The scene above is of Celtic Park in the 1990s, with the stadium and surrounding area pretty much as they were when Fergus McCann, you, me and 10,000 others stepped forward to buy the club. Improvements had been made on a decade earlier: the Celtic End roof ran to the front of the terrace, while you would walk around the east side of the stadium.
No one has ever satisfactorily explained to me how Fergus was able to decamp for a year, buy footballers and erect a 60,000 seater stadium after raising less than £20m capital, but when he left the stage 17 years ago next month, we had a facility appropriate for the times.
The east end of Glasgow has seen many economically poor decades – over a century’s worth, in fact. The area was built to cater for dirty industries and house workers and their families in as little space as possible. Poverty, social diseases and dreadful mortality rates have blighted the place ever since. As a consequence, housing and industrial land was cheap, and people prepared to plough money into the area were scarce when Peter Lawwell arrived the club started to acquire land around its footprint. The chief executive has always had a plan to move the club beyond its confines, in many ways. Celtic Park was going to be a visitor attraction all year round.
The long-disused London Road School (the large building to the right of the photo above) had a stone outer wall, but in all practical ways it was an unusable eyesore. Metal had been stripped from the outer and inners walls by thieves, the building was not watertight and vegetation had taken root high up the walls.
Celtic wanted to rip it down and develop the area, but the same forces which will prohibit you from parking within one kilometre from the stadium on match days from next season, denied the club permission. They only changed their mind when it became clear that the Queen would have to approach the stadium for the Commonwealth Games alongside the crumbling school.
If it wasn’t for one visit by the Queen, none of what subsequently happened in the area would have been possible.
Now Celtic plan to build a hotel, retail facilities and the long-awaited club museum (below) in the area to the south west of the stadium. The money and necessary partnerships are in place.
Don’t assume that the Council will welcome what is a stunning improvement to an enormously neglected area of their city. CQN’er, the late Councillor George Ryan, told me an SNP opponent at the Council objected to planning permission for the Celtic Superstore as it would have a negative economic impact in neighbouring supermarkets. You will deal with parking chaos next season for a reason.
The economic impact of Celtic on the east end of Glasgow for the decades ahead will be significant. Parkhead will morph from being a derelict scheme to being the site of a tourist attraction within one generation.
The community who laboured to level the ground to build the first Celtic Park on the site could never have imagined the process they were setting underway.
Well done to all, we can be very proud of the legacy we will leave future generations.
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82 Brazil team v. 70 Brazil team
Only one winner there!
82 team were good, dont get me wrong
But show me a goal (anywhere) as good as that 4th in the 70 final, Cloadaldo sending 3/4 italians out to the shops for fags milk and bread.
Jairzinho the goal a game winger hated by bigoted huns for making the sign of rhe cross.Gerson, Tostoa, Rivelinho and Felix in goal.
I liked the 82 team and all the skill they showed but that 70 side set a template imo for football.The 82 side like that of 1950 got beat and its that which burned into the brazilian memory.(the cheek of it:-)
HH
MARTYBHOY
You take it easy and listen to your consultants advice.Take it easy and get well mate.mind nae jumpin oot yir seat when we hit 7 in a few weeks:-)
HH
Or, at least, edit it so that it doesn’t read like a line from an episode of Doctor Who.
Maybe replace, “in quarter-of- a- century” with “on only the club’s second league visit there”.
Emeraldbee your journey to a full recovery is very encouraging Thanks, I sit a few rows behind you in row GG seat 3 hope to be back in a few weeks may have to give this Saturday a miss though -;))
An tearmann that would be the perfect tonic
BMCUW…. read yer feqin mail!
Good Morning Bhoys from a snow sprinkled Central Scotland and well done to Lennie and his Hi-Bees for there good win last night.H.H.
Marty Bhoy may God Bless you and return you to good health as soon as possible prayers said for you and your nearest. H.H.
Macjay / DONTBRATTBAKKINANGER,
Sorry for the delay, I had a couple of things to do.
Yes a couple can get married and have a couple of kids. The couple of kids can mean 3,4,5 and has to be qualified with ‘how many kids?’
If you are ever over ask for ‘a couple of cups of coffee.’
Chances are you’ll be asked ‘How many coffees?’
Duty calls
An Tearmann
Hadn’t they already practised that goal (shortened version) in the 1-0 (Jairzinho) group stage victory over a very good England side?
