" More than just Fergie´s friend"
By Phil McNulty
Chief football writer
Walter Smith wanted a challenge to lure him away from the golf course, television studio and courses in hotel and pub management.
It is safe to say he has found one.
Smith´s shock appointment as Sir Alex Ferguson´s right-hand man at Manchester United has not exactly been greeted with rejoicing.
He has been out of football for two years since being sacked at Everton after a turbulent four-year spell at Goodison Park which was wrecked by boardroom wranglings and financial crises.
Smith actually faces more than one challenge.
He must not only breathe life into United´s faltering campaign, but also re-ignite his own career.
Ferguson´s decision to appoint his old friend has been questioned, but a scratch beneath the surface reveals understandable reasons.
In times of trouble, Ferguson has turned to a man he knows, trusts and respects to give fresh impetus out on the Carrington training field and inside United´s dressing room.
Smith was Ferguson´s assistant with Scotland at the Mexico World Cup in 1986, and the United manager was a huge admirer of his work in success at Rangers and in troubled times at Everton.
Ferguson will be able to bounce ideas off his fellow Scot, a man who shares both his political and footballing beliefs and emerged from the same working-class Glasgow background.
Ferguson has appointed an experienced football man and friend he can trust and Smith´s desire to leave a final legacy of success should not be under-estimated.
He needs friends now as the vultures hover - and he has few bigger than Smith in football.
But it is not just an arm around the shoulder for embattled Ferguson.
Smith is respected as a good coach and organiser, particularly in defence, and one of his first tasks may be to shore up United´s creaking rearguard.
He will also provide an influence of calm and charm alongside the abrasive and confrontational Ferguson.
Smith has a reputation as a dour, stone-faced figure, but having got to know him very well during his time at Everton, the complete opposite is true.
He has a dry and self-deprecating humour, although when the occasion demands Smith´s " hair-dryer" is only marginally less powerful than Ferguson´s if his anger is aroused.
If Ferguson has differences with players or the media, Smith´s warm approach could be the ideal buffer.
But fools are not suffered and the outwardly friendly nature must not disguise a ruthless edge in a fierce competitor.
Smith could have lived happily in the comfort zone after leaving Everton, but was desperate to return once the batteries were recharged.
Tentative offers were rejected, and jobs in Scotland were ignored on the grounds he has achieved it all at Rangers and anywhere else would be a step down.
Smith brought Olivier Dacourt, now with Italy´s Roma, to England
He accepted media work, played golf, worked in the gym and even brushed up on his business interests by attending courses - but football was always in the background.
But even Smith, used to the unexpected, must have been stunned to receive the call from Old Trafford.
It could, however, be the perfect platform to put his talents in the shop window once more, either for a permanent place at Old Trafford, a return at club level, or perhaps even national management with Scotland.
He is unfairly regarded as a failure at Everton, and it is true his time had come when he was sacked after a 3-0 FA Cup quarter-final defeat at Middlesbrough in 2002.
History will judge him harshly, but Smith was the right man at the wrong club at the wrong time.
Smith was plucked away from Sheffield Wednesday by Everton chairman Peter Johnson in 1998, then handed a transfer pot the club effectively did not have.
He signed quality in the then unknown Olivier Dacourt, John Collins and Marco Materazzi - the erratic Italian still regarded as good enough for Inter Milan.
High stakes
But the writing was on the wall when Johnson sold Duncan Ferguson to Newcastle United behind his back.
Smith defiantly stayed on but ensured Johnson left.
Sadly, so did people like the brilliant Dacourt.
Smith had a shrewd eye for a player, with Tomasz Radzinski and Thomas Gravesen still among Everton´s most effective players, while the £250,000 deal for David Weir ranks with his biggest bargains.
Smith, however, was effectively worn down at Everton by boardroom changes and crippling financial problems - the latter still a burden to his successor David Moyes.
So while cynics suggest Ferguson is doing a favour for a friend, the stakes are too high for that.
Ferguson has appointed an experienced football man and friend he can trust, and Smith´s desire to leave a final legacy of success should not be under-estimated.
