In 1986, Walter Smith left his assistant role at Dundee United to take up the same job at his boyhood club, Rangers. He later became manager, leading the club to six (and a half) of their nine-in-a-row league titles, though like a few other legends, he discovered 10 was out of reach. He managed Everton, then Scotland, where he left to return to more success at Rangers, including reaching the 2008 Uefa Cup Final.
As an opponent, he was uncompromising, ruthless, even. He managed to have a congenial nature and to be as hard as nails. His first period in charge of Rangers saw an era of no contest. Celtic finished second only twice during those nine seasons, Aberdeen, Motherwell and Hibs were often the nearest challengers, allowing Rangers space to prepare for Champions League football.
His second spell at Rangers concluded in 2011, having won three successive titles against different Celtic managers: Gordon Strachan, Tony Mowbray and Neil Lennon. He retired the same month that Craig Whyte bought the club from David Murray for £1, with the emerging EBT scandal scattered like confetti over every inch of the Ibrox and Charlotte Square.
Smith was ill advised to get involved in the scrap for Newco a year later, where he was briefly chairman in 2013 before resigning after three months.
For all the battles, my abiding memory of Walter Smith happened days after that Uefa Cup Final in 2008, watching him carry the Tommy Burns’ coffin from St Mary’s, Calton. Everything that had gone before seemed irrelevant. Later on, a Celtic supporting journalist, who was moving on from Scottish football, told me he received a call with best wishes from Smith. No one from Celtic did likewise. What little we really know of the people we cheer and jeer.
73 is no age, may he rest in peace.
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W Smyth was honest about the financial situation too.
What separates us.
Magnificent Paul.
Compare and contrast.
PHILBHOY
Yir pa FB just sent me a phot from his holiday …….Jealous you bet ….looks fab .
Hope your well aul yin 😎👍
Yir Pal…😂😂😂
HT
Thoughts with you today and your gorgeous Helen,God bless.
Hey there HT – hello and best wishes as always from me and the wee mhan
ERNIE LYNCH on 26TH OCTOBER 2021 2:54 PM
Cross purposes, methinks. My post was in responce to your post re the atmosphere at Celtic Park pre-Green Brigade.
HOT SMOKED on 26TH OCTOBER 2021 5:32 PM
I stand corrected.
But for years the pre GB match experience at CP was more sedate than seditious.
Might have pleased some but it was crying out for change.
And for those who moan about the song selection, why not start some songs yourselves? Songs more to your liking.
ernie
No problem.
FWIW, I am a fan of the GB and feel what they give entitles them to the odd faux pas.
I echo Paul and all those who pay deserved respect to a decent & successful man – a worthy opponent from the ‘other side’
Walter Smith & Ally McCoist earned great respect from the Celtic family for the way that they conducted themselves at a very sad time for ‘us’- this is an equally sad time for ‘them’.
Like the passing of Tommy, rivalries are of no consequence – we are all just human beings made starkly aware of our own mortality.
“They shall have stars at elbow and foot;
And death shall have no dominion”
DANSO_1888 @ 3:01 PM,
Are you Chick Young?
TIMMY7_NOTED @ 2:42 PM,
Cheers – History is such a huge thing, looking back I can’t believe the amount of “English” history I was taught in Scottish Schools. The Tudors etc…
Teaching real history may educate many pupils. Did you know at the end of the 17th Century there was a famine in Scotland? To avoid starvation many Scots “emigrated” to Ulster.
Hail Hail
DANSO_1888 on 26TH OCTOBER 2021 3:01 PM
——
Yes – we have them in our ranks, many more than we ever care to acknowledge, and much the poorer for it.
HOT SMOKED on 26TH OCTOBER 2021 6:00 PM
ernie
No problem.
FWIW, I am a fan of the GB and feel what they give entitles them to the odd faux pas.
——
Yes, in principle, I would agree with your sentiment.
However we don’t get “the odd faux pas” from the GB. What we do get is a constant stream of planned embarrassment and political stunts resulting in reputational & financial damage to Celtic
This apparently is to be ignored & excused because they make the most noise…..so to do empty barrels!
Total seating has eroded the ‘atmosphere’ at most football grounds. Accessible hospitality with the never ending trail of fans fetching/carrying food and drink is another factor. The introduction of alcohol sales will further change the undiluted togetherness and throb so palpable in the mass crowds of years gone by, when the ‘macaroon man’ was the only distraction.
Football is changing dramatically – over time two halves will become four quarters with time-outs for drinks & a twenty-two squad interchangeable at any time the norm.
Appeasing the GB whilst allowing it carte-blanche to do, say & display what it pleases is wrong. The support is equal, some are not more equal than others
* red biro*
*cheap lined paper*
Check
Check
Pressin’TooHard, CSC?
HT
Thoughts with you today and your gorgeous Helen, May she never walk alone
RIP Walter Smith
cant believe all this talk about the GB and not one mention of their fkin drums
they properly do my nut in having to listen to them getting hammered for 90 minutes
can they not just use them to get each song started and then silence them when the singers join in?
pests
Sometimes, it’s best to say nothing….
Dont want to pollute my previous post with this
I have seen some shite posted on CQN in the last few years,
We are a club for all
Sometimes as supporters we forget this
Thank fuck there are people within our club who EXUDE this ethos
Tommy Burns was one
Danso, I guarantee if he was standing next to you, you would get a slap around the side of your head.
