I remember singing “It’s going to be 10 in a row”, but back then 10 had no significance. Neither did 9, it was like 8 in a row, another stop along the way. But when Jock Stein’s team finished their spectacular domination of the Scottish game in 1974 with nine successive titles and four European Cup semi-finals, “Nine in a row” became a phrase with extraordinary substance.
Of course, in years to come, for others, nine in a row became a target to surpass. In the late eighties Rangers changed the financial parameters of Scottish football for some time, and set their own course towards liquidation, but on the park, they swept all before them in the domestic game. By summer 1997 they had won their won nine in a row. McEwan’s lager billboard adverts featured the club with the line, “9 out of 10, could do better”. And didn’t we know it.
Celtic were in disarray having sacked Tommy Burns and with our three most cherished players, Di Canio, Cadete and van Hooijdonk on their way out the door. The new managerial appointment “the second worst thing to happen to Hiroshima”, as our mainstream media portrayed him to Celtic fans, arrived only two weeks before the start of the season.
After losing the first league game of the season at Easter Road Celtic lost 1-2 at home to Dunfermline; they were leading at half time. 10 in a row seemed inevitable but this season was the greatest example of why the prevailing currents of football are now always evident on the surface.
Have a read at this from the Independent after that defeat to Dunfermline:
“[The home supporters] cannot be fooled – even as the teams were announced it was clear they are unconvinced by the new signings. The mention of Pierre van Hooijdonk, Paolo Di Canio and Jorge Cadete before a game was enough a year ago to raise the roof in anticipation. On Saturday, Henrik Larsson and Regi Blinker hardly registered in the approval stakes.
“Larsson’s poor touch too often saw him lose possession. The blunt truth is he is not a proven goalscorer and Jock Brown, the general manager, will have to add fire power to the team.”
Don’t be too harsh on the journo who penned this, few dissented, and Jock Brown’s reputation was pretty much set by these incredibly inaccurate reviews. Although, “blunt truth” has never been used with such laxity.
The towns of the west of Scotland can be dangerous places after big football games but not 15 years ago today, when Celtic beat St Johnstone to win the league for the first time in a decade. Celtic fans of all ages poured onto the streets as the spirit of carnival took hold.
I remember hooped fans sitting on top of a set of traffic lights in Lanarkshire; green, amber, red, then rows of green and white. I walked around Hamilton town centre that night. For an evening, every pub was a Celtic pub, with rules about wearing colours suspended, and singing was celebrated.
And sing we did.
At the end of the night I could be found singing “Cheerio to 10 in a row” at a taxi rank outside a nightclub. The ‘brave’ soul standing in front of me waited until his taxi was moving away before mumbling his offenses out of the window.
Last summer I did an interview with Tony Hamilton for Celtic TV . When we drilled into what really made an impact on me as a Celtic fan I had no hesitation on placing that game against St Johnstone above Champions League victories, qualifying for a European final or beating Barcelona. We aspire to move beyond the confines of Scottish football but for 125 years this has been our home. In all that time, in domestic or European football, there have been, at most, only two more important games.
Enjoy the memories, but don’t play that George O’Boyle leap over in your mind; just in case you imagine him a few inches higher.
[calameo code=000390171179f475cf1c0 lang=en page=1 hidelinks=1 width=100% height=500]
1,078 Comments- Pages:
- «
- 1
- ...
- 22
- 23
- 24
- 25
- 26
- 27
- 28
- 29
- »
Imagine it will be asked at the press conference. NL can nail this and we can then look forward to new season with him at the helm and new players coming in.
Agent Craig “Green and” Whyte!!
12:12
Most Everton fans I’ve met, in fact most people in the fine city of Merseyside, are fine people. However, the train journey on Merseyrail’s Northern Line on July 12 is a bit of an eye-opener, at least on the stretch between Southport and Bootle.
Dearie me, what a step back in time that is.
Agent Craig “Green and” Whyte!!
I’m sure Everton are historically the RC club in Liverpool. I could be wrong though. Not that it matters much.
LB
Gotta laugh at all the talk about Everton having a limited budget. Their wage bill for 2011/12 was £63m. That equated to 78% of their annual turnover and 10th highest in Premier league.
Borrusia Dortmund’s annual wage bill in the same period was £67m and they have now got to a European final.
Celtic’s wage bill was £33m.
Mort
I sometimes wonder when I log on here at this time of day how many are furiously pressing F5, time to go on another site for a wee while :-)
Interesting stuff about Everton & Liverpool
Dear Mr Wheatcroft,
You refer to Liverpool FC as the Catholic team and Everton FC as protestant. Where did you get that from?
Today the sectarian divide between the teams no longer exists except as a memory. But when it did exist Everton was always seen as the catholic team and Liverpool as the protestant team.
