You remember Celtic manager, Gordon Stachan, third manager in our history to win three-in-a-row? Took us to the Champions League knock out stages for the first time, did much of this while comparative economics were moving against us, remember him? Is he the same Gordon Strachan who has transformed the Scotland national team’s results?
Gordon is unequivocally a successful manager but his Scotland team is performing far better than I thought possible when he took over what looked like a poisoned chalice. The most stunning fact of his record there is that they have not conceded a goal in three successive away games. Gordon’s Celtic covered 15 months, across two championship winning seasons, without keeping a single clean sheet away from home, no matter how lowly or distressed the opponent. Even good, experienced, managers learn, especially from their earlier troubles.
Jock Stein is viewed mostly through the prism of 1967 but during his final season as Celtic manager, 1977-78, the sentiment among many in the support was decidedly downbeat. Rangers (remember them, played in blue, I think?) would win their third title in four seasons, with two trebles thrown in for good measure. Celtic finished fifth in the league, Jock’s judgement was widely called into question.
At the time Leeds United were a top club in England and after Celtic sacked Jock they moved to secure him. Leeds had no doubts as to his abilities. A little over a month later the SFA offered him the Scotland job, which he took and excelled at, twice succeeding in World Cup qualifying campaigns. His talents were without question but stood in sharp contrast to how many in the support viewed him a few years earlier.
I don’t know if Jock was a better manager in 1982 and beyond than he was in 1978 but there’s a decent chance his football education didn’t stop when the trophies dried up at Celtic. Gordon Strachan is, like Jock was until the end, a student of the game. Neil Lennon is too, he is also receiving some of the reviews his illustrious predecessors would recognise. Gordon was an excellent Celtic manager but he’s better now, perhaps as a result of life’s experiences along the way.
It’ll be really interesting to see how Euro qualifiers reflect on the comparative progress of Gordon and Martin O’Neill, who for my money was a better manager than Mourinho when the latter deployed some of the best players in the world against Celtic in Seville, and needed to deploy every underhand trick in the book to come out on top.
I was blown away by the stunning contributions to our Mary’s Meals campaign yesterday. First in was an incredible £200 + £50 gift aid donation, followed by others, large and small, every one appreciated. Ignore those who would tell you society is dead. You can get involved here.
Seville, The Celtic Movement, launches this month.
“Porto were favourites and would go on to prove how good a team they were by winning the Champions League 12 months later. Their players would demonstrate their prowess across the world for the next decade. They had fabulous talent, so much so, that they should have aspired to better than the gamesmanship used during their run to the UEFA Cup and Champions League wins.”
Order yours below:
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http://youtu.be/e_zSZZIkmTQ. Lovelyyyyyyyyy
burghbhoy
09:14 on 8 March, 2014
Being a semi sensible chap I offered to drive our supporter’s bus through to Motherwell on Black Sunday.
I adorned one of those ridiculous green, sparkly hats as we made our way along the M8 and M74. The atmosphere was one of excitement, celebratory anticipation and expectation.
It remains one of my greatest hurts as a Tim.
The journey back, as triumphalist Huns passed us on their way to Ibrox, was one of the most unpleasant experiences of my life. The events are best left unsaid.
Deary me is that the time…….
henr1ck it’s brilliant to see the daft Huns waste all their energy on a wild goose chase. Meanwhile their house is burning behind them. Long may it continue.
Tick Tock …
Good Morning.
Congratulations to Cowiebhoy and his family — especially the newest member.
JFP — some thoughts and prayers for your family and your loss yesterday.
I went to see my dad in St Margaret’s Hospice yesterday afternoon, and as I walked in the door I recognised an elderly man who was just signing out. I knew he had been in to see my old man and at first he didn’t see me and I had to go and introduce myself as I had not seen him in years.
The introduction was greeted with a huge grin and as firm a hand shake as an octogenarian can give. I hadn’t seen him in maybe a couple of decades, but the warmth of his greeting was so sincere and so welcoming that I was immediately filled with considerable regret at all that time lost.
I spent a nice 5 minutes with him, asking after his family– kids and grandkids — and I knew that he was just back from visiting his daughter in Letterkenny. We were able to talk about the area where she lives and the road up to Ramelton and Rathmullen with me inwardly reminding myself that I must get “over by” soon — it is a promise to myself that I keep breaking.
The man concerned worked in the Asbestos factory in Clydebank along side my dad in the late 40’s and early 50’s, and I know for a fact he never reads any newspaper article about the factory, the inevitable effect of having worked there and the legacy of death it left with the people of Clydebank. He doesn’t need to read it — he knows it all already.
