Tommy had died. For the staff, it was too much for us.

192

There was a profound poignancy rather than exhilaration because Tommy Burns had died a week earlier, with the funeral taking place two days before the game.  After the title had been won, the Celtic squad re-emerged in T-shirts bearing his image.

Strachan had a cuppa.  ‘I am a tea addict,’ he says.  ‘I’ll only drink on special occasions.  After that I thought, “Right.  It’s been a real hard year.”  I wanted to make sure my family were all right because they were at the game.  The woman who is always there offered me a cup of tea.  Tommy had died.  I had to celebrate but I didn’t feel like celebrating.  For the staff, it was too much for us.

Strachan would also say that ‘being Tommy’s mate was the best part of joining Celtic’.

From Celtic: A biography in Nine Lives, by Kevin McCarra.

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  1. Estadio Nacional on

    Why buy another centre half to add to the collection when we have Muldini & Rogne? A partnership is what we need.

     

     

    That Lawwell is too keen to spend our money on players we don’t need.

     

     

    All we need is Riquelme and a brilliant striker.

  2. traditionalist88 on

    LuxCelt

     

     

    Yeah normally I’m in the same boat as you with regard to loan signings.

     

     

    However, in the last few years my opinion has changed slightly, seeing so much deadwood in the squad has seen to that. Guys like Rasmussen and Murphy have been surplus to requirements for a long time- we have a big squad but a handful of them are not good enough for the SPL never mind Europe.

     

     

    I agree with you in principle but we need to get rid of the deadwood asap. In the meantime, I think its prudent to hedge our bets with the odd loan deal as long as theres an option to make it permanent should they be successful.

     

     

    HH

  3. hoopeddreams on

    Honest Mistake

     

     

    If Whyte took all that in his warchest, I shudder to think what Green’s warchest contains.

  4. Gene's a Bhoys name on

    traditionalist88

     

    I have seen Kenwyn a couple of times and wasn’t impressed – he didn’t seem to offer enough in the games – having said that Stoke don’t exactly set the heather alight when it comes to attacking and supporting the strikers – i’ll trust Neil’s judgement

  5. The Honest Mistake loves being first on

    hoopeddreams on 15 May, 2012 at 11:25 said:

     

    You’re not pronouncing Green correct.

     

    It’s pronounced Gren as in Mervan Celik (pronounced Cheleek) went to Greenwich on holiday.

  6. Tim Malone Will Tell on

    KevJungle 11:29

     

     

    The other name I remember from that game for all the wrong reasons – John Dowie !!!

  7. Celtic Soul Brother- Supporting Kano 1000 on

    Tommy certainly deserves the accolade of the Greatest Ever Celt but Bobby Murdoch was undoubtedly one of the Greatest Players Ever to don the Hoops.

     

    Brilliant passer, equally at ease with either foot, showed great vision and awareness and possessed a great shot. If I wasn’t for his injury and weight problems he would have been recognised by all(not just us Celtic fans) as one of the World’s Greatest players.

     

    Unfortunately I did not see as much of him as the 4 others who for me would be contenders for Greatest Ever Celtic Player(Kenny Dalglish, Danny McGrain ,Jimmy Johnstone and Henrik Larsson).

     

     

    Strangely my most vivid memory of seeing him play live was on one of his rare appearances for Scotland(Only got 12 Caps FFS).It was in a World Cup Qualifier against West Germany in 1969 at Hampden-he scored with a brilliant shot to equalise with about 5 minutes to go-still can visualise it all these years later. Peter Cormack of Hibs(later Liverpool)came very close to a winner in the last minute which could well have seen us qualify for Mexico-no doubt Bobby wouldn’t have been picked to go!

     

     

    R.I.P. Tommy Burns and Bobby Murdoch-two great players who graced our Midfield and epitomise what our club is all about but died way too soon.

