Alan Buckley’s 3 Striped Adidas Shirt is back again. Can you imagine Alex Ferguson taking over at Walsall a few months after he finishes with Manchester United? How about Roberto Mancini? Exactly. Never gonna happen. What is the chances of the manager of the Premier League winning team becoming Walsall manager two years later? It will never happen these days but it has happened in the past…..
With the subject of Dean Smith’s managerial future at Bescot coming under the spotlight following the recent lack of wins before the Wycombe game, it’s somewhat ironic that this time last season he was hailed as a hero as he began to steady the ship from the mess Chris Hutchings left behind! Unfortunately things haven’t gone as planned this season and often a change is needed, before it’s too late. One such successful switch came way back in the 1976-77 season. Walsall had just lost at home 0-3 to Northampton Town, which was the final straw for the board as Doug Fraser was sacked and in came the vastly experienced Dave Mackay, who had managed Derby County to become the Football League champions less than two years previously!
Mackay had enjoyed a splendid playing career, appearing in over 800 games at all levels and had enjoyed nine years at Tottenham Hotspur where he won several trophies and won 22 caps for Scotland. He had a short spell as player-manager at Swindon, then got the Nottingham Forest job before switching to Derby where he had that wonderful success. After a disappointing start to 1976-77 with the Rams, he lost his job, had four months off, then took over at Fellows Park. Such was his vast experience and know-how he halted the slide – we were in 21st position in Division Three with 23 points- when he took over. He soon drilled his players not to lose games and we became a lot tighter unit, producing five wins before the end of that campaign as Walsall finished that season in a respectable 15th.
Over that summer of 1977 Mackay released several players including fans favourites Nick Atthey and George Andrews and brought in a host of new players, mainly those who either played with him or for him, including the likes of Jimmy Robertson, Henry Newton, Tony Macken, Jeff King etc as Saddlers became a lot more professional in their play and 1977-8 saw Walsall playing some good football whilst remaining hard to beat with just nine league defeats all season. That season Walsall finished in 9th spot and it was hoped Dave Mackay would hang around for another season or two to get Saddlers up to Division Two.
However, in May 1978 he left these shores to start a career in the Middle East where over the next few years he was very successful with a few clubs in Saudi Arabia, in the sunshine and earning big contracts. He did return to English football several years later with stints at Doncaster and Birmingham. As for Walsall, the following season, 1978-79, the team were relegated as not only did they lose Mackay, the club sold its prized asset Alan Buckley to Blues for £175,000 and the club missing its manager and its ace goalscorer headed to soccer’s basement.
