HE WILL want to be remembered as the man who lived the dream, but, as ever, it is more complicated than that. Brooks Mileson's death yesterday provides a sad, if unsurprising, postscript to the Gretna story.
The club he said had put years onto his life pre-deceased him, in August this year. He may have felt reinvigorated by his involvement at Raydale Park but in the end both his and Gretna's lifeline slipped away after the initial rise and rise. Born in 1947, Mileson existed almost as long as Gretna did – 60 years.
Their paths crossed one fateful day in 2003, when Mileson walked into the club with the intention of sponsoring a youth initiative. Instead he allowed himself to become beguiled by Gretna, who had found the going tough in their first season in the Scottish Football League. Improvements to Raydale Park had to be done in a hurry as the club sought to meet requirements and finances were failing. An appeal was sent out to Mileson, and he answered it. Initially this was not supposed to interfere with his love for Carlisle United, who he intended to continue to watch.
Before long, he later recalled, he allowed the club to seep into his soul. He became owner and was the main reason they made a dash through the leagues in successive seasons. Some loved what he did for the town, others didn't. On visits to Gretna it was not hard to find the doubters, those who mourned the loss of innocence and community. On learning that Mileson had displaced the old-style committee which ran the club, many feared how it might turn out. "That was once a village team, now it means nothing to the folk of Gretna." said Ian Johnstone, who once played in goal for the old team. "It's gone to one bloke. What happens when he pulls all his money out?"
Earlier this year, after Mileson succumbed to a brain infection, the locals were granted an answer to that question. Mileson withdrew from the club, perhaps on the advice of a family alert to the drain it had become on his resources.
One of his failings, recalled former chairman Ron MacGregor last night, was an inability to say no. He was attracted by those who had lived their life in football, and when former manager Rowan Alexander suggested a player he wanted, the funds were always provided. They ended up falling out after Mileson was charmed by Mick Wadsworth, who he made director of football. Alexander initially worked with Wadsworth, but relations soon deteriorated. Gretna was barely big enough for a senior football team, let alone one with two such overbearing personalties.
There is a lot of emotion mixed-up in the obvious desire to mourn such a colourful and congenial character. Rarely can a story in Scottish football have developed from a rattling good tale into one laced with so much sorrow. Few failed to be entranced by Gretna's rise from nowhere to contest the Scottish Cup final in 2006 and then win promotion to the SPL the following season. At the heart of all this was Mileson, the groovy benefactor with a pony tail, who invariably emerged from a cloud of cigarette smoke dressed in jeans and cowboy boots.
It is difficult to resist comparing Mileson with Eddie Thompson, the Dundee United chairman who passed away last month. Both were self-made millionaire mavericks who ended up in football. But one was feted while the other will be remembered with rather more ambiguity.
What is certain is that Mileson gave good copy, while his love of grass roots football can likewise not be doubted. Nobody could feign interest in clubs such as Whitby Town for as long as he did. He also sponsored the Northern League for many years. His wealth could have given him access to many glamorous boardrooms but he had a genuine interest in lower-division football, while also admiring the fans who followed clubs through thick and thin. He contributed funds to the Dundee United supporters' trust, and also helped Dundee's Dee 4 Life project. In total he helped over 70 clubs. "I am a football romantic," he once said. "I was a big Roy of the Rovers fan when I was a kid, when I could borrow the comic off other kids."
This hinted at his background. "I am just a rough-arse from Sunderland," he was fond of saying. When he was 11, an accident while playing in quarry left him with a broken back, but he recovered to win the bronze medal in the 1967 English cross-country junior championships. He made his fortune in insurance, but there was always an element of mystery present in his business life.
"I had never before met someone like Brooks," recalled MacGregor. "I remember the Scottish Football League, in a routine process, asked us to submit details of his other directorships. Brooks told us to contact the secretary of his main company, and she would send a fax through. It came through, and kept on coming. There were 36 directorships. I'd never seen anyone with that range of influence, although some were, I am sure, of the here today, gone tomorrow variety."
He would label himself as just a supporter, and he was. He was glad to get his hands dirty for the cause, and had to be persuaded from hosing the terraces down. He helped out in the ticket office in the run-up to big cup games and continued to pass on the opportunity to visit boardrooms when Gretna played away from home. Instead he gathered up his usual cohorts, Lofty and Jack, and drove to the game in his own car, stopping off for a fish supper on the way. This routine occurred even on the day Gretna, then of the Second Division, met Hearts in the Scottish Cup final.
Even then his health was failing, and it wasn't helped by the subsequent penalty shoot-out defeat. A bruising first experience of European football followed as the Gretna fairytale began to unravel, although promotion was achieved with a last-minute winner at Ross County at the end of the season. James Grady's goal proved a curse as Gretna struggled to compete, and Mileson's own physical condition began to deteriorate. MacGregor later expressed the hope that the club would not be allowed to drift into oblivion, but this summer they did.
Debate over whether they were the victims of a rich man's vaulting ambition will regrettably blight the memory of a man who undoubtedly aimed to be a force for good.
FACT BOX 1947Born Pennywell, Sunderland.
1967Wins a bronze medal in the World Junior Cross-country Championships despite being told he would never walk again after an accident when aged 11.
1982After being made redundant from his work within the construction industry, Mileson moves into insurance from where he began to build his fortune, including his work in the building trade.
2005His financial input into Gretna is rewarded as the team clinch promotion from the Third Division in record time.
2006Gretna reach the Scottish Cup final at Hampden Park where they are beaten in a penalty shoot-out by Hearts after the game finishes 1-1. Gretna also capture the Second Division title.
2007Gretna promoted to the Scottish Premier League after a late winner in a 3-2 victory at Ross County.
2008February: Admitted to a Newcastle hospital with a brain infection and his financial input into Gretna is subsequently withdrawn, leaving the club to flounder before going out of business in the summer.
Smith leads tributes to 'colourful' MilesonCraig Brown SCOTTISH Football Association chief executive Gordon Smith has paid a warm tribute to former Gretna owner Brooks Mileson, who died yesterday aged 60. Mileson had been ill for some time, and his poor health was blamed for the demise of Gretna at the end of last season when he was no longer fit to run the club.
"Brooks Mileson was one of the most colourful characters to have graced our game in many a year," said Smith. "His passion for football and love for Gretna saw that small club come from nowhere to the cup final and European football in an incredibly short period of time. While it all ended for Gretna suddenly and disappointingly, Brooks and his club provided us with a wonderful story that the whole world bought into."
Former Gretna chairman Ron MacGregor said that while there would be mixed feelings about Mileson's role in the demise of the club, he felt the side's achievements during the preceding years would be his legacy.
"It's my view that the high point of his ownership were the twin moments of when he took us from the First Division into the SPL, and to the final of the Scottish Cup," he said. "I think fans will look at the fantastic experiences he took them through, to get them to the top flight."
He added that, with hindsight, one of the pivotal elements in the team's collapse was that Mileson had failed to put in place the necessary mechanisms to ensure Gretna's continued existence even in his absence.
"We thought at the time we would have the resources and the cash handouts from the SPL that you don't get in the SFA," said MacGregor.
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Tragic end for dream makerThe full article contains 1580 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