  8. Tim Malone Will Tell on

    Celtic Soul Brother – I can only assume that Bobby got a game because John Greig was injured.

     

     

    Says it all….

  9. “When you pull on that green and white jersey you’re representing a people and a cause” – Tommy Burns.

     

    God Bless.

     

    We will never walk alone.

  10. On 28 June 2010, Zheng Zhi returned to China and signed for China League One club Guangzhou FC on a free transfer. He made his League One debut against Hubei Greenery on 17 July 2010 and scored first goal for Guangzhou 4 days later, in a 10-0 home win against Nanjing Yoyo.

     

     

    In season 2010, Zheng scored 5 goals in 11 appearances as Guangzhou finished first place in the League One and won promotion back to the top flight at the first attempt.

     

     

    Zheng became the captain of the club as former team captain Li Zhihai left for Guangdong Sunray Cave in the 2011 league season. He scored 5 times in 25 appearances and captained Guangzhou successfully achieve Super League champion for the first time in the club’s history as Zheng won his third Super League title with three different clubs.

     

     

    Lenny Murdoch wiki wok CSC

  11. traditionalist88 on

    Genes a bhoys name

     

     

    I think his time was up when they signed Crouch, we’ll see what we do in the summer though, hopefully we’ll have our business done ahead of the CL qualifier

     

     

    HH

  12. Glendalystonsils likes a mr whippy with his lime green jelly on

    Neveralone 11.13

     

     

    Not quite what I meant. I’ll rephrase;

     

    I can’t see us ever having a better role model than Tommy. Just my opinion of course.

  13. Glendalystonsils likes a mr whippy with his lime green jelly on

    Info I have is that Zeng Zhi has been cryogenically frozen at Lennoxtown and will be thawed out in time for the new season.

  14. So many memories of the Immortal Tommy…..including many Burns Suppers at the annual TB Supper in Edinburgh organised by the University CSC where the Haggis would not be piped in, but “guitared in” to The Celtic Song…..I’m going far back now…..to the days where Hugh Keevins was a Celtic Supporter (the first TB Supper I attended would be around 87/88).

     

     

    Keevins was main speaker and spoke excellently about Tommy and Celtic in general…..before he spoke, he pulled out a Celtic bar scarf and held it aloft……changed days….

     

     

    Anyway, the finest goal I saw TB score was in a 2-2 draw against Dundee at Celtic Park…looking back on my copy of WinningGemmell’s excellent Celtic History Stats, I see that game was on the 3rd January 1983.

     

     

    I don’t think the game was televised – I canot remember ever seeing footage of it – but it was a wonder move, around 5 or 6 1st time passes and the ball was played back to Tam just outside the 18 yard line, and he hit it first time into the postage stamp at the Celtic End.

     

     

    According to WG, there were only 16,615 at the game that day – any other old timers witness it?

     

     

    God bless ye, Tommy.

     

     

    tully

  15. Ole John Innes fair knows how to walk on through a storm, – enjoyed that bit, nearly as much as wee Sinead, with whom I was smitten, by her charm, and cheeky ditties.

     

     

    Hope we see her again.

     

     

    For Every Tenor CSC

  16. I came across this story a couple of years ago.

     

    An African Tale

     

     

    There is a story told in Africa about a father and his three sons who one day went hunting in the forest. After leaving their village early they spent a fruitless morning trying to catch game. Around midday they stopped in a clearing in the forest for some rest and refreshment. After a short while there they heard what they recognised as the sound of a lion approaching the clearing. Fearing for their lives the three sons ran off leaving their father to his fate.

     

    The sons eventually returned to their home village and told their pregnant mother and the rest of the people that their father had been taken by a lion.

     

     

    In the course of time a daughter was born to the widowed mother. The daughter grew up not having known her father but when she was old enough to speak she began to ask about him. She asked anyone who would listen to her and was very persistent in doing so. After some time her brothers began to feel guilty and decided that they should go back into the forest and try and find out what happened to their father.

