won both of their matches againstDenmark inqualification Group 8. Docherty managed 12 Scotland games, the last of which was a 2–0 home win against the Danes in November 1972.[16] He left the job a month later and was succeeded byWillie Ormond, who secured qualification for the World Cup by winning a home match againstCzechoslovakia in September 1973.[16]
In December 1972, Docherty attended a match thatManchester United lost 5-0 toCrystal Palace; in theSelhurst Park boardroom afterwards he was offered the Manchester United job byMatt Busby.[15] His first game in charge of United was againstLeeds United atOld Trafford. The game finished 1–1, withTed MacDougall scoring one of his few goals for United. Although United were in serious trouble when he took them over, because of an ageing squad, he managed to keep them in theFirst Division in1972–73. The1973–74 season saw United continue to struggle and they were eventually relegated to the Second Division.[6][15][17]
In the following season, United returned to the top flight as Second Division champions. In1975–76 they finished in third place in the First Division and also reached the1976 FA Cup Final, but lost 1–0 toSouthampton who were then in the Second Division. Docherty led United to the FA Cup final again in1977, this time as underdogs, and beat league champions Liverpool 2–1.[6][15][17]
Shortly afterwards news that Docherty was having an extramarital affair with the wife of a Unitedphysiotherapist, Mary Brown, became public. He was sacked in a blaze of publicity in July 1977 and replaced at Old Trafford by Dave Sexton, the same man who had followed him into the manager's office at Chelsea. The affair also resulted in the end of his marriage to Agnes, who had been his wife since December 1949. In 1988, Docherty married Mary,[18] and the couple remained together until his death in 2020. After his sacking, Docherty had a frosty relationship with the club.[6][17][15]
Docherty became manager atDerby County in September 1977, where he stayed for two seasons before resigning in May 1979.[19] His next appointment was at Queens Park Rangers in May 1979.[13] When he took over atLoftus Road, Rangers had been relegated to theSecond Division (three years after almost winning the league title) and he had to lift the team's spirits to start the new season.[20] QPR finished the season four points short of promotion to the First Division. In May 1980, Docherty was sacked by chairman Jim Gregory, then reinstated after just nine days away. In October 1980, he was sacked for the second time in five months.[21]
This was followed by a short spell in Australia coachingSydney Olympic in 1981.[22] He returned to England in July that year to manage Preston North End,[13] where he had spent nine years as a player. He left after a few months, returning to Australia to manageSouth Melbourne until the following year. He also managed Sydney Olympic again in 1983.[22]
Docherty returned to England once more withWolverhampton Wanderers just after their relegation from the First Division in 1984. He was sacked just over a year later, however, when Wolves had suffered a second successive relegation, eventually going on to suffer a third relegation in a row the season after Docherty's departure.
Docherty's time at Wolves was to be a tough task. The club had once been three times champions of England in the 1950s and had also hostedHonved under the floodlights at theMolineux Stadium in 1954, pioneering the way for European club football.[23] They had since gone on to be finalists in the1972 UEFA Cup and winners of the 1980 League Cup whereAndy Gray scored the winning goal after setting a British transfer record when signing for the club.[24][25]
The club Docherty was taking over as Manager was far away from the historic club Wolves had once been with the chairman in 1978 bankrupting the club with the rebuilding of the Molineux Street stand. A rescue package had to be brought in place during 1982, with the club just hours away from going out of business it was purchased by the Bhatti Brothers, two Saudi Arabian businessmen with help from club legendDerek Dougan.[26][27]
The brothers were property developers and wanted to develop the land around the stadium but when the council did not grant them permissions they sought to build a supermarket adjacent to the Molineux stadium. Relationship with the club soured and the club was receiving no investment and involvement from the brothers.[28]
Following relegation from the top flight the previous season, several key players left the club, including goalscorersMel Eaves andWayne Clarke, as well asTony Towner and second highest club appearance holderKenny Hibbitt.[29][30]
"Tommy Docherty came in as manager and he knew I didn't want to be around to see the club in such dire straits", commented Hibbitt when interviewed on his thoughts on leaving Wolves.[31]
Docherty would also have problems leading into the season with first choice goalkeeperJohn Burridge, who was making demands of the club but instead of meeting these, Docherty promoted 17 year academy playerTim Flowers into goal, where he remained for the season with Burridge also leaving the club.[32][33]
The1984-85 season began at home toSheffield United in front 14,908 fans. After a good start to the season, later progress started to slowly disintegrated and the club found themselves bouncing around position 13th - 15th position in the table by November.[34]
Wolves were misfiring but despite this, Docherty allowed defenderGeoff Palmer, having played 394 times for the club, to move to Burnley. Palmer was a very experienced defender and with him leaving, this left a far less experienced team to that which had finished the previous season. Palmer left the club believing he had fallen out if favour with Docherty and cited that "the club just wasn't a nice place to be at the time, it wasn't being run properly, and was on its knees."[35]
Shortly afterwards, Wolves endured a 21-match winless run in all competitions (19 of those in the Second Division). Pressure was mounting in January 1985 and former fan favourite and now ChairmanDerek Dougan eventually resigned from his position on the board.[36]
The season performances would also see the club be beaten 5-1 on three occasions. Two were televised live onITV and the other away atBrighton & Hove Albion on the day the club were officially relegated. Docherty's final game at home was againstHuddersfield Town, where Wolves secured just their eighth victory of the season in front of only 4,422 fans. Wolves finished the season bottom of the table and Docherty left the club in July 1985.[37][38]
When asked about his time at Wolves Docherty said: "I could hardly say 'no' when a club as famous as that came in for me... But it was a hopeless task really. There was no money. I wasn't sure I'd be able to work with Derek Dougan but I accepted the challenge anyway. As for the Bhattis, I only met them twice – once when they hired me and once when they fired me".[39]
Docherty took up his final managerial position atAltrincham. He retired from management at the end of the1987–88 season.[40]
Docherty married his first wife, Agnes, in December 1949, after he left his native Scotland to sign for Preston North End.[41] They were married for 27 years until Docherty announced his affair with Mary Brown in 1977.[17] Docherty and Agnes had four children together:Mick (himself a former professional footballer and manager), Thomas Jr., Catherine and Peter. After marrying Mary Brown, he had two more children – daughters Grace and Lucy – who were born during the 1980s.[41] Agnes died in September 2002 at the age of 73.[42] In 2008, Tommy Docherty Jr. released a book,Married to a Man of Two Halves, which was based on memoirs and newspaper cuttings which he had discovered when clearing out his mother's house after her death.[43]
Docherty died on 31 December 2020, aged 92, following a long illness.[14]
Preston North End[7]
Chelsea[45]
Manchester United[45]
Scotland[46]
Scotland squads | |||||||
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| International | |
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| National | |