After a few minutes, we parted company and he went on his way. He is a widower, and today he will cheer on his local team- Dumbarton- for whom his grandson plays against favourites Aberdeen.
Later, my dad regaled me with stories of things past — things worthy of an article or two for on here— things I never knew, which are funny, interesting ( to me at least ) and which make me want to go and find out more.
I will be back at the Hospice today, and hopefully I will get some more Pearl’s of Wisdom and tales of yesteryear.
On the way home in the car I thought about the friendship between the man I met and my father — a friendship which has lasted and endured for over 60 years. Yet for long periods of time they didn’t see one another for no other reason than that they were busy, or had to deal with their families, jobs and so on.
I thought of my own friends since childhood and the fact that some I don’t see and haven’t seen for long periods simply because I am too busy or whatever.
You can’t buy back time — you have to use it when it comes your way and you only get the one shot at each minute so you have to make it count — every time.
Like most other folk, I didn’t always agree with the views of the man who came to see my old man. Like many others who worked for someone else all his life, he eventually found himself in a job for which some might say he was not suited or qualified, but which came about as a natural consequence of his being a visionary in another field altogether.
Much like this blog he started something — but he did it for someone else and made such a success of it that those who owned the company put him in a position where he could be the face of the company without ever holding any influence whatsoever.
Some consider him to have made mistakes or been responsible for mistakes — although the latter is undoubtedly not true — as the mistakes were the doing of others— it was just his job to announce them. Yet in other ways, he was a man of his time and inevitably time marches past all of us and we have to adapt and move aside to let other people be of their time.
That is the way it goes.
He has been asked many times to write a book and lift the lid on just what happened in those far off days and he has always said no despite being promised substantial personal reward. He will not even countenance a newspaper article as fielding some questions and telling the truth might not be good for the reputation of some and would do nothing in his eyes that would enhance the reputation of the company he served for so long.
So — like with the asbestos— just say nothing, keep quiet —- and let history and time take its course and get on with things with a quiet dignity.
You might not recognise the man I met with both happiness and sadness yesterday. He is to be found regularly at Celtic Park where he comes to watch the games and then takes himself home again without any fuss or further ado.
His name is Jack McGinn — one of the nicest people I have ever met.
Carpe Diem
Minx
I see that old codger missed us out of his namecheck last evening.
he will regret that post……8)
Am I not right in thinking McCoist merely deferred half of his salary?
BRTH
great wee story, yet again.
As my 90 year old mother say “talk all day & say nothing”.
Thanks for sharing that.
Just about to set off to watch Sauchie v Camelon in the Scottish junior cup. Hope the game doesn’t get called off.
BRTH
is that the kid who scored against yon dead mob or is he still at st mirren
BRTH,
Lovely words. My family were very close to his brother Monsignor McGinn, I wonder if he is still living?
P
Black Sunday
I was in the fantastic setting of OtterFerry — by the way God was some architect — and the glorious wee pub they have there — have you noticed I love a nice pub?
Even the fanatastic sunshine and the glorious surroundings couldn’t mask the deep black hole within my soul, my heart and my stomach when Scott McDonald scored for Motherwell.
I drove home — silent, brooding and with a weight on my shoulders.
Seville?
Well Seville I had the same kind of feeling and as explained in the book it had taken a huge perosnal effort to get there — I nearly wasn’t there at all — and I have never watched the game since.
However, for me, Seville is not a city in Andalucia. It is a feeling, a euphoria, a sensation which reminds me that the football team I support lost a match there — but I personally, and the club I support, rediscovered what it was like to be a Celtic fan in Europe and where “we” won everything you possibly could win — other than the match itself.
Oh — and we forced an unsuspecting world to look on and watch while we brought that unique experience that can only be described as CELTIC.
Podi
he passed away a couple of months ago
Blantyre Tim
No Stephen McGinn is at Sheffield Wednesday, John is still at St Mirren and it is Paul who is at Dumbarton.
The advice is to keep an eye on John and Paul as I suspect both will advance to bigger clubs.
BRTH
Cheers, ill keep an eye on the bhoys
BRTH Lovely words and you are right a lovely lovely man only met him once or twice but my Grandfather knew him a gentleman in every way!
BT – a least he mentioned you in all but name! Was lovely meeting the others a real pleasure!
What to do today? A few interesting games at the bottom of the EPL but that’s about all …
Doc,
Can you let me know if you received my team last night, a few ciders had been consumed so hopefully it went ok.
HH
Anyone want late night reading here you go here is the full verdict of the FTT HMRC v RFC / Murray Group if anyone’s interested.http://t.co/HUU2NkU6vL
Astonishing how 2 judges found in favour if the cheats.