That was disgusting
There is a time and a place for such talk
Today is NOT one of them,
And it will forever be your shame that you chose to take someone elses death to score points
That is not Celtic
That is not out Ethos
If I were Paul67 I wouldnt hesitate to bin your ass from this Celtic community
Clunks – agreed – we all would.
Might I also offer an opinion?
The offending nugget you point ooot is, imo, very possibly a
sleekit troll ooot to pollute This Dear Green Place with divisive keech
set oot in such a way that it causes offence and draws criticism of genuine Tims.
The online world is easily polluted by all kinds of snyde blooters who’ve never spent one day or night in Celtic Park.
HH
Bankie
Agreed
Which is why it must be highlighted and removed
Lest we all be tainted by the smell
Clunks – agreed.
The challenge which we all know and the troll(s) knows
is that its straightforward enough to be blocked and the re-invent another moniker and get straight back in aboot aw the usual pish……………..
It hates This Dear Green Place and its host as much as it despises Celtic.
HH
Ghuys just email Paul & ask him to remove Post & Poster.
Only problem is a guy called Nedso will be posting next month and his input & style will closely resemble Danso.
Trolls & attention seekers are best ignored.
Rest in Peace Walter – A nightmare for Celtic, never my style of fitba but it is mainly about results and Walter got them – Respect.
CHAIRBHOY on 26TH OCTOBER 2021 11:30 AM
I read on here yesterday someone suggesting that Celtic was a Catholic Irish Club. Maybe someone should explain to him why Br Walfrid choose Celtic instead of Glasgow Hibernian for our Club.
—————
evening Chairbhoy.
reading between the lines, are you a history teacher or just got a general interest in it all ?
Just a couple of comments, reading Brendan Sweeneys book Celtic The Early Years, and Walfrid and the Bould Bhoys, also Ian McCallums frst book The Gathering storms,
there is a huge amount of well researched historical footnotes, newspaper cuttings, minuted meetings, and indeed the reaction of others , that Celtic were formed by people who regarded themselves as Irish/Catholics, and depending on which one they were all the shades of green that might entail.
Many interchanged their deep faith (all SVDP members for the St Marys patrons) with HUGE involvement in Irish political groups.
From the onset they were know as the Irishmen , but notably there were fortyish other “irish clubs” playing football already, Harps, Shamrocks, Emmets,, Columbas and indeed a few Celtics.
I wont type it word for word, but in Sweeneys book he highlights there is no evidence of Walfrid promoting the name “Keltic” as a bridge between native protestant scots and migrant irish, instead there is a theory that the church at the time, under direction of bishop charles eyre (our first patron) was trying to make the church inclusinve to both the majority Irish catholics, and the native Scottis catholics from the islands and highlands. Under the umbrella of shared parishes with same hardships. And the threat of proplysim.
My reading of things is Keltic is interchangeable with Gaels.
We could have been the Glasgow Gaeltech.
AP represented our Club well again today, he’s a man of substance.
a wee aside,
The Maley brothers influence on edwardian football times.
The Maley Brothers
Thomas Maley was an Irishman who served in the Royal Highland Fusiliers for 22 years. He was a veteran of the Crimea and had traveled the world. He had 4 sons. One,Charles,became a priest, the other 3 were involved in football.
http://gottfriedfuchs.blogspot.com/2014/10/the-maley-brothers.html
Clunks and Bankie 👏
I think of Walter as one of the old bluenoses we all know as neighbours, workmates, inlaws 😲 decent folk not orangemen or bigots.
Listening to Hugh Keevins talking about his “Genorisity of spirit” was very apt..
He was a good man, HH ☘
Tmrw night expecting a comfortable win, Hibs will not sit in the same as most teams we face. We should exploit that with our attacking threat. 4 1
They ( trolls ) tend to talk amongst themself,…………… imo one nuggetplays a couple of “characters”…………that way it might appear to the fleeting visitor that an actual dialogue between two different genuine Tims is taking place – but the main purpose is an excuse to air or support some phony perspective…………..always with a detrimental effect on the bhlog environment, Celtic or Celtica
HH.
Bankie @11:18 very poor but not a suprise.
Shame on you ya coward
Smae fisrt 11 for tomorrow please – giaka up front, then KF moves central in the second half.
Cardbored….
I can totally see how you might hold that opinion.
* jesus, same first
BANKIEBHOY1 @ 7:11
“The challenge which we all know and the troll(s) knows
is that its straightforward enough to be blocked and the re-invent another moniker and get straight back in aboot aw the usual pish……………..”
Paul67 can easily identify a single URL/URI for anyone who uses more than one moniker. For example, in this way, BMCUWP over on Sentinel Celts is quite aware of KevJ’s various pseudonyms. Sentinel just chooses to grant him access unless he goes over the top.
Iniquitous –
You’ve solved your Logging-in issues!
Which must be a relief?
Perhaps you’ll share your insight with our our Dear Green host?
HH.
Iniquitous, These guys appear to be able to circumvent the URL/URI issue.
Kev has had more redcards than the entire Scottish Refereeing Community but he is back on whenever he likes, I reckon he has about 3 on the go at present.
Personally I don’t mind at all, its all a bit of amusement, it’s the ghuys who rise to the bait annoy me.
:)
Everyone knows Kevj within one post.So Whats the problem.Let him have his say. I don’t think he is hurting anyone with his opinion,a lot of which I happen to agree with.