NORMALLY a smashed window points to degradation but at Dens Park this week it has represented renewal. Dundee's First Division title challenge was ignited by last Saturday's injury-time win over St Johnstone, after which a member of the Perth party l
et his frustrations get the better of him in the away dressing room.
The damage done to the club in past years has been more serious. Financial mismanagement on a grand scale led Dundee to the precipice but few are more qualified than Alex Rae when it comes to turning something around. He did it with his own life in October 1998, while at Sunderland. It was then, following another draining weekend of over-indulgence, that he vowed to stop drinking. He was already 29, but his career benefited to the extent that he won further titles and played in the Champions League.
He has helped other addicts, too. Rae's Glasgow-based charity, Second Chance, will be a year old next month, and its primary aim is to encourage total abstinence from drink and drugs. Just as satisfying as his manager of the month award for February has been the email recently received from one former addict, who informed Rae he had been clean for nine months thanks to the programme.
The issue is a particularly sensitive one at Dens Park. Darren Magee, who ten years ago tomorrow played for Dundee in a 0-0 Scottish Cup quarter-final draw with Rangers and later that season helped his side win the First Division, was found dead at his parents' Glasgow home in 2006 after issues with drugs and alcohol. He was 29 – the age Rae made his conscious decision to change his life. Magee's chances could well have been enhanced by the type of support offered by Second Chance, and Rae is eternally grateful for Sunderland's understanding as he fought his own demons in a Hampshire clinic mid-way through a season.
"To change your life you have to change your behaviour," he explained this week in a Dens Park lounge. "That was the point I started to change it. It was just draining me. I threw the towel in. I remember the point when I knew I'd had enough like it was yesterday, but it had been no worse than any other weekend."
The talk this week has been of another kind of smashed, with St Johnstone having accepted responsibility for Saturday's act of vandalism. That Dundee have been revived to the extent where they sit two points shy of the First Division summit, with a critical clash with leaders Hamilton Accies to come next weekend, points to sterling work done off the field as well as on it. Rae has contributed to both areas since being appointed player-manager in 2006, although his playing days now look over after only one start this season.
Even in the midst of an extreme injury and suspension crisis that has seen one player felled by an inanimate object – striker Derek Lyle crashed through a coffee table earlier this week – Rae is resisting the urge to return to the midfield for this afternoon's Scottish Cup quarter-final clash with Queen of the South at Palmsteron Park. It is Dundee's third appearance in the last eight in six years. Offering some indication of turbulent recent times at Dens is the fact each run has been negotiated by a different manager.
Rae is the sixth man to occupy the Dens Park hot-seat in just ten years but has distinguished himself by reversing a decline which set in after administration shook the club in 2003. The consequence has been the emergence of a New Dundee. Every penny is now a prisoner and forensic boardroom book-keeping is designed to prevent the club going so much as a penny in debt, never mind the remarkable sum of £23 million accumulated in the early part of this decade.
"The club was in quite a state when we came in," recalled Rae. "We had finished 7th the previous season and yet the budget was halved. But you don't take that on board. You just see an opportunity for yourself. I had to get rid of a lot of guys on big money and begin putting my own stamp on it. It's been a trial-and-error type of thing. It's difficult. The fans have been used to Ravanelli and Caniggia swanning about. We are shopping in Lidl now."
"I put everything into it early doors," he continued. "If you didn't, and you ended up getting sacked, then you'd regret not giving yourself a chance. I probably did too much. I was knackered by the end of pre-season. I had seen every team in the division two or three times. And I was doing the pre-season!
"I wasn't back home till 11 at night, and up again at six the next morning. I was doing all the running, because I was trying to show the boys that I was still fit enough to warrant a place in the team. All of a sudden you are going from being a two-hours-a day man at Rangers to 14 or 15 hours a day."
