THEY say a picture tells a thousand stories, and this collection of snaps from The Northern Echo’s archive helps illustrate the colourful life of football manager Malcolm Allison, who died last week at the age of 83.

Allison, who led Middlesbrough between September 1982 and March 1984, was one of the most flamboyant and provocative figures the game has ever produced.

Famed for his love of cigars, champagne and showgirls, he was an integral part of football’s transition from working- class pastime to celebrity pursuit.

Yet there was another side to Big Mal that has become lost in the mists of time, but which was every bit as important to his legacy.

Allison was a hugely innovative and forward-thinking football man. As a coach, he introduced issues of conditioning, mental training and youth development that are still regarded as groundbreaking today.

In the Seventies, he was pilloried for arguing for the abolition of the back-pass rule.

Two decades later, it was scrapped.

As a manager, along with his rival, Brian Clough, he pioneered media mastery as a managerial art, and excelled at the kind of mind games that are prevalent in modernday football.

It is no coincidence that a youthful Jose Mourinho worked under Allison during his time at Portuguese club Vitoria Setubal.

In many ways, Allison was the original “Special One”, and while his greatest successes came outside the North-East, the region nevertheless played an important role in his life story.