Thanks to the boys on twitter.
If = of
Great interview on Celtic Underground with Neilly Mochan Junior.
http://t.co/TsJhdFUxYf
My old man was on holiday with him, Willie Gallagher and some others in Buncrana when Celtic were negotiating with Middlesborough to sign him.
Lots of people from Glasgow holidayed in Buncrana and loads of footballers went over.
Apparently, they would have the odd bounce game of football in the local park or on some spare ground!
Changed days.
You’re right BRHT Jack McGinn is a nice man, I have only ever met him once.
It was in the centenary year and Celtic had announce through the Celtic Veiw that a public sale of tickets for the forthcomming Scottish cup finale was to take place the following monday. The tickets would be on sale in the Celtic shop next to Queen St station.
We arrived at about 5am and were surprised to find ourselves second in the que. A minor detail I haven’t mentioned is that this particular monday was a bank holiday and Glasgow was very quiet that monday morning. As time passed it became apparrent that something was amiss. By 10am the shop still hadn’t opened and the Police had turned up as some in the que were getting a bit agitated.
A news team from Radio Clyde turned up and announced that they had contacted Celtic and the shop wasn’t going to be opening that day and the sale would take place the following day.
We headed off home, dissapointed as the tickets weren’t just for us but some family members who were travelling over for the game and we had assured them we could get extra tickets for them. As we passed through Dumbarton my brother made a comment about Jack McGinn and jokingly said we should knock his door and tell him how annoyed we were at the days events.
Jack stayed just over the road from St Michaels and we did indeed knock his door. He was mortified when we told him what had happened and assured us that it was an honest mistake. He took our names and address and the following week our tickets came through the post. That brief time in his company was enough for me to say he was a genuin nice person.
Brogan Rogan Trevino and Hogan supports Oscar Knox, MacKenzie Furniss and anyone else who fights Neuroblastoma
09:40 on
8 March, 2014
Good Morning.
Not only one of the nice guys, but the only one of the Old Board that Fergus publicly praised.
tamrabam,
Added to your stories of Seville, I remember speaking to a guy at the OHR school fair on the Saturday morning after returning, he told me a story that when they finally got on the plane, the captain had to ask passengers who did not have a boarding pass for that particular flight to get off the plane, incredible that this could happen after the events of 9/11, then again, having seen the airport at Seville that morning it was no real surprise.
AR
1. How many other clubs could have taken 80-100k fans to Seville for a Uefa Cup Final?
2. How many of those clubs, if any, could have put on such a great humoured fan extravaganza, with no trouble, especially after losing?
Not a rhetorical question.
Good morning everybody.
BRHT has inadvertently brought me to the keyboard. Yesterday, I was looking through old cuttings from Celtic Views which span 40 years or so. What a delight it was. Some nuggets of Celtic related trivia emerged; as did the fact that the Celtic View was not afraid to discuss spicy topics from time to time. Here are a few selections from what I read. Hopefully it is interesting:
Did you know that there is a picture of a very young Paul McStay with Pele? Pele is holding a Celtic top. It was taken in America.
Did you know that Celtic have a connection with Sherlock Holmes? You may research that.
There were some terrific pictures, articles etc. A fine picture of Jock Stein and Billy McNeill meeting Eamon de Valera for example. What a man Stein was. A man who transcended the petty bitterness which affects our people too often. There was a lovely tribute to Cyril Horne who stood up for Celtic in the days when we were hard done by bigots. One learned about the man, his generosity for example. One article was about Celtic’s first Polish player, Konrad Kapler. I wasn’t aware that he preceded Charlie Tully. Well, that is what the article says. There was a picture of GAA’s Pat Spillane with Marc Rieper. Did you know that Pat used to wear Stevie Chalmers’ boots? There were articles about Celtic’s relationship with politics. I wasn’t aware that Celtic cancelled a proposed game with Dynamo Tbillsi because of the Russian invasion of Afghanistan. However, I cannot find solid info about it. The topic was discussed by a letter writer to the View – he was happy that Celtic didn’t play the game.
That brings me to the letter writers. Common themes throughout the decades included the bias of the Sunday Mail, the bias of the ref huns, the bias of the general media, a lot of anger towards Gerry McNee etc. Most of all, the the most prevalent theme was passion. During the great Stein years and throughout the miserable times, Celtic supporters wrote with such passion and love for the club. They weren’t shy to berate fellow supporters for the times when elements indulged in moronic behaviour but vitriol was usually reserved for more deserving targets. Nothing shone through more than the love for Celtic.
