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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Eddieinkirkmichael…..
Is there still the obligatory fight in the car park after this fixture?
And that’s just the opposing directors and managers.
The All Green Brigade
Thanks Petec.
Greetings Parkhead.
You may be right. However, the MSM aren’t the only ones craving Rangers. Most ex players crave them. Many supporters crave them. CQN gives us updates about their scores as well as their signing targets.
From scotzine
I see the Vanguard Bears are using documents from the 1980s and 1960s to continue claims of Celtic state aid. Nothing current lads?
As in the late 20th century or 21st century? You do know that the land changes it doesnt stay constant?
You would think they’d focus on the huge ongoing problems at Rangers – at least theyve got their priorities right.
They put more effort into investigating/trying to shame Celtic & their fans than their own club – so much for ‘protecting their traditions’
I wonder if they were condemning the pro-GCC cabal over their plan to sell Hinshelwood land to Murray for £1 for his supercasino plan?
Truly obsessed with the mighty Glasgow Celtic 125 years of unbroken history.
Bournesoup….
Love that photo mate.
The immortal John Stein.
Just look at the smile on that big face.
He knew what that team were doing was special,even at the time.
What a great man.
Eddieinkirkmichael
What time K/O?
Might partake in that one myself.
BRTH
Stephen Mcginn plays for Sheffield United. :)
BRTH 10.20
Took my dad back to Buncrana few years back. He is a Bankie and used to ‘return’ to Buncrana every year back in the day. He showed me where the local park was and over a beer he spoke of a game where 3 of the opposition were Celtic players ! happy days
oldtim67
Great to catch up with you and meet some of the CQN Bhoys (and lurkers) last night – will see you at CQ10 on Friday.
Seville recently:
After the last Barca CL game I spent a few days with TET at the cave and traveled home via Seville – spent Saturday evening and Sunday in the city before flying home on the Monday. Did a wee bit of the touristy thing – trying to remember bits of the city from my last visit in 2003.
It was fairly warm for that time of year – I stuck on an all green Celtic zip-up (nothing obvious – just the embroidered Club crest on the breast). Couldn’t believe the number of people in bars, restaurants – even 2 ladies who served me in El Horte Ingles (the supermarket): “Ah Glasgow Celtic – were you here 10 years ago?”
Yes I was! It was nice to meet Seville people who remember us fondly – with a smile!
H!H!
‘Celtic wasn’t my first love but it will be my last’
The Immortal John Stein
It is cold in his shadow for the Huns.
Just back in from Burghbhoy juniors game.
Polished off 2 rolls on skwerr and 1 bacon.
Greedyfatbassasno1csc
“John you’re immortal”
Praecepta..,,
Closer to home, I know……but the reaction in Merseyside bars and restaurants (from both Liverpool and Everton fans) if you have any Celtic branded clothing on,is always very warm and genuine.Proper football fans the Scousers and they know Celtic fans are too.
John you’re immortal.
BSR….,
The great Bill Shankly ……..both him and Mr.Stein had massive mutual respect and friendship for each other.
The Ramsden Cup needs a strong Sevco
ryecatcher
Possibly the only EPL (Eng Div One) manager who made the trip?
OneAfterNoonInLisbon CSC
Sno’ fair!
Mrs Tally having a ‘girls day oot’ up in Glesga, and Ms Tally going to a birthday party in a well-known hostelry in Irvine tonight.
Me?
I’ll be staying in!
Ffs, Celtic are’nt even playing!
HH!!
St J 1up. The stronger the teams that stay in this cup the better.
HH
Ya gota love Chuckles, he my hero, guys brilliant.
http://sport.stv.tv/football/clubs/rangers/221242-extended-video-of-rangers-ceo-charles-greens-interview-with-stv/
Paul67……
When is the thread up for Irvine Meadow v Auchinleck Talbot?
brogan rogan trevino and hogan supports oscar knox, mackenzie furniss and anyone else who fights neuroblastoma
09:40 on 8 March, 2014
Great post mate.
