You can imagine the scene, deep inside Celtic Park. “Let’s invite Fergus over to raise the flag on the opening day of the season. Would be great to get him back 20 years after his critical role in saving the club, especially after that nonsense in ’98.
“Wait a minute, probably best not to mention the flag just yet, let’s call it the opening home game of the season”.
16 years ago Fergus McCann accompanied Jean Stein onto Celtic Park to raise the league title flag, an event which seemed beyond us when he flew into Glasgow to complete the takeover from the old board in 1994.
He was booed by a sizeable minority of the support, ostensibly for not spending enough money on players. It was a source of regret for tens of thousands of us. Fergus arrived with a plan to turnaround a club which played in an antiquated stadium and were being thoroughly routed on the park. He left five years later with the league flag flying high, a modern 60,000 seater stadium and net bank debt at £2.5m. It was something of an economic miracle, and although he got the money he wanted when he sold up, he never got the credit he deserved.
Celtic fans had been conditioned to distrust him by a small handful of people with considerable reach. The club was being rag-dolled, despite the miracles it was performing. The man himself was never one for showboating, his last two contributions to Celtic were to speak at the annual Celtic Charity (the charity he formed) dinner, and to mark the unveiling of the Brother Walfrid statue. Only charity has brought him back, so this will be a rare day indeed.
I’m absolutely delighted to announce we are publishing Tommy Gemmell’s autobiography, “Tommy Gemmell – All the Best’. The book is written and will be out in the summer. It will be a paperback but we are going to do a small hardback run, all of which will be signed by Tommy, and will include a special chapter with questions from CQN’ers, which Tommy will answer in the book. Details on how to submit a question soon.
This one is going to be a lot of fun……….
If you would like to read the new CQN Magazine, GO HERE to read properly, and for FREE, the graphic below is just a taster.
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“BTW, if Celtic fans can boo Henrik then there are some that will boo anyone.”
That never happened.
When Henrik came on there was a spontaneous, and very loud, rendition of the Celtic song started.
Jungle Jim…
Just seen it, from USA, big bucks but worth it! bet it was the buyer who got it for £30 the other day! jammy git!
ROBERT88 GET YOUR FINGER OOT!!!
OOps. Sorry. So , do you want me to buy it?
got it!
Fergus will probably have to wait until he’s deid to get a statue.
Few others on the waiting list:
Willie Maley, Jimmy Quinn, Jimmy McGrory, Bobby Murdoch, Ronnie Simpson, Tommy Burns and countless others stretching back to 1888.
‘Avenue of heroes’ should be quite a spectacle.
HH!!
Bawsman…..
Hmmmmm….
I distinctly heard Henrik being booed…..followed by ‘Bobo’s gonna get ye’
if theres pages missing ill be furious!
Robert,
Yes. It is from USA. Niagara so we could wait and see if the price Falls 0:-) Terrible!
Hamiltontim- in your case, definitely not proven ;/)
It’s not you I’m getting at; it’s the ones that refuse to see the big picture.
Clearly Mr Mccann had his faults, but he got the big decisions right most of the time; and some of the mistakes he made were well intentioned.
Where would we be now if all those years ago he’d decided to sit on his hands?
Would we have had Peter Grant on the steps at CP demanding to see the deeds?
Tallybhoy
Craig whyte getting down the end n all?
I am obviously biased but one of the best blogs yet. HH. Enuff said
Robert
Did you offer the asking price? There was an option to bid.
JJ
PS Maybe I shouldn`t have told you that !!
If there are minerals under the ground at Ibrox, then I think a new club like Thems FC would have discovered an entirely new 115th element. What should they call it? :-
Oranganium
Dignitarium
Quintessentialum
Biscuittinium
Collective Consciousness of Liquidatiunum
Struthium
Greggspiesium
Masonium
Creditlineum
Honestmistakium
Supercasinum
Caesium Assetium
Floatingchargium
Blueknightium
Leggatium
Irvinespinium
dontbrattbakkinanger
12:56 on 7 February, 2014
You look at all the Clubs since the War that have got themselves into financial peril.
Men like Fergus Mccann are pretty rare; the David Murrays of this world are ten a penny.
Any Celtic supporter who can’t see what he did for our club is, in my humble opinion, an imbecile.
————–
Couldn’t put it any better if I tried.
Jungle Jim…
I use ebay enough to know, that people rarely accept less than whats on there, they don’t like to haggle always worth an ask, but usually its a NO!, still not worth the risk, it’ll be in the post shortly, lookig forward to getting it!
