Being John Collins

Shortly before announcing his shock departure as Hibernian FC manager, John Collins took some time out with Chris Hammond to discuss football and its place in Edinburgh culture

John Collins

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Chris Hammond

30 January 2008

John Collins was once one of Scotland’s most illustrious footballers. As well as lifting the Scottish Cup with Celtic and playing in the Premiership with Everton and Fulham, Collins spent a few successful seasons with Monaco in the 90s and scored against Brazil in the 1998 World Cup Finals. Now a CIS Cup-winning manager, I talk to Collins at an pivotal stage in his career – days later he will resign from as manager of Hibernian FC. In hindsight, it's tantalising to speculate now whether it's a decision he has already made as he chats about the state of football in the Capital.

As a player Collins retired at 35, earlier than most blessed with his abilities and fitness. Gary McAllister, for instance, had his most successful playing spell with Liverpool in his late 30’s whilst David Weir has been on something of a major renaissance for Scotland and Rangers since passing the 35 year mark. Both were former international team mates of Collins. When he sees the likes of Weir battling against Italy, when Scotland were so close to major tournament qualification, does it ever play on his mind that he may have called it quits a little early?

”No, I think there are always little periods when you are looking around and think 'I’m better than him and can still be playing.' I was 35, had no major injuries, had a young family and found myself on the bench at Fulham towards the end. It’s always been about the 90 minutes for me never the money. I had a choice. I had lots of offers from abroad, places like Japan and America, or go down a level in England. Midfield is harder than defence to carry on, its high tempo, twisting and turning and I’d been fortunate with injuries, did I want to carry on playing and risk one? I wanted to bow out at the top and still be able to do the other things I enjoy like running and skiing. I was lucky to have had the choice and it was my choice.”

Since 2006, Collins has been making the decisions on behalf of Hibs and, throughout the course of the interview Collins - an forthcoming, articulate character - gives little sign of being unhappy with life at Easter Road. Only last season his side had lifted the Scottish League Cup for the first time since 1991 and on the day of the interview Steven Fletcher—one of the next great talents to emerge at Hibernian—had just signed a lucrative six year contract.

It is when we go on to discuss his future plans as a manger that one begins to realise that Collins might just have ambitions beyond challenging Aberdeen and Hearts for the mantle of Scotland’s third force. “My ambition is to try and win another trophy. In my first season we won a cup and it was a great achievement by the players, a great day for the fans which will live in my memory for the rest of my life. It was probably the most exciting thing to have happened to me in football. I’ve won trophies and leagues but it was special that day. Hampden, the weather, the singing, the dancing and to score five goals, it was a unique day. It will be difficult to replicate in the future but the target has to be to win another trophy. The league is next to impossible. We’ll still always try but Celtic and Rangers are favourites with all their funds and their big squads and buying all our players.”

That Rangers and Celtic are the only buyers of Scotland's top young talent is a source of concern for Collins. Since his time at Monaco, the number of Scots plying their trade on the continent have been few and far between. In fact, with only a few notable exceptions such as Paul Lambert and Scott Booth, it's a struggle to recall any Scottish footballers who have made a real impact in a top continental league since then.

“The foreign teams very rarely come to Scotland looking at players because we’ve not been producing vast numbers capable of playing in the international scene. If you do well on the international stage, foreign clubs come looking but we’ve not been doing it on the international stage for the last number of years. But having said that, we have improved over the last 24 months so I’d imagine a few foreign clubs may start looking at the Scotland players. More often than not though the money is really in England. Why bother to go abroad when you can drive a few hours down the road where they speak the same language for better money?”

So are young players softer these days compared with when he first started, do they lack ambition? “No, no I’d say the percentage is probably still the same. There are some just desperate to get better and better and there are the batch who are lazy and just do enough.”

He sees Scotland's poor facilities as a key factor in its seemingly uninterupted underachievement in sport, particularly in Edinburgh. “It’s Astroturf pitches the city is really lacking in. We have such wet winters but there are all these grass pitches and a lot of the time you can’t use them because they get waterlogged. I hope the government or council will read this because they need to spend more money on Astroturf. There is no grass to cut, they don’t need much maintenance and if they have floodlights they can be used all day and all night all through the year.”

I ask whether Edinburgh is too much of a cultural capital to the detriment of sport. “Well, it's true Edinburgh is a city of festivals and music, I just think it makes for a nice well rounded city. There’s a lot to do and it gives kids the choice, and it’s good to have the choice. Again you can be selfish and just want football, but this is a well balanced cosmopolitan city and I think it’s ideal. It’s a wonderful city.”

What, then, are the chances for players from University sides breaking into a football team like Hibernian? "I think it’s harder now, the older you get the harder it becomes. There are sixteen-year-olds in the system who have been working on their weaknesses for five years before they sign full time. It makes it a much much more difficult task to come in to an environment where some kids have been pro's for five years. It’s not impossible, it’s been done before and it will be done again.” So would Hibernian ever have scouts checking out top scorers in the University leagues? “Very rarely, if a player sticks out like a sore thumb there’s no doubt people talk, it’s a small world the football world, if you hear about someone you might send a scout but most of the time if you are not in the system by 21 its highly unlikely they’ll break in.”

Irrelevant as it may seem now, the temptation to ask was too strong to resist: are there any young players from the Hearts side Collins would like to see in the green and white of Hibs? Surprisingly, he is quite willing to be drawn on this: "There are two or three Hearts players I think are really good football players. I think Christophe Berra is terrific, Andy Driver is a good footballer and I like Lee Wallace. Those are three British boys with bright futures ahead of them.”

Young, ambitious, with a trophy already under his belt and with a reputation for favouring entertaining, attacking football, the smart money would be on Collins continuing a trend in which Scottish footballing talents really exceed: club management. It can't be long before a few top clubs start knocking.

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