In the return leg of the calamity that was the Champions League qualifier against Artmedia Bratislava I sat in the Fergus McCann Stand and with all my might willed Celtic to triumph, possibly more so than I have ever done before or since. Anyone of the Green persuasion who attended that evening will attest to how close we came to completing one of the greatest turnarounds in our Clubs history.
The thin line some call it.
Too many Celtic fans it was the final nail in Strachan’s coffin with the first being the announcement of his appointment. And as disappointed as I was that evening a new flame had been lit within me, as the ‘tic finished the game with ten attacking outfielders and our keeper camped in and around the opponents box. ‘The Celtic Way’-and in stark contrast to the tedium and dirge we suffered the season before.
Hindsight brings an undelining. The O’Neill Project was a calculated risk by men who understood the unsustainable danger that those on the other side of the City had gloriously galloped into.
Wee Gordon Strachan took up the challenge that Martin O’Neill body-swerved and won the Club three titles on the bounce. Selling, retiring, trading and bargain basement trailing his way to an effective sometimes exciting team.
I remember too under Fergus McCann’s stewardship receiving a comprehensive questionnaire from the Club. The only question that I can recall in what was mainly a commercial exercise was; List these options in priority (from most important to least): Winning the European Cup/Winning the Scottish League/Winning the Scottish Cup and so on was how I answered. I understood the question to be a philosophical one.
Our young Manager and young team have shown a steady improvement over the past year and a half. What they promise via glances of individual brilliance and sweeping team displays have tempted some bloggers into posing the “Golden Age” question.
Yet Celtic Football Club do not find themselves in this position because of the spending power of an Oligarch or Sheik nor is it because of an alignment of stars
presenting us with a new generation of ‘Quality Street’ kids but the astute, almost scientific approach of a misunderstood Board set up by McCann only interrupted by the O’Neill Project.
There is much talk of breaking O’Neill’s records just now but again I find myself looking at next season’s Champions League and wondering to myself, can this team go further than the last sixteen? Or am I confident that this tean can beat top tier teams like Manchester United and AC Milan at home?
Mibees aye mibees naw is the truth of it.
Of course I’m biased. I will always associate the Seville team primarily with Henke Larsson. I will always remember Martin O’Neill when at Fir or Rugby Park. It’s unfair I know but that’s just the way it goes and I thought I’d just say.
Lhads,
The above was written by Marky, he’s a newbie so please be gently.
If anyone else was to send in stuff contact via the contact us link at the bottom of the blog.
Artmedia was the first and only nail needed in WGS coffin. As Yazz said: “The only way is UP!” and that was WGS mantra as he turned a team round and played some fantastic fitba’ in his first 18 months before stubbornness served up ‘tedium & dirge’ for the remainder of his tenure.
The blame for that disnny lie wie the PLC. It lays with him. See his Failed Middlesboro Experiment. It was so bad that Tony Mogga is seen as an improvement.
I remember that questionnaire. At the time winning the league was a pipe dream and even getting into europe was seen as success.
A golden age? Nah, we just have a young and attractive side who we have clicked wie. We feel closer to them and that is a lot to do wie the management. This is no quality street project. They are all projects and the vast majority of them are just passin’