Last night, just before 5pm, a statement was released on the Hibernian FC website confirming that compensation has been agreed with Inverness Caledonian Thistle FC in respect of manager Terry Butcher and assistant manager Maurice Malpas.
The club are confident that personal terms will be agreed and the pair will be presented to the media this afternoon.
Today the Edinburgh Reporter looks back at the career of Terry Butcher.
Terry was born in Singapore where his father was a signalman in the Royal Navy, but the family moved back to England and he spent his childhood in Lowestoft, Suffolk where he soon came to the attention of local club Ipswich Town.
He made his debut against Everton in the old First Division on 15 April 1978 and quickly established himself in Bobby Robson’s exciting team although he just missed their FA Cup success that year.
Terry’s club form was noticed by England manager Ron Greenwood who gave him his debut in a friendly against Australia in 1980.
The following year he was part of the Ipswich side that won the UEFA Cup and finished runners up to Aston Villa in the league, and became a regular in the international team, featuring in the 1982 World Cup Squad in Spain.
He remained England’s first choice centre back for the rest of the decade and featured in the infamous ‘Hand of God’ defeat to Argentina then amazed the football world by signing for Graham Souness’s Rangers for a reputed fee of £725,000.
English clubs had been banned from competing in European competitions at the time which probably contributed to his decision to decline an offer from Manchester United to cross the border.
On 9 August 1986 Terry made his competitive debut in a never to be forgotten game in front of 27,000 supporters against John Blackley’s Hibs at Easter Road.
The game was played at a frenetic pace and Hibs took an early lead following a mistake by the England captain who allowed Stevie Cowan to square for Stuart Beedie to score in front of the Rangers fans.
Ally McCoist equalised from the penalty spot before the game erupted in the 30th minute when Souness who had already been booked was tackled by Beedie and responded by raking his studs down George McLuskey’s leg causing a mass brawl in the centre circle with Terry in the thick of things.
Only Hibs keeper Alan Rough electing to stay in his goalmouth as the remaining 21 players fought with each other, and Mark Fulton was knocked to the ground by a sucker punch from McCoist, an incident that is still brought up whenever Rangers visit. When the dust settled, Souness was sent off before Cowan scored a second just before the break which proved to be the winner.
With the delirious Hibs fans singing ‘What a waste of Money’ Terry could have been forgiven for grabbing the first flight back to England, but of course he didn’t and the rest is history.
Rangers eventually came good and Terry captained them to three League titles in four seasons, plus two Scottish League Cups. It was no coincidence that the season that Rangers finished second, Terry missed the majority of the campaign after breaking a leg against Aberdeen.
In April 1988 Terry was involved in another notorious game against Celtic at Ibrox where he was involved in an altercation with Frank McAvenny, Chris Wood and Graham Roberts. The matter was referred to the Procurator Fiscal and Terry eventually was convicted of disorderly conduct and breach of the peace and was fined £250. Later that year he was fined £1500 by the SFA after he kicked the referee’s room door off its hinges after a match at Pittodrie.
Terry continued to captain his country whilst at Ibrox, and in a World Cup qualifier against Sweden, he suffered a deep cut to his forehead early in the first half and required some impromptu stitches were inserted by the physiotherapist. Covered in bandages, Terry continued playing and his constant heading of the ball reopened the cut to the extent that his white England shirt was red with blood by the end of the game. Photographs of this are shown to this day as an example of his courage.
England made the semi-finals of the 1990 World Cup but were unlucky to be beaten on penalties by West Germany, and Terry retired from international football with 77 caps.
Following a reported fall out with Souness, Terry moved to Coventry City for £400,000 and became player manager, avoiding relegation in his first season then starting the next season in style, guiding the Sky Blues to sixth place by the end of September however a run of poor form saw him sacked on New Year’s Day 1992 with Coventry sitting 15th, six points clear of the relegation zone.
The following summer Terry joined Sunderland then became player/manager following the dismissal of manager Malcolm Crosby in January 1993. He kept the team in the top division by one place, but was sacked in November that year following a poor start to the season.
He then returned to Scotland and played three games for Clydebank before finally retiring as a player.
Terry then was out of football for a period, running his hotel in Bridge of Allan, but the lure of the game saw him offer his services to Raith Rovers looking after the reserves under manager Jimmy Nicholl, coincidentally the current Hibs’ caretaker manager and Alex Smith.
At Starks Park, Terry worked closely with former Hibs’ legend John Brownlie who was youth coach and the pair have remained friends.
Former Hearts’ boss Tommy McLean then took Terry to Dundee United as youth team coach, before Eric Black persuaded him to become his assistant at Motherwell.
When Black left, Terry took over as manager at Fir Park and guided the club to the League Cup Final in 2005 where they lost to Rangers.
In May 2006, Terry moved to Australia and became manager of Sydney FC, but lasted only a few months before returning to the UK to manage Brentford. A poor run of results saw Terry sacked but a call from former team-mate George Burley who had been appointed as the Scotland manager saw him back in the dugout as assistant manager to the national team.
Ironically, Scotland played Argentina in a friendly and Terry caused some controversy when he refused to shake manager Diego Maradona’s hand because of the events in Mexico in 1986.
On 27 January 2009, Terry was appointed manager of Inverness Caledonian Thistle, and wasted no time in appointing former Dundee United full-back Maurice Malpas as his assistant. Terry was unable to prevent Inverness being relegated from the Scottish Premier League, however after a poor start to the 2009/10 First Division league campaign, he managed to turn things around and clawed back a 16 point deficit to overtake Dundee and win promotion, winning the “Irn Bru Phenomenal” manager of the month award for March. As part of the promotion campaign, Inverness went on an unbeaten away run in the league that continued through the entire 2010 calendar year, culminating in a 1-1 draw against Hearts at Tynecastle, and they finished a credible 7th, narrowly missing out on a top six finish.
Last season, Terry won another Manager of the Month award before leading Thistle to second top spot in the table by the end of the year. His success brought him to the attention of Barnsley, but after talks with the Yorkshire club, Terry decided to remain in the Highlands.
He also guided Inverness to the semi-final of the League Cup but lost on penalties to Hearts at Easter Road.
This season, Inverness have continued to improve and were top of the league for several weeks before being overtaken by Celtic, and when Pat Fenlon resigned, he was named as the fans’ first choice to take over the Easter Road hot seat.
Terry was inducted to the Scottish Football Hall of Fame in November 2011.
John graduated from Telford College in 2010 with an HNC in Practical Journalism and since then he worked for the North Edinburgh News, The Southern Reporter, the Irish News Review and The Edinburgh Reporter. In addition he has been published in the Edinburgh Evening News and the Hibernian FC Programme.