HH jamesgang
Jobo Baldie
11:53 on
8 March, 2014
Nearly sausage time
==========================
Well that’s one way to pass the time on a Saturday when the Hoops ain’t playing
gourockemeraldbhoy
10:16 on 8 March, 2014
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
Throw in a few Gregg’s steak bakes into your decision making process and you could be Scotland’s next top ‘young’ manager on £800k a year!
That said mate, you had better players to choose from!
HH jamesgang
TALLYBHOY
Si?
Better in the Delta,mate.
Possibly the best feeling I have ever had after a Celtic goal…….just knowing it was going in as the wee man stepped up to take it…
► 0:47► 0:47
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VLEckOPz-3E
23 Nov 2006 – Uploaded by laffenbhoy
we are ninja best free kick ever goal. … celtic fc v manchester united shunsuke nakamura beautiful free kick. laffenbhoy·10 videos
John O’Neil
12:01 on 8 March, 2014
Thanks Petec.
Greetings Parkhead.
You may be right. However, the MSM aren’t the only ones craving Rangers. Most ex players crave them. Many supporters crave them. CQN gives us updates about their scores as well as their signing targets.
___________________________________
I try not to talk about thems at all, oxygen and all that, I appreciate that justice must be done but I cannae understand how anyone would want to watch the new club floundering about in the lower leagues of Scottish fitba.
Baffling.
This world is getting darker by the nanosecond, Celtic, despite all it’s faults, is a light that deserves to be put on a pedestal.
They will be back, there is no such thing as Utopia in a fallen world after all.
Guardiola.csc
jamesgang
12:36 on 8 March, 2014
gourockemeraldbhoy
10:16 on 8 March, 2014
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
Throw in a few Gregg’s steak bakes into your decision making process and you could be Scotland’s next top ‘young’ manager on £800k a year!
That said mate, you had better players to choose from!
HH jamesgang
Have a hard time picking ma beak, although must say I am partial to a steak bake when I run out of sausage rolls. Is that dinner time already
HH
Had popped out there for a while Bhoys
Name has changed to “Elsa”
Hanks for all the wishes, I will pass on when home.
Eddiek & Bob L
I am sitting with some one who is delighted the. Sauchie v Camelon game is off, means he should be back to play in the replay
My daughters fiancé plays for Camelon and missed the 3 – 3 draw last week :-)
Hail Hail
Seville
I was in Cyprus on holiday. One of the proudest nights of my life and certainly one of most poignant. Have never watched the game again and never will.
My only solace came when Henke came off the bench and won the Champions League for Barca and finally got the reward he deserved.
HH jamesgang
1-0 to the Arsenal………….
Fat sally at the raith stj game, looking at his opponents in the semi?
jamesgang
12:44 on 8 March, 2014
Seville
I was in Cyprus on holiday. One of the proudest nights of my life and certainly one of most poignant. Have never watched the game again and never will.
My only solace came when Henke came off the bench and won the Champions League for Barca and finally got the reward he deserved.
HH jamesgang
______________________________________________________
I agree, I have a soft spot for Arsenal as I really like the way Arsene transformed Arsenal but I was over the moon that Henry, the iconic figure of the invincibles, was fullsome in his praise of Henrik, Ronaldhinho also spoke so well of the Great Man who dedicated his VERY BEST years to Celtic. Let’s hope more do the same.
Henrik Larsson, one of the Greats.
Willie Maley
Was out for a pint last night and a really upset Albion Rovers fan (loves Celtic but supports Rovers home and away) came up to me cos he had just heard the G B were going to the game 2 morro. He wants to know why as this is our game and nothing to do with Celtic?
So if any GB’s are out there. Do Celtic and Albion Rovers a favour and dont go near this game.
It wd only spoil Rovers victory!!!
MTR MTR!!!
Jude
is that a wind up on the GB going to mordor?
BRT&H
MANCHESTER
Oh — and they forced an unsuspecting world to look on and watch while they brought that unique experience that can only be described as Rangers.
See that Jock Wallace and Ted McMinn had a great time cruising Murillo Gardens in Seville.
Only the lure of the mighty Colchester United could get the mater tactician and world renowned football purist to leave La Liga haha….,.,,,
ASIDE from their meeting in the European Cup Winners’ Cup of 1962-63, there is no obvious historical connection to link Rangers and Sevilla who have been drawn together in Group G of the Champions League this week.
