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.
[calameo code=0003901710a55b5798f06 lang=en page=1 hidelinks=1 width=100% height=500]
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Hamiltontim is praying for Oscar
13:10 on 7 February, 2014
DBBIA
‘Is it possible to be appreciative of what Fergus did for Celtic and be critical of some of his actions at the same time without being labelled an imbecile?’
###
Not necessarily an imbecile. You could be a hun. Or Michael Kelly.
There’s a dominant narrative on here and you depart from that at your peril.
For instance whilst it’s only appropriate to mention Fergus’ charitable works it would be wrong to mention that having sold his interest in the Club he went to live as a tax exile in Bermuda.
When I think of Fergus I honestly can’t make my mind up. To build a new stadium and team to compete with Rangers (RIP) was great considering the previous years under the Kelly’s and White’s of this world. To see him walk away with such a huge amount still rankles with me a bit but hey ho he took all the risks. So all in all I tend to give him the benefit of the doubt.
If I remember correctly the booing was as Paul says cos we never signed a player that summer. I think Moravcik and Mjallby were our first signings and that was a few weeks after the league started when the huns had already opened up a sizable lead. The media also probably had a fair bit to do with the booing. They hated Fergus and they got tore into him that summer on the pretense it wasn’t right Celtic hadn’t signed a superstar by that point. (As if they cared) Looking back now it is understandable.
A final wee point on sleekit Sally. When he has a sly dig at Peter Lawwell running Scottish football the media say nothing. When Jim McColl, Paul and Malcolm Murray and Gordon Smith all laugh at the top table about a joke about pedophilia the media say nothing. When Peter Lawwell says Rory Bremner can pretend to be Tony Blair the media go into overdrive. Go figure?
JJ
mini was in at the park buying her ticket on the boy jinkys season card so he has a tick against his name for next cup game.
never said it was busy though…
Talking of statues the ones that are there just now are pretty poor sculptures .
I’m not sure about the brother Walfried one but the JS a JJ ones do not capture the essence or likeness of these legends. There are just not very good works of art and not fitting for Celtic heros.
ernie lynch
13:26 on
7 February, 2014
Agree 100%….it was purely pantomime, no malice from what I can recall.
tonydonnelly67
13:20 on
7 February, 2014
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.
==================================
Then Tony bhoy, I will try on your behalf.
‘Those imbeciles that booed McCann were clearly the kind of folk who were in further education at the time and, indeed, if there was a Green Brigade in 1998, would have been members.
Look at all the clubs who have gotten into financial difficulty because of the unrealistic expectation of supporters such as those you get in the Green Brigade.
Please see what he did for our club and don’t raise any of the thorny issues becuase I don’t have any answer to them except to blame the Green Brigade. And the Celtic Trust’
Hows that?!
HH
Just passing by but…..
this caught my eye
________________
Robert88
13:12 on 7 February, 2014
Hamiltontim is praying for Oscar…..
Yes, there will always be critics and people who back him, he saved our club and much more, so that far out weights any of his misgivings that others think he has, IMO. Just imagine what could have happened… I point you towards Govan.
_____________________________________________________
Not butting in – though, with the greatest respect
that’s wrong.
Do you think that if, Fergus’s efforts had failed that
Gerald Wiesfeld, Willie Haughey and Michael McDonald were across the street
waiting for a bus ?
Fergus was an opportunist, more than he was a fan. imho
Further still…Fergus was booed because
1. He insisted that, the SB money for season 1998/99 was paid ‘in full’
before season 1997/98 had been complete, as Fergus knew fine well that, his ‘bullin a China shop’ style of handling the Wim Jansen and, Jock Brown friction was having what could have proven to be a, detrimental effect on Wim’s team stopping the hun 10 iar.
2. After being aware for as he said, months before the end of the season that, Wim and Murdo would be leaving….he took another 4 months before, recruiting Dr Jozef Venglos, yet another manager who Fergus could easily bully, just like he did withTB(RIP). imho
3. Fergus wasn’t daft no way. That’s why he wanted all the SB money way before the previous season had ended. Fergus knew that, ‘his’ shabby handling of the Jansen and Brown feud, would be seen by many fans as the reason why Celtic failed to stop the ten, and the crowds would have fallen for the foreseeable future but, as it was the SB money for McCann’s last season – he made sure he looked after no 1 !!!
Nobody knows more about the Sellic than McNee – CSC
Only saying – Hail Hail – Off oot.
archdeaconsbench
I am only warming up!
