Pat Nevin has always been a man apart, as a footballer who loved the arts and a tricky winger with a phenomenal appetite for the hard graft of defending. Now one of the most respected pundits, he recalls his early journey from Easterhouse to Stamford Bridge.
Scotland can lay claim to having invented modern football, through a line that stretches from Queen’s Park in Victorian days to Pep Guardiola’s Barcelona.
Fixtured life recommenced on August 6. Daniel Gray and photographer Alan McCredie witnessed it in Cowdenbeath, Dunfermline, Alloa, Falkirk, Gorgie and Perth.
Owen Coyle’s managerial trajectory once looked set to propel him from Falkirk to the very highest level. After 17 months in MLS, he is back in the English Championship with Blackburn Rovers. Can a manager once regarded as a perfect fit for the Scotland job get his career back on track?