I’m a fan of this proposal. Living in London the past 10 years or so, I’ve been fortunate enough to see the redevelopment of Stratford alongside the development of the Olympic Stadium and other centres. Before the Olympics, Stratford was run down, neglected and hugely in need of regeneration, but there was either a lack of funding or will to do so – the Olympics changed that hugely – Stratford is now a major retail and leisure destination, with a massive shopping centre (I know…), multitude of restaurants and cafes, and the sporting facilities there. Associated development of housing, and admittedly lagging development of infrastructure has really seen the place transformed – so much so that locals are regrettably finding themselves priced out of housing. A similar regeneration scheme has been talked about for Tottenham, with the redevelopment of Spurs’ ground as a centre piece.
I’d like to think the hotel, club superstore and museum plans would be the start of something similar. An earlier poster mentioned that they considered that retail would follow the hotel, and I would certainly hope so.
I’d like to see the Club work with partners/the council/the Government to develop a shopping centre (the Forge is past it’s best unfortunately), restaurants/cafes, cinemas (a large IMAX like the one at Waterloo would be ideal), maybe a theatre, a (non-football) museum of some sort and a university campus – perhaps the three Glasgow Universities could share a sport related campus there, with Celtic offering work experience/practical learning opportunities. I’d also look at a Further Learning College where locals could study to improve their skills and life chances – the Foundation could subsidise this.
That way, the East End would become the leisure and cultural centre of Glasgow, with football (and Celtic) at it’s centre, regenerating a neglected area to create jobs (with locals having a fair if not preferential chance at them) and opportunities: in my experience, education and work is the best route out of poverty/hardship: I say that because it’s what my parents did – they re-educated, got a better job, and thus built a better life for themselves and created the opportunity for me and my siblings to do better.
I accept that some consider that Celtic is a football club and football should be the focus. I agree to an extent – they cant take their eye of the main event. However, income streams from football have largely been maximised (unless there is a significant structural change) and if the Club are to close the gap on English/European clubs, they need to “diversify their income streams” – this would be one way of doing this, as well as demonstrating the ethos that we are “more than a club”, that we are a driving force for improving the local community. In the longer term, I’d also like the club to consider the equivalent of a sovereign wealth fund – once those other things start bringing in money, I’d split the profits into 3: 1/3 for the team; 1/3 for the Foundation, and 1/3 to go into an investment fund which would invest in businesses which align to our ethos (so not weapons manufacturers for example). Each year (or at least over a cycle) profits ought to increase and thus the team and the Foundation have increased finances – closing the gap on the richer clubs, providing increased funding for our charitable aims, and securing the future financial stability of the club.
It’s a big ask, but…
AN TEARMANN @ 10 45 ..
82 v /70.
Lots of Italy fans claim that the 1970 Italy team was significantly better than the 82 team . That possibly provides a yardstick re the two Brazilian teams..
The wrongly disallowed goal near the end of the 82 game still bugs them . A local bar has a great photo of Zoff’s fabulous last minute save.
CLOGHER CELT on 23RD FEBRUARY 2017 11:12
I suppose then that ” a couple ‘ is the Irish equivalent of ” a few.”
Glad that`s all sorted.
DESERTBHOY
Just up,mate. Split shift today. Check yours!
HH.
SPIDEY100 on 23RD FEBRUARY 2017 11:20 AM
You should be in the Board room , mate.
Clogher / Dbbia
re – “a couple”…………
:)
In my neck of the woods – Glorious Corcaigh….
….going out for “a couple of” pints usually results in a drunken spectacular and some kind of inebriated tour de farce, often with the Gards and disappointed better-halfs…. involved.
Cheers!
Macjay,
Yep,
A few or two. But never one.
HH, enjoy the day:))
MARTYBHOY59
Get Well Soon,mate. Texted you DD’s number,you still on 254?
BANKIEBHOY1,
Same here in Louth.
Change is never handed to you in the pub here either. Always left on the counter. It took a couple of years to stop putting my hand out to get my change, only to find out it was lying on the counter.
Practice made perfect though:)
Must run
MACJAY1 FOR NEIL LENNON on 23RD FEBRUARY 2017 11:21 AM
CLOGHER CELT on 23RD FEBRUARY 2017 11:12
I suppose then that ” a couple ‘ is the Irish equivalent of ” a few.”
Glad that`s all sorted
——–
Apart from when it means pure hunners
HH jamesgang
Spidey100
Sounds great if Celtic could be the centre piece of opportunity education well being and improved health for people , as these are the charity foundations principles, however as was stated when this news broke about the hotel, the local SNP councillor was concerned that the Celtic superstore improvement would be a rival to other supermarkets in the area i.e Tesco and Asda, I’m sure you can see the problems this may face to hinder Celtic in moving forward and not just from stupidity.
