RIP Ally McLeod

He was a great man, and former Aberdeen manager too. His role at the club is often overlooked as most of the success during the 1980s came when Alex Ferguson took over as manager, but Ally McLeod laid the foundations for that success during his time at Pittodrie in the late 1970s.



This piece about him was on the Aberdeen website:
Aberdeen Football Club has joined the rest of Scottish Football in mourning the passing of former Dons manager Ally McLeod. McLeod, who had been suffering from Alzheimer's disease for a number of years, passed away peacefully at his home in Ayrshire.

Although remembered by many in the game for the events of Argentina in 1978, McLeod will always be fondly remembered in the North-East as the man who arrived at Pittodrie in 1975 bringing with him an abundance of enthusiasm and self belief. This self-belief was readily transferred to the terraces and within a year he had brought the League Cup back to Pittodrie. This was the first trophy for the Dons in six years.
When he arrived the Dons were struggling in the lower reaches of the newly formed Premier League, but back to back wins against the Old Firm on his arrival gave the club a much needed boost and McLeod kept the Dons in the top flight with a 3-0 win over Hibs in the last day of the season.

As well as leading the Dons to their league cup triumph over Celtic, the following season saw McLeod steer Aberdeen to third spot in the league. His success had not gone unnoticed however and at the end of the campaign Ally accepted the honour of leading his country in the 1978 World Cup campaign. McLeod had laid the foundations for the success in the eighties and had given the whole club a lift in his short time. Billy McNeil built on those foundations before the Dons achieved the ultimate success under the guidance of Alex Ferguson.

 

RIP Ally ,, The man who dared to give Scotland supporters hope in '78

We're all part of Ally's Army
We're all off to the Argentine
....

 

I'm only speaking as a sassenach, I know, but I always liked the fella. He always seemed like one of the good guys.

 

Ive never quite forgiven him for 78 but RIP ally, legend all the same.

 

I'll ignore the never forgiven him comment Parkhead Faithful the players have got off far to easily for 1978!

Ally McLeod was a True Legend in Scottish Football!!
Every time i walked by his house he always had the time to stop and talk!!
He is the most successfull manager we have had at Ayr and managed the most entertaining side i have ever seen!!100 Goals scored in 87/88

R.I.P Ally
We're on the march with Allys Army

 

Ignore it all you want I still havent forgiven him blaming the players is fine but when yer gaffer is going on every telly show known to man and telling everyone who will listen yer name is already on the trophy it does create a complacent atmosphere and that team was good enough to compete at that tournament seriously, as seen by our humping of the eventual finalists.

 

We are the way we are now because of what we went through in 78. Since then we've played down everything and been scared to say that we're any good at all. I know that we're mince at the moment but I think we act like fearties now because we got all worked up during Ally's time and talking ourselves up would bring back all the bad luck. Have to admit though, the build up to 78 was a great period in oor football.
The Americans talk themselves up far too much for my liking. They'll have their 1978 in due course.

Grant

 

Id agree to an extent, I dont think weve ever had the same confidence in a scotland team since 78, and there have been some cracking teams when you look back over them, but the way we are now is down to a number of facotrs that all came together at about the same time, cos after mcleod we had jock stein and alex ferguson managing scotland, arguable two of the greatest attacking minded managers the modern game has ever seen, the no confidence megative football is a product of the roxbrugh and brown eras when playing crap football and scraping a result became the norm instead of the smart attacking play we used before.
The formation of the SPL format and the increasing importance of money in the game hurt us as well but one was created to solve the other supposedly and in the end its ended up stagnating the league.
Nice to see a hibs fan on the board by the way, no seen you about much before but there isnt many of yous to say the least.

 

No you're right but there are Hibees everywhere including in Australia where there's an active group. It's just a shame that we were never able to build on that one good season we had when we lost to you in the Cup Final and could have finished second in the league.

Cheers

Grant