The origins of Everton’s catholic support lie in the late 19th century when Dr Baxter, a prominent Catholic doctor and a leading light in the catholic community, joined the Everton board. He brought with him the thousands of Irish Catholic families from the Scotland Road area who duly became Everton supporters, despite Everton’s origins as a Methodist team (the old St Domingo’s).
The Catholic dimension was maintained in various ways at Everton, not least in the 1950s when the core of the Everton team hailed from the Republic of Ireland.
This is what led the Labour MP for Walton, the late Eric Heffer, to explain in his biography Never a Yes Man that he was obliged to lean towards Everton because as the catholic team it was closer to his own High Anglicanism than the more orange-tinged Protestantism of Liverpool FC.
I came from a large Catholic family and was educated at Catholic schools. Support for Everton was instilled in me by family and school alike (including via the priests and Christian Brothers). Indeed when I first started attending games (and was taken to both grounds) I observed that while nuns took charitable collections at the Gwladys Street, it was Salvation Army members who did this at the Kop.
The two most recent examples of the divide I personally witnessed were:
• at a derby game in 1986 when Everton supporters were allocated a third of the kop. I was at the very edge of the Everton section and was greeted by Liverpool supporters holding up banners and placards and waving them at us. The legend on these placards was “Ulster says no” – the protestant slogan at the time of the Anglo-Irish Agreement. Amongst the Everton supporters there were more than a few Irish tricolours waved back at the protesting Liverpool fans;
• at Dave Watson’s testimonial match (late 1990s), Everton versus Rangers, a huge mob of Rangers fans stormed up Goodison Road attacking Everton fans and screaming at them “fenian bastards”.
I would like to stress that I regard the sectarian divide as a bad thing and I am glad that it has faded so much from the scene in football. You should take note of that yourself – the religious division between the teams no longer exists in any meaningful sense and it is wrong to suggest, as you do in the article, that it does. I have long since ceased to be a catholic myself, though I remain a devout Evertonian.
However, since you do mention it in your article you ought to have gotten it right in the interests of historical accuracy.
I would be grateful to hear your views on this. Perhaps you have information that I don’t have and my understanding of the history of the teams is and always has been wrong (though that will not cause me to change my allegiance today!!!).
Regards, from an ex-catholic but forever an Evertonian.
http://www.toffeeweb.com/fans/beingblue/religion.asp
LB
picinisco
I agree with everything you say. Some of the clowns on twitter were really giving NFL a hard time. They may have been huns posting as tims but I don’t think that was the case with them all. I hope that we have NFL as manager for years to come as I really believe that he could continue to build our team and make them a serious force in Europe. I also think that he could go on to actually do 10 in a row and cement his name in CFC history.
In NFL we trust.
HH
Theres a lot of people both on here and in the media ruling out Lennon taking/getting the Everton gig on the basis of being too inexperienced.
Moyes got the same job coming from Preston North End. And being no great shakes as a player, lets be honest.
Lennons experience in terms of playing and management dwarfs Moyes experience, at the time he got the Everton job. This shouldn’t be an issue. Don’t rule it out.
BTW, I hope to god he doesn’t leave…. The chances of us getting someone even have as commited or talented are pretty slim.
Good old n/hill, loved staying there, great fun at st teresas
if I had the chance to ask NFL for one, and only one, request – it would be “Please close your Twitter account”.
Mort
Good post.
It fair rips my knitting when people start all this claptrap about Moyes’s Everton had ‘punched above their weight’.
He never once got a victory at Anfield despite being up against some of the poorest Liverpool sides in the last 20 odd years.
Phyllis Dietrichson
Here Here!
NFL is currently almost 3/1 (3.95) with Betfair for the Everton job.
TTT,
Things good here in outer Newarthill / Newhouse!!!
Ah well, a 1st Communion is a good enough reason to miss the match!
Enjoy.
Big Drunken is the man for Everton!
LB
Tom McLaughlin
07:50 on 10 May, 2013
KevJungle –
If you’re about . . . When you go to the Q&A session tonight, I’d love for you to stand up and ask the panel a question and finish your question with the immortal words, “Off oot!”
=======================
LOL
Afternoon bhoys, hun free and warm in the mountain valley.
praecepta
Agree re Lenny.
But I would add his concerns for his family.
He said something the other week about his boy becoming aware of the problems.
HH
To the editor of Private Eye.
Dear Sir,
Has anyone noticed a resemblance between Neil Lennon – the no-mark, red-haired and suspiciously Irish manager of Celtic who wasn’t even good enough to be given Manager of the Year in Scotland, nor were any of his players nominated for Player of the Year – and Neil Lennon – the manager whose meteoric rise to the top of the game with his exploits in Europe this season has seen him become widely respected in England, and is now the hot tip for the manager’s position at Everton?
HH
and the SMSM prepare for another ” all is well in Govan Saturday”..
Forgetting every other team in Scotland!