But there was certainly nothing obvious about the move in the summer of 1986 which saw one of the Ibrox club’s most revered figures arrive, larger than life and twice as loud, in the Andalusian capital.
A few months after being sacked by Rangers to make way for the seismic recruitment of Graeme Souness as player-manager, Jock Wallace dramatically bounced back into top line football management when he was appointed head coach of Sevilla.
It was an unexpected twist in the colourful career of the man from Wallyford whose second spell in charge of his beloved Rangers had been unable to match the trophy-laden success of his first tour of duty.
British coaches were in vogue in the Spanish League at the time, with Terry Venables having been in charge of Barcelona since 1984 and John Toshack beginning his own continental odyssey at Real Sociedad the following year. Gabriel Rojas, the Sevilla president, wanted to follow the trend and contacted Wallace’s agent Bill McMurdo.
“Jock loved Spain, he had a holiday home there, and was very enthusiastic about the idea,” McMurdo recalled in conversation with The Scotsman yesterday. “The problem was that he didn’t speak a word of Spanish. But as luck would have it, we had kept in touch with a guy who ran a Spanish restaurant in Leicester which Jock used to go to when he was manager of Leicester City. He helped out as an interpreter and Jock got the job.
“It was a fantastic experience for Jock and exactly what he needed at the time. Rangers meant everything to him, of course, and it was heartbreaking for him when he was sacked. But the challenge in Seville gave him a new lease of life. It is a fantastic city and a great club. He enjoyed every minute of it.”
Wallace had only one full season in charge of Sevilla, leading them to an unspectacular but acceptable mid-table finish in the 1986-87 campaign. A squad photograph from the time shows a proud Wallace standing out in a bright blue jersey among the pristine white shirts of his players. He also relished the fact that Sevilla’s city rivals, Real Betis, played in green and white.
It wasn’t the only reminder of Rangers he took with him to Seville. Midway through the season, he signed Ted McMinn from his former club for 200,000.
The mercurial winger, who had fallen foul of Souness at Ibrox, was only too pleased to be re-united with the man who had taken him to Govan from Queen of the South a few years earlier.
In his hugely entertaining autobiography, The Tin Man, published last year, McMinn recalls many happy hours spent with Wallace in the city as the two Scots naturally turned to each other for company away from the training pitch. On occasions, however, they got closer than they would have wished.
“A couple of our favourite haunts lay on the other side of a notorious park called the Murillo Gardens,” writes McMinn. “During the day, it would be filled with families . . . but after dark it became a hang-out for homosexuals, who were preyed on by local youths.
“Jock didn’t scare easily and would walk straight through regardless of the danger. He believed they were less likely to attack couples so would take my hand and mince through as best he could.
“When we reached the other end he’d drop it like a stone, hoping no-one had seen us. A keen-eyed photographer could have sold the story of ‘Gay Football Manager and his Star Signing’ for a fortune these days, but we always managed to get away with it.”
Despite a decent first season and a promising build-up to the 1987-88 campaign, Wallace became the victim of a presidential change at the club. Luis Cuerras, who replaced Rojas, wanted his own man and Wallace was dismissed.
He almost returned to Spanish football a year later. If he had done so, then it could have been Jock Wallace rather than Graeme Souness who made a dramatic swoop to sign one Maurice Johnston.
“Atletico Madrid wanted a British manager,” recalls McMurdo, “and it was between Ron Atkinson and Jock. In the end, big Ron got it. If Jock had gone, then we were looking to get Maurice there with him. That would have been something.”
Instead, Wallace became manager of Colchester United. With Alan Ball as his assistant, he saved the Essex club from relegation but moved upstairs to a director of football role as Parkinson’s Disease, which would take his life at the age of 60 in 1996, started to take hold. His love affair with Spain was undimmed and to this day his wife Daphne and son John, a successful golf course designer, still live there.
masty
Dont know but I hope so. Thers quite a few bus’s leaving from Coatbridge. Im not saying the Brigs a G B stronghold yee ken??
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