So, Charlie Mulgrew`s opinion of professional football is no more valid than Mike Tyson`s?
Einstein on singularities no more valid than a child?
JJ
Billy Bhoy 05
A much more effectively made point. Whoever gave you advice knows that the previous lengthy utterances were off-putting
Less is more, in some circumstances.
Celtic Football Club @celticfc 6m
Neil Lennon: Leigh Griffiths is fully fit but maybe has a bit to do to catch up because of lack of games, but he’s in the running to start.
HH
/Bishop B
Afternoon….
I posted this at 00:00 last night, or tried to, it then went pear shape..I might have broke the blog.
Anyway was out last night in Ayrshire… a guy came into the company, just for a few minutes.
A guy asked him what he thought of NL, he replied, he’s a scourge on society…
I reacted, I told him maybe society is a scourge on him….. the look he gave me, actually looking back, of hatred.
A bigoted old former referee.. L.Thow..
Ayrshire is Green and White
HH
Paul67 et al
Am I the only one on here that can claim to have known Fergus’s Dad?
Celtic Football Club @celticfc 5m
Neil Lennon on last weekend’s incident at Tynecastle: ‘I’m not happy with some of the stuff that’s come out this week in terms of myself.
Celtic Football Club @celticfc 5m
NL: Journalists saying I attract it, that it’s my confrontational & controversial nature. For me, that’s very irresponsible towards me.’
HH
/Bishop B
SFTB
Who gives this entitlement? Does it have to be earned or can anyone have it?
JJ
Lenny expressing displeasure at some of the victim focussed reporting of his abuse at Tynecastle last week.
@celticfc · 3m
Neil Lennon on last weekend’s incident at Tynecastle: ‘I’m not happy with some of the stuff that’s come out this week in terms of myself.’
Journalists saying I attract it, that it’s my confrontational & controversial nature. For me, that’s very irresponsible towards me.’
‘I’m no more confrontational than any other manager in the SPFL. However, when it’s an issue regarding me, it seems to me imbalanced.’
You cannot have people throwing coins at you when you’re trying to do your job, yet some people seem to think it’s my fault.”
Celtic Football Club @celticfc 5m
NL: ‘I’m no more confrontational than any other manager in the SPFL. However, when it’s an issue regarding me, it seems to me imbalanced.’
Celtic Football Club @celticfc 5m
NL: You cannot have people throwing coins at you when you’re trying to do your job, yet some people seem to think it’s my fault.
HH
/Bishop B
trad88
You ought to stick to the jazz review section.
Revisionism , plain and simple.
Fergus was booed, shamefully, because in the bad old days of 1998 the football media was still able to affect Celtic opinion with misinformation, spin and downright lies. This was pre CQN and Twitter and before internet bampottery was even a gleam in Uncle Hugh’s beady eye.
The main ports of call for information in those days were the call -ns, tabloids and good old street jungle drums.
If the demise of the Hun has taught us nothing else, it has proved, beyond any question of contradiction, that the SMSM have an agenda. If that is true now, how much more true would have been in 1998 when there was no one to take them to task and the brave souls like Gibbo and McIlvanney and Spiersy were marginalized and kept to the broadhseets?
I know it worked on me, and I liked to consider myself a sentient, poitically savvy Celtic fan. As a for instance, I remember being through in Edinburgh around Christmas 1997 , when we were beginning to show a little form in the stop the ten campaign. I saw a back page headline in the Mail to the effect that there were problems with Stubbsy’s contract and he was for the off.
Head said : ‘mince, they’re stirring things and want an effective and talented component of the team out of the way to ease the People’s majestic progress to glory’. Heart said: ‘ oh no, we’re done for, it’s Gordan Petric and le Petite Merde all over again, why can’t we keep our players etc etc’.
The Hack brigade knew the buttons to push and, when Wim went so quickly and there was the shambles about Jo Vengloss (remember the headlines about him?) they had a clear run at villifying the guy who had actually made the title possible, The Bunnet.
They hated and feared him in equal measure and the mugs who fell for their claptrap that day played right into their hands.
It would be less easy for them today, although the Gordon Strachan Celtic minded fiasco showed it still can happen. But, to be clear, the booing that day was all about spin and was agenda driven, clear and plain.
For you to suggest , in a creative attempt to re-write history ( I wonder if you know yours?) that it was politics and connected to the Bhoys Against Bigotry campaign is complete and utter Tosh. By which I mean wrong, not big nosed and with a shocking sense of fashion, obviously.
