Yet, just as factual, is a record of fifteen or so years in top-class management without once getting the sack in a profession strewn with the bodies of victims. It is hard to fathom the reasons why obvious success does not find Brown, although I cannot help feeling that the man himself tends to draw away from it. He seems to quit just when he may be about to break his duck. Certainly he did it at Roker. After seeing them go down for the first time ever in 1958, he steadfastly steered them to promotion in 1964 and promptly resigned before Sunderland kicked a ball again in the First Division.

He joined Sheffield Wednesday at a time when their name wasn�t good following the sine die suspensions of Bronco Layne and Peter Swan, got to Wembley, and then quit to return to a sick and ailing Sunderland. The job reeked of dangers with all the effort since his departure channelled towards building a magnificent ground. Relegation was a very real possibility, yet Alan put his head in the noose voluntarily - not when he was out of work - and took over the reins. Time ran out on him again at the end of last season, when the big drop came.

Obviously, Brown relishes a challenge almost as though he enjoys torturing himself to see if he can win against the odds. Once he has survived the brickbats of the fans to pull a club up by its bootlaces he doesn�t hang around for the trophies that might follow. Instead, he disappears to become soccer�s own doctor for the sick again. One of the fittest men you could wish to meet at fifty plus, Brown is a rigid disciplinarian and the despair of Pressmen. He has no time for the wide boys of the game, the so-called personalities and characters. And he has no time for certain Pressmen either, which often has not helped his cause in the past when things have not been going right.

But there is one thing about Alan Brown - you know where you are with him. He prides himself on that and his willingness to forget any personal differences if anyone is in trouble. Even his sternest critics grudgingly admit that in this he is totally reliable, a man on his own. A magnetic personality, Brown has a knack of drawing disciples round him. If he wins over a person that person will almost inevitably be willing to follow Brown to the ends of the earth. He will stand by Brown even in the heaviest fighting if necessary.

I know several in the game who have at some time come into contact with Alan and been immediately influenced by him. Peter Eustace, David Ford, Ian McFarlane and Dave Smith are just a few. When Peter Eustace left Sheffield Wednesday last season to join West Ham he was asked what his lasting memories of Sheffield would be. He replied: "The 1966 Cup final - and Alan Brown."

David Ford, a Sheffield lad and close mate of Eustace, is exactly the same. Ford might be in Newcastle United�s camp now, but he will fiercely defend his former boss if any argument arises when he�s around. Ford�s case is typical of the way Brown wins over young players by making them feel important and necessary both as human beings and footballers. It happened shortly after Brown arrived at Hillsborough. Wednesday went on a tour of West Germany and Ford, a little-tried youngster, was included in the party.

When he was picked to play his first-ever senior match, Ford, a former schoolboy sprint champion, ran and ran and ran in an effort to justify his selection. Eventually, with not long to go, he took the cramp and Alan Finney told him to go out onto the wing for a rest. As soon as he did, the ball broke to him. Ford stopped it with his left foot and was just swinging his right to centre when the full-back barged in. He went straight over the ball and Ford thought his leg was broken. It was a year later when David started playing again.

He spent the rest of the tour bandaged from thigh to ankle. The pain when he tried to walk was unbearable. So when it was time to go home Brown, instead of letting him suffer, carried him bodily in his arms onto the plane bound for England and off at the other end, through Customs, and onto the team coach. Later, when Ford severely damaged his leg in a car crash that killed his fiancee, Brown�s help was immeasurable. Players don�t forget things like that.

Even Dave Smith, who shared the delights of the 1966 Cup run along with Eustace and Ford, will talk with respect of Brown although the same man gave him the sack. Smith served under Brown twice - as a player at Burnley and coach at Sheffield Wednesday. "There is no doubt that Brown made me into a decent full-back at Burnley," says Smith. "He gave me the confidence, the feeling of being wanted, that was vitally necessary. And as a manager there are several things I admire immensely in him even though he eventually decided to replace me at Hillsborough."

Ian MacFarlane, the huge Scot who is one of Sunderland�s present coaches, is the latest recruit to the Brown disciples. Last season as Sunderland sank towards the Second Division and the knives came out for sharpening, MacFarlane could have stayed quiet. But instead he chose to defend his boss publicly, putting himself bang alongside Brown in the stocks. His words rang with defiance and loyalty - the sort of passionate speech that borders on the startling. "For strength of character and all-round knowledge of the game this man is the tops," said MacFarlane. "You don�t have to win cups and league titles to be a success. Alan Brown started Burnley�s conveyor-belt system for producing the best young players in the game, then he rebuilt Sunderland, giving them a foundation every bit as good as the one at Leeds when they came out of the Second Division. He moved on to Sheffield Wednesday and produced a team that gave one of Wembley�s finest exhibitions.

"This man has been - and is - an outstanding success. Sunderland would have been without hope if he hadn�t come back. He�s being crucified because he has the humility lacking in so many others." Some may sneer at the opinions of MacFarlane and point out that many others have not fallen under the Brown spell. That is quite true, but then very few bosses can endear themselves to everyone and still remain in control.

The man who once had the courage to announce to a gathering of players and Press that he had joined the Moral Re-Armament faith after bearing the image of the iron-fisted dictator for years likes to think of himself as a �players� manager�. With pride he recalls: "I�ve never left a club without some of the lads weeping." He will also readily recall the Burnley director who had often opposed him saying on his deathbed: "I�ve just realised how much you mean to this club."

Brown may be a person of immense pride who gives the impression of being able to go it alone, but I still believe that underneath he desperately needs to win over players and people within soccer. Getting them on his side gives him tremendous satisfaction. While material success has passed him by, Brown a former policeman and tough-tackling centre-half, is firmly established as one of soccer�s supremos on tactics and technical affairs. He can without exaggeration be classed with Walter Winterbottom and Sir Alf Ramsey as a man who has helped to shape the thoughts of British football into its present system.

All the top coaches are willing to listen to Brown expound his theories and he has had much to do with the shaping of the managerial careers of people like Don Revie, Brian Clough, Jimmy Adamson, Les Shannon, Billy Bingham and Lawrie McMenemy.

Brown, born at Corbridge, remains a contradiction. A success without success. The winner of men but not trophies. On Wearside Alan has gained himself the unenviable fame as the manager who saw Sunderland go down twice, yet he says candidly that it doesn�t worry him. He doesn�t accept last season�s drop as his own fault but refuses to throw dirt by naming those responsible for the decline. Certainly he was restricted by the lack of cash and the bungling in transfer deals between his two reigns, but it is still hard for any manager of a relegated side to emerge completely blameless.

Although promoting a lot of promising youngsters the fans find it hard to accept Brown selling Sunderland�s only recognised striker Colin Suggett, and then spending �100,000 on two players - Calvin Palmer and Joe Baker - who hardly contributed a thing to the Roker rescue act. Yet Brown remains firmly convinced in himself and Sunderland as powers in football. He says Sunderland will rise to great heights again in 10 years or less, whether or not he is still at Roker to see it.

"We have already laid the foundations for a successful team," he says. "Relegation is merely a temporary setback." The challenge, the stimulus, must be there to drive a man who freely admits that if he could be born today he would like to be American and become an astronaut, "because it�s the most challenging, exciting job of our time."

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