Hard work has been Rae's mantra since he bumped into Walter Smith while on holiday in Marbella in the late 1990s. Smith featured in Rae's' early career, but not in the way either would have liked. The current Rangers manager was then assistant to Graeme Souness at Ibrox, and given the task of relaying news to Rae that he was being released from the club he loved when still a teenager. He advised Rae that he needed to put the spadework in. "I took me 12 years to understand what he meant," said Rae. "I had always found it easy to get to places. But the hard part is staying there. I was 29 when I realised that."
"My whole outlook on football changed," he continued. "From being a young man, when all I wanted was to move to a big club for more money, I began to enjoy the game for what it was. My ability has never let me down. But I was someone who wanted to fight the world. It was all very negative. A psychologist once asked me: 'what do you think about prior to a game?' In years gone past I would think about getting the bastard who kicked me two years ago. I wouldn't let anything go. I carried that negativity around with me for the majority of my twenties. To say I was going into games not focused is an understatement."
Psychology is one of a number of subjects which might not have featured on the conversation menu when Rae was an angry young man. He was everything people might have expected a child of the tough Dennistoun streets. Such a feral character was eagerly accepted in the stands at Millwall, where he played for six years. "People have a perception of me," said Rae. "I don't doubt I have aspects of that in my make-up. I can be quite aggressive. But a lot of people are looking to things that are years ago. Don't get me wrong. If needs be I will go to town with anyone and fight my corner. But at the same time I want peace of mind sometimes."
To illustrate this point Rae recalls a shopping expedition in Wolverhampton five years ago. It was Christmas, and although used to un-picking packed defences Rae struggled to weave a path through mad-eyed gift hunters. "I just thought: 'this is too much'," he reflected. "I saw a cathedral or a church, I am not even sure which, and went in and had a quiet half an hour. While the world was going mad outside there was not a peep in there. I try and do that a lot now."
You can add meditation to psychology, religion, chess and reading when drawing up a list of unlikely interests which occupy Rae's mind. He has not found it hard to fill the hours once devoted to drinking, and recovering from its effects. A father of two young daughters, he remains based with wife Linda outside Glasgow. The club has, however, provided him with a flat in the west end of Dundee and it offers him the chance to unwind. Visits to the cinema in the Dundee Contemporary Art centre – most recently to see The Diving Bell and the Butterfly – offers an antidote to the hurly-burly of the First Division title race. The image of Rae mixing with the more cosmopolitan types in Dundee's student area is one to die for, and jars with the perhaps more accepted portrayal of Rae as a card-carrying Glasgow hard man. Those who recognise him may require a second look as he walks by with a copy of Rick Warren's The Purpose Driven Life – his current read – tucked under his arm.
Bob Brannan, the Dundee chairman, speaks of Rae's "sensitivity" when dealing with man-management issues and admires his get up and go. "He is not someone who needs to be kicked out of bed in the morning, put it that way," he said. Rae certainly has plenty to throw back the covers for as he contemplates a week which could shape Dundee's season.
Rae's rollercoaster careerBorn, 30 September 1969, GlasgowRae starts career at Ibrox, but Rangers release him and he joins Falkirk
Signs for Millwall in August, 1990, for £100,000 and spends six years as a fans' favourite at The Den, scoring 63 goals in 218 appearances for the Lions
Joins Sunderland at end of 1995/96 season for £1 million and racks up more than 100 appearances for the north-east side. Wins promotion with Sunderland as champions back to the Premier League in 1998/99
Career takes downturn in 1998 and after battle with alcoholism, attends a rehab clinic during 1998. Stays sober after treatment and further rehabilitation, and later becomes patron for the Sporting Chance clinic.
Signs for Wolves for £1.2m and plays a crucial role in their promotion in season 2002-2003, forming a strong midfield partnership with Paul Ince. He made 30 league appearances. Scored winning goal in the play-off semi final against Reading.
Returns to Rangers in May 2004, helping themto the 2004-2005 SPL title and 2005 League Cup. Scored one goal in 32 appearances.
Named Dundee manager, May, 2006
Founds Second Chance charityin 2007 to help those with drink and drug problems
The full article contains 1780 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