That’s why the SPL cup is in Paradise.. !!!
hoopeddreams, brilliant sir.
Don’t think NFL will go, another year at least at Celtic and he may then consider any options which may arise.
ticketbus
Thank you but you really are too kind.
I think Neil would want another two titles. Four in a row before going. That would put him ahead of WGS.
I’d rather support Everton than be an ex-Catholic
new article posted.
WG
It’s all the rage, doncha know.
It’s code for: “I used to be weird, but I’m all right now.”
What’s the difference between an Everton fan and an ex-Catholic (or as I prefer to refer to them – non-practising Catholic(s) )?
Nothing apparently.
HH!!
Celtic_First and LiviBhoy
I agree with both of you regarding the good people of Liverpool.
I have to admit to only meeting any scouser’s on holiday or briefly at work but any I have met have been good friendly people.
Also I’ve no doubt this idiot was in no way an indication of the Everton support.
As I said my gut feeling was a token hun or family members in Glasgow.
I do know about Liverpools orange background as I worked with a bigot from Harthill who spent most weekends down there on ‘orange’ business.
Gentleman by name but not by nature!!
Top 10 games: 1. Lisbon 6. 1965 Cup Final
2. 7-1 7. 1969 Cup Final
3. 5-1 v Red Star 8. 2-0 v St Johnstone
4. 2-1 v Leeds 9. 4-2 v Rangers 1979
5. 2-0 v Vojvodina 10. Seville
I’ve had great fun thinking of those brilliant days/nights for the Celtic family. My dad told me about no. 2. The rest I saw myself. HH
Jack of Diamonds 4.35 lingfield
(Glen)
Champions 2012/13
Phoenix Clubs 2:45 nottingham
Good luck all
Excellent Guest 3:50 Ascot…….followed this
beast over a cliff…..one last chance.
good luck
Lads, naps here today please…
Cheers, fleagle1888
CQN Saturday Naps Competition – Week 40 results & standings
Week 40 :
Sixteen Roads to Golgotha (Fiery Oscar @11/2)
fleagle1888 (Secretinthepark @9/2)
green T (Oyster Shell @3/1)
Rockon Neil Lennon (Universal @11/4)
+£20.85 green T (14)
+£15.91 Bada Bing (7)
+£15.75 Rockon Neil Lennon (12)
+£15.50 Che (5)
+£ 2.00 voguepunter (4)
-£ 2.00 BULL67 (9)
-£ 2.22 Valentine’s Day (7)
-£ 2.50 What is the Stars (6)
-£ 7.00 fleagle1888 (5)
-£ 7.25 Som mes que un club (7)
-£ 7.75 Cathal (6)
-£ 8.38 Sixteen roads to Golgotha (5)
-£10.50 Magnificentseven (6)
-£16.88 Glen (5)
-£17.17 MHARK67 (5)
-£20.63 leftclicktic (5)
-£22.50 tommytwiststommyturns (3)
-£26.00 bobbymurdoch’s winklepickers (4)
-£30.80 TheBarcaMole (2)
-£31.97 hunza rugli (2)
-£35.00 gerry_bhoy (1)
-£40.00 gourockbhoy
-£40.00 Raymac
*No selections (wk 40) : hunza rugli, Raymac, TheBarcaMole
*Non-runners (wk 40) – Glen
Cheers, fleagle1888
VOGUEPUNTER ‘S NAP- Half a Sixpence 3.50 Ascot
Today’s donkey is
No Dominion
Thirsk 19:45
Good luck all and enjoy the party at paradise
Mornin Champs, I’ll go for Tahaamah in the 2:05 at Ascot, Barzalona’s only ride there today.
HH
TTTT
Neil, for Everton?
Don’t Mak me Laugh~
Neil, is no ready fur that kinda..Leap.
It wid be a Foolish Leap intae ..Oblivion..if he went ahead.
And.. Failed tae Tak a Look.. Afore He..well.. Leaped!
The Tough , Rough, Wild.. and Wooly
English Premier Leaguers,,
Wud Eat Him Alive .
Dinna ye kid Yersel..
The E.P.L. Has bin a Bridge too Faur.. fur Wan.. Former Successful Celtic Manager
No Names or Pack-Drill..
Neil, hiz neither the Guile, Nor the Experience, that wid be necessary tae Prevent
a Total.. Annihilation o’ whit . .. Based oan his.. Success at Celtic.. widda been a
Promising Career in Soccer Management.
Neil, is Fine..in His Element.. but.. wull be the Proverbial Small Fish.. oot it..
His Reputation Waxes in the S.P.L.. Fish-Bowl
But..
In the Shark Infested Waaters o’ the English Premier League..
He wid.. withoot a Shadow o’ a Doot..
Be Et Alive!
Where He wid ,indeed be.. a Wine that hud Bin …Uncorked…Afore it’s Time.
Kojo
Still Laughin