     

     

    They once again left the village early and made their way back to the clearing in the forest where they had last seen their father. After searching around for a while they discovered a pile of bones. The eldest son arranged the bones into the shape of a human skeleton. The second son then laid his hands on the skeleton and flesh formed once again on the bones. The youngest son then breathed into his father’s body and as he did so his father began breathing again and sat up. All then returned to the village where there was great rejoicing.

     

     

    Years passed and the family went onto live normal lives.

     

     

    More years passed and the father grew old and realised in himself that he did not have long to live and called his family together to announce his will.

     

    When they had all gathered he told them that all his worldly property would be given to his daughter. His three sons became upset at this news and the eldest said that since he had found his fathers bones in the forest that he should inherit his father’s property. The second son then claimed that because he had touched the bones that the property should go to him. The third son then made his claim and argued that since he had breathed life into the body then he should inherit.

     

    Their father dismissed their claims and said his daughter would inherit because of all his children; she was the one who did not forget about her father and did not allow others to forget either. He then said :

     

     

    “ No-one really dies so long as they are not forgotten”

     

     

    KTF

  17. Dontbrattbakkinanger on

    Tully 57 -I was at that Dundee game, Tommy was fantastic , Charlie Nicholas also scored a terrific goal. Tommy was playing so well that he got injured but refused to come off, Dundee were able to break upfield as he couldn’t chase back and equalised in a game where we should have beat them 12-1.

     

     

    We mumped about it afterwards, and of course that year the Arabs went on to win the League.

     

     

    I think the ‘16,000’ figure would have come from the imagination of Desmond White.

     

     

    The only time the ole Old Board would admit to a full house was for the Derby games, but we were playing good football against some good teams, all of which would bring through a big away support, especially Aberdeen.

  18. Dontbrattbakkinanger on

    BSR – I didn’t have my specs on, how cheeky are wee Sinead’s ditties?

  19. The Pantaloon Duck on

    Stephen Woods ‏ @weewoodsy

     

    Goodbye and good luck to @dominiccervi who leaves with our best wishes after 3 years! #classguy #tnd #yazoo #namaste #ding #hh

     

    ============================================

     

     

    The above from Twitter. Shame. We don’t have enough Dominics in the squad.

  20. I’ve been reading the speculation on here regarding Kenwyne Jones the big striker with Stoke.

     

     

    His careers statistics show that he averages a goal every 4 or 5 games. I hope we can do better than that and I hope too that Neil is not looking to the over priced English market to improve our team.

  21. Som mes que un club on

    Rangers manager Ally McCoist will be handed a multi-million pound war chest this summer by Charles Green’s consortium – but only if the SFA drops its 12 month transfer embargo on the club. (Daily Express)

     

     

    +++++++++++++++++++++++++++

     

     

    And I’ll have six weeks in The Bahamas this summer if I win the lottery.

     

     

    FFS!!!!

  22. Monaghan1900 on

    Best football I saw TB playing was against Dynamo Kiev at Celtic Park in, I think, 1986. He was immense that night and ran the show until he was stretchered off after a quite deliberate and cynical boot was applied to his ankle. I have a feeling it may have been Oleg Kuznetsov who did the deed but can’t be sure. 1-1 on the night thanks to Le Petit Merde.

  23. I remember standing almost on line with where Tommy threw his boots into the Jungle v’s Ajax. As TB said his goodbyes to every corner of the stadium and, then went up the tunnel with the hoops on for the last time, I felt as though someone had blown out a candle in my life.

     

    Also, when TB decided to join the SFA…I felt this sensation like, someone had just walked over my grave.

  24. up_over_goal on

    I left out Mcgeouch yesterday.