SFTB…..
The nomenclature is less important than the radioactive half life.
Hoping this would be very short.
ryecatcher
Why am I not too surprised that you find it worthwhile posting that you remember Henrik being booed?
JJ
‘GG
12:39 on
I fell over a seat when Sammi scored, it was funny looking back on it now though at the time it was a bit embarassing.
We were making our way along the row and saying the usual “excuse me, excuse me”, we’d stopped to watched the free kick, we were squeezed in between a youngish guy and his dad. When Sammi got the winner we all went mental and this old guy shoves me out the way to get to his son.
I was left feet in the air with one ankle trapped between 2 seats, no bugger tried to help me as they were all busy going mental.
Tony D
What time are you going to The Brazen on Saturday ( before the game)?
JJ
Question for Tommy…
Congratulations on scoring in two European Cup finals. I’m curious as to which gave you more personal pleasure, booting the arse of that wee nyaff German, or booting the bollixs of that wee nyaff Argentinian?
kitalba
12:57 on 7 February, 2014
Thank you again sir for making me watch, listen & think.
Im one for dealing with what is right in front of me right now while always remembering what I was and where I come from.
It usually stands me in good stead.
I’m nearly 53 and need to use my mind a little more, so thank you again.
till later all
Ajax played Bayern Munich in J.Cruyff’s testimonial.
Bayern won 8-0.
And they say the Germans have no sense of humour.
ryecatcher
13:17 on
I remember the Bobo chant but don’t remember the booing. That’s not to say it didn’t happen, just that where I was we never heard any.
Jungle Jim
13:23 on 7 February, 2014
‘ryecatcher
Why am I not too surprised that you find it worthwhile posting that you remember Henrik being booed?’
###
There were boos.
But they were good natured and tongue in cheek.
Fans kind of sending themselves up and at the same time expressing the regard in which the player was held.
SFTB
Moonbeamium?
Has the bottom section sold out yet for tomorrows game?
Fergus was responsible for bringing live fitba’ via satellite to Canada when it was watched in the Maple leaf gardens in Toronto.
He was known as a shrewd businessman and a guy who made things happen.
He saved Celtic and IMO deserves a rousing rendition ot the boys of the old brigade when he attends Parkhead to unfurl the flag.
Tonydonnelly
Whatever happened to all all the fish from the pond?
leftclick:
It’s a good movie mate.
I think some people on here may be aware that I am not convinced by the ” everyone is entitled to their opinion ” mantra. Those who do believe in that entitlement, could you tell me if you also believe that each person`s opinion is as valid a everyone else`s?
JJ
JUNGLE JIM
I believe that everyone is entitled to their opinion,but that they should be careful how they express it.
And I don’t care what you think!
You wanna see if I’ve got the minerals!!??
StevieGraham csc
JJ….
Yes.
You’ll need to do better than that…. ;-)
HH
ernie,
If your interpretation is accurate, then Ryecatcher`s post is even more suspect.
JJ
ernie
The people I saw booing Henrik were definitely tongue-in-cheek.
JJ
I’m with Rouseau. Entitled to an opinion but not all opinions have merit.
billy bhoy 05
No comment necessary
Yesterday in the House of Commons, during a debate on Scottish ‘separation’, Democratic Unionist MP Ian Paisley asked a Tory MP: “Do you agree with me that the unnerving and unsettling effect that a division in this wonderful union would have is that it would get the tails up of Irish republicans in my part of the kingdom?” The Tory agreed.
Good afternoon all.
Had another quick look at the online booking site there. I’ve no idea of the total seats in the lower level but would guess at around 35,000? It appears there’s about 1800 tickets left with a very approximate breakdown being –
FS1 – 21
FS2 – FS5 – Sold out
FS6 – 13
FS7 – 15
WS1 – 2
ES1 – 38
121 – 122
122 – 85
123 – 66
Padded – 120
137 – 19
138 – 29
139 – 13
140 – 42
141 – 87
142 – 29
143 – 42
144 – 8
101 – 108 – Sold out
109 – 6
110 – 38
111 – 226
112 – 78
113 – 102
114 – 96
115 – 51
116 – 493
117 – 120 – Aberdeen
All Total 1841
Tony Donnelly to reveal his war diary from the beaches of Dunkirk.
He fought there as a young man.
Be called something like……
How Many Clubs Will Go Bust after this Feckin War?
Quite what the War has to do with solvency of football clubs has me scratching my head.