Beatbhoy
I suppose you could interpret it that way, practice in the group game v.england and perfection in the final v Italy mate :-)
South of Tunis
Re The 82 italian side.They certainly improved after group games, I liked that italian side Gentile et al my fav being full/wing back Bruno Conti
Seen this from Google
http://m.goal.com/s/en/news/1717/editorial/2009/02/21/1120172/where-are-they-now-italys-1982-world-cup-winners
HH
Measures of quantity .
Ian Rush was mightily miffed to learn that going for a post match drink with his Juve team mates meant exactly that – a drink .
South of Tunis
Must’ve been like living in a foreign country for him!
Clogher
Smiling here as yiu try and pin down an irish term for several
I recall my own folks using the term
‘Wheena’
As in peel a wheena spuds :-)
Or
He/she is at the bar gettin a wheena drinks.
I dont know if this collective noun was peculiar to Donegal but it covers several but with no defined number
:-)
HH
AN TEARMANN .
Thanks for the link .
Paolo Rossi is a regular pundit on cooncil tele’s fitba highlights progs. His fellow pundits take great delight in winding up Paolo with as many betting / gambling jibes as possible .. . Smoking 2 packs of fags a day and very ,very unfit he rattled them in 82 .
MACJAY1 – I wish…
Dessybhoy – It would be hard, and there would be those who oppose it just because its us, but with the right partners behind us and a good PR story, it’d be hard for those to resist and look reasonable (not that some would mind). Anyway, nothing worth having comes easy…
An Tearmann/MacJay and others,
My final word on the subject for a couple of moments,
‘A couple is a variable small number. A few is more than a couple, but less than a load, which is in turn less than a hape.’
Courtesy Clogher Jnr.
CLOGHERCELT
Aw c’mon. He made the last one up!
An Tearman
I know this sounds trite but there would never have been a 1982 Brazil team of quality had it not been for the spectacular success of the 1970 team.
By 1976 the likes of Zico were playing with the ageing Rivellino and were learning their trade and “The Brazilian Way” as brought down by the brilliant 1970 team.
For all that team’s brilliance, what is often overlooked is the fact that Brazil sacked the national manager just 6 weeks before the 1970 world cup and that Zagallo radically reshaped the team and introduced a system whereby the best players played rather than the maintaining the formulaic approach preferred by Saldanho.
Had Saldanho remained in charge you would never have seen Rivellino or Claudoaldo in the team and there is a real possibility that Gerson and Pele would not have played either.
In the subsequent World Cups, Brazil did not have the talent throughout the team in 1974 and Rivellino more or less dragged them to the later stages singlehandedly. In 1978, they adopted a far more tactical and non Brazilian approach, and although this got them to third or fourth place (I forget which) the free flowing magic like football of 1982 was a counter-reaction against that 1978 policy.
Ironically, it succeeded only in taking Brazil to their worst placing in a World Cup since 1966.
Bmcuw
Not on 254 mate I have texted Lennybhoy for DDs number if he has it
new article posted.
BRTH
It didn’t only succeed in that. It made that team one of the most fondly remembered ever to have played in a World Cup, despite their premature exit. Just look at the reaction to them on here over the past few hours, so many years on.
After 1970, people thought, follow that!
In 1982, they so nearly did.
Hypocrisy .
Lovely man Lichtsteiner .
Mouthing off re the dreadful tackle that saw Telles rightly getting a second yellow ( and a red ) in last night’s Porto 0 -Juve 2 . . Telles first yellow was for a not quite as bad tackle on Cuadrado .. Red mist stuff .
A player with Lichtsteiner’s history would do well to keep his mouth shut re ” brutality ” on the pitch . He also had nothing to say about his assault on Herrera which resulted in the player needing 18 stitches in his foot . . Lichsteiner got a yellow for it , many other Refs would have given a Red..
Bullshit hypocrisy is a terrible thing !!!
Just catching up. Call Me Gerry, I have prayed for your father and all of you who are suffering the death of a loved one.
Martybhoy. Your warning to others hopefully will result in the saving of lives. I know only to well how it is possible to ignore what is really taking place. I suffered severe pains leaving the Maribor game and put it down to indigestion. I waited two more days before attending the doctor. It resulted in me being in hospital for eleven days because of the delay. I was also bluelighted to the Jubilee. Do take care. and carry out the doctors’instructions. I had to miss games for a little while after leaving the hospital. But I am now a regular at games.