     

     

    Hours/minutes played (Season 2011/12)

     

     

    Forster . . . . 70 hrs, 20 mins

     

     

    Hooper. . . . .65 hrs

     

     

    Mulgrew . . . 64 hrs

     

     

    Ledley . . . . .62 hrs, 50 mins

     

     

    Forrest . . . . 54 hrs, 30 mins

     

     

    Wanyama. . 53 hrs, 50 mins

     

     

    Stokes . . . . .51 hrs, 55 mins

     

     

    Matthews. . .51 hrs, 50 mins

     

     

    Ki. . . . . . . . .47 hrs, 50 mins

     

     

    Samaras . . 43 hrs, 50 mins

     

     

    Brown. . . . . 42 hrs, 45 mins

     

     

    Kayal. . . . . . 38 hrs, 15 mins

     

     

    Majstorovic . 33 hrs, 15 mins

     

     

    K Wilson. . . .31 hrs, 10 mins

     

     

    Rogne . . . . . 29 hrs, 20 mins

     

     

    Cha . . . . . . . 26 hrs, 45 mins

     

     

    Commons. . 26 hrs, 30 mins

     

     

    Loovens . . . 20 hrs, 50 mins

     

     

    Izaguirre. . . 15 hrs, 20 mins

     

     

    M Wilson. . .13 hrs, 25 mins

     

     

    Zaluska . . . . 9 hrs

     

     

    McCourt. . . . 8 hrs, 10 mins

     

     

    Bangura. . . . 7 hrs, 50 mins

     

     

    Lustig . . . . . .5 hrs

     

     

    Mcgeouch. . .2 hrs, 50 mins

     

     

    Maloney. . . . 2 hrs, 30 mins

     

     

    Brozek . . . . .1 hrs, 35 mins

     

     

    Blackman. . .1 hr, 20 mins

     

     

    Watt. . . . . . .1 hr, 20 mins

     

     

    F Twardzik. .0 hrs, 50 mins

     

     

    R Ibrahim . . 0 hrs, 15 mins

  25. DBBIA

     

     

    Cheers for that…..we had some fantastic attacking players in that era….midfielders and forwards….Tommy/Paul/Murdo/Charlie/Frank/George…it still irks me that we didn’t win more….although DU and Aberdeen (in particular) were brilliant …..I still believe that our attacking players were much better than anything either of those teams had….very often the difference was that our defence never matched up (we had nothing to equal Miller/McLeish or Narey/Hegarty)

  26. Kev Jungle

     

     

    Touche! Only in the interests of openness and transparency of course….

     

     

    CF

     

     

    But we’re modern old-timers, and quite rubbish at it…..

  27. South Of Tunis on

    Celtic 2 Dundee 2 —— 1983

     

     

    This Old Timer says —

     

     

    2 up and cruising —-

     

     

    Dreadful ball out of defense from Sinclair -2-1

     

    Dreadful misplaced pass from Murdo Macleod —- 2-2..

     

     

    Crowd was small.

  28. RIP Tommy and Bobby. When Tommy was the gaffer, we played some blinding stuff. If my memory serves me we never lost a league game but it was the 7 draws that killed us. Saying that we were playing a team of cheats. That title should be Tommy’s. If ever a Celtic manager deserved the title it was he. Another point i’d like to make is i’m glad that Gordon Strachan was our boss. Like many i wasn’t best pleased when he was announced as manager but he did a fab job imo and you could see how much Tommy’s passing affected him. A very decent man I feel.

     

     

    Pablo

  29. South of Tunis was that an Aitken own goal ?

     

     

    Think someone won the pools cause of that draw

     

     

    ST

  30. BOBBY MURDOCH'S CURLED-UP WINKLEPICKERS on

    DBBIA 1152

     

     

    The year before,we played Dundee Utd at Parkhead in a must-win for the title.

     

     

    We did,2-1.

     

     

    It was mobbed,absolutely stowed out.

     

     

    The crowd was a phenomenal,erm,37,000.

     

     

    There were more than that in front of me for a slash at half-time,ffs!

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