A wee mention for the media. One Daily Record article printed a picture of a child killer wearing a Celtic top. The Retard’s response? ‘Some Celtic fans were upset, but we are not in the business of censoring the news.’ They were of course b*stards in those days also. No surprise to older readers I guess.
Returning to Stein, he is a constant reminder that an open mind can do more good for Celtic than a mind which refuses to acknowledge that times have moved on. Celtic were treated abysmally in those days, It is my belief that times have changed. It would be helpful if some elements of the Celtic support acknowledged that reality. We are now number one in the country and have more or less moved into the establishment. A degree of humility will ensure that we don’t abuse that position.
Have a good day everybody,
“Winning trophies and having medals in my house is better than all the gold in the world.” Fantastic to read that from Izzy but I remind myself that Samaras was saying the same only months ago.
From pmcn888
Excellent point on TSFM.Why has Green appeared now & to serve what purpose? http://t.co/3Ly6Q8bTpt
MARRAKESH EXPRESS
Apparently,UEFA meet with all four semi-finalists in any of their competitions for advanced planning of the final.
One of the main questions is how many fans each club might expect to attend.
The two Portoguese clubs suggested around 20k,as it was local to them.
Lazio,being from the Italian capital,went for 25k.
They all nearly passed out when Celtic said
ABOUT ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND!!!!!
WSW fans doing a great huddle during the Sydney derby.. come on the aussie hoops :)
John O’Neil
That is really interesting.
I think there must be some great stories and features that could come from back issues of the view.
A real treasure chest.
It is partly for that reason we are trying to get the thoughts and stories of people like Willie Wallace, Tommy Gemmell and others down on paper.
The preservation of history and folklore is vital– especially keeping we personal stories that give you a flavour and a feel for people who are in and about the club and support.
I am mad keen on stories from ordinary fans– people who work behind the scenes at Celtic Park and in the CSC’s etc who have fascinating stories to tell and who do so much good that is never heard of — yet should be known, remembered and appreciated.
Here is one letter. It was a topic which we discussed the other day on CQN:
My letter starts with two quotes from Sunday’s papers:
John Fairgrieve(Scottish) Sunday Mail: ‘Nicholas will not be able to resist the money to be earned in the south – and I’d make Spurs favourite, simply because of the lure of London. Anyway, the sooner he goes the better Rangers fans will feel. it’s an ill wind as they say…’
Mike Langley(English) Sunday People: ‘Lest the English forget, Celtic remain among the great clubs of Europe. Right now, Scottish soccer needs him more than the Football League.’
How strange to find that the ‘Auld Enemy’ has the welfare of Scottish football at heart when compared to Scotland’s football writers. Their campaign for Charlie to leave Celtic and sign for any club as long as it’s in England is most annoying.
BRHT,
There are great pictures of Celtic Brake clubs etc. It was wonderful to look through them. Bhoy, do they give a fresh perspective on current issues.
Another reason for my post is to mention that I would like to give these cuttings to somebody. I also have some programmes, books etc to give to anybody who wants them. Let me know CQN. I’ll be in Glasgow in a few weeks or so.
By the way, Can I just echo something Paul said yesterday.
We have been knocked out by some of the prizes and items we have been given for the CQ10 raffle and auction
There is one item which we can’t say if we can put up at all as it is being looked into by Christie’s the auctioneers as the value may exceed anything we can reasonably expect to achieve at the dinner!
Yesterday, I collected an original painting of James Forrest just after he had scored against Karagandy — the artist– George Smith — wanted to hand it over for auction with the proceeds going to the Malawi Kitchen fund.
The generosity of people is so heart warming and lifting that words fail me — and that doesn’t happen too often!!
Sydney FC player booked about 10 mins ago scores a pen to make it 3-1 and runs behind the goal, jumps the advertising board and runs a further 10 yards and then jumps into the crowd and doesnt get 2nd yellow.. if a celtic player did that he’d get jailed and probably added to the operation yewtree list…. and now the same guy is trying to start a fight at full time… fkin muppet….
Blantyretim.
I didn’t mention your name because you were mentioned in this way (there was some one else who I had a drink with tonight, no superlatives will explain what I think of him).
And the Minx wasn’t mentioned because she wasn’t drinking with us HaHashe was only there for a fleeting moment.And I typed the post after I had a couple of G&Ts,Ended up in the Casino for a couple more.See you next week if I’m sober enough.
John O’Neil
I will happily meet you with Winning Captains ( better include him in the conversation or he will give me a hard time! ) — e-mail me at editor@cqnmagazine.com and we can discuss and make arrangements.
Cheers
BRTH