Your theory smacks of the egotism and posturing adopted by the Green Brigade recently.
You and they are both wrong.
Fair put me off my lunchtime apple that little rant did.
Warm and sunny –way down south .
Note the wee flurry of posts re Reggae and The Clash .
Reminded me of going to a Culture gig in Edinburgh and there being a skinhead in the audience wearing a T shirt which bore the legend —
The Clash and Reggae = Sidney Devine and Rockabilly.
He got no objection from me .
Real Rock CSC-way down south.
Mathews still out for tomorrows game and wee James a major doubt
Billy Bhoy 05
13:31 on 7 February, 2014
You think we should be guided by the utterances of a DUP MP and a Tory MP rather than work things out for ourselves based on our own experience?
Are you really that desperate?
KevJungle
They may not of been waiting for a bus, but did they have the funds there and then to take the club forward? Or were they there to pick apart the club once the inevitable happened just like them?!
If and buts, however I think liquidation was the more likely of the two.
Agree absolutely he was/is an opportunist, but all business men/women tend to be and see the opportunity in everything, in Fergus’ case it paid off.
Ernie……
Didn’t post it as ‘worthwhile’…..posted what I (and Henrik Larsson) heard that night.
I suppose you think it ‘worthwhile’ to post McCann got booed?
Celtic Football Club @celticfc 2m
NLI don’t think it’s fair on Aberdeen. I have a great relationship with Aberdeen. We do as a club, and I get on very well with Derek
Celtic Football Club @celticfc 2m
NL: This won’t sour the relationship between me and Derek, or me and Aberdeen, but I want the people who did this accounted for.
HH
/Bishop B
The booing of Fergus was because he allowed our winning managment team to go. Allowing Wim Jansen to leave set us back for two more seasons.
Personally I think inviting Fergus over is a veiled two-finger insult to the new club across the city from the Celtic board – I just cannot imagine the new club inviting Charles Green to the opening match and thanking him for buying their history. It’s a timely and symbolic reminder of the how times have changed.
Tony Donnelly67
Thanks for that link earlier. Fantastic! Didn’t know the area had so much history.
Should have known better!
Thank you Fergus McCann for re gifting us the gift, you too were given.
Hail Hail
DBBIA
God forbid it was Peter on the steps, he’d be pointing to where the deeds are :-)
Fergus deserves the praise and recognition that he mostly receives now you’re completely correct. However, for me the sort of adulation being bestowed on him by some, should be reserved for players and management alone.
Brother Walfrid would be an exception, if only for the reason that I believe he’d have made a crackin’ centre half!
I’m with Ernie.
I booed King henke.
But it was completely in a pantomime style.
roy croppie
12:35 on
7 February, 2014
Paul.
I’ve deleted my invoice by mistake for CQNTen; can someone send me a new one?
roy croppie
just re-sent for you. Can you email me back the address for the tickets.
CF
Nothing can quite say full bladder like the pot holes in Glasgow’s roads
SFTB
Are you going tomorrow?
.
Fergus was Very Smart..
If he had Started Bhoys Against Racism..
He might have been the First Non Playing Director to Score a Own Goal with His ..
ii
Three Amigos.. Quote..
Summa of WhenTheBallsInTheNetCSC
tonydonnelly67
12:33 on 7 February, 2014
Castlemilk the jewel in the crown of my lovely City ;)
http://www.scotcities.com/cathcart/castlemilk.htm
——————————–
Ooooh, Laaa Deeee Daaaa….
Them Castlemilkians have a high opinions of their own importance
Thankfully us EK-onians realised this early and built a large wall just by the tax centre to stop them getting ideas above their station and keep them oot!
Top Tip
Recreate the magic of getting a McDonald’s by flinging a random burger on a roll and then sitting on it.
Shortbread lunchtime news just announced that our European matches in July will be played at Murrayfield!
…..standing up……………………
….. and clapping
loudly
for MR Fergus McCann………
HH.
Ernesto – just because a narrative is dominant doesn’t make it incorrect.
As for Mr Mccann’s faults it’s a bit like complaining that the man who pulled you out of the sea when you were drowning had not shaved that morning.
We could have waited for a fair and perfect knight to ride to the rescue but it would have been too late.
Fergus Mccann turned up, did what he said he was going to do, and left to get on with his life.
But as the saying goes, no good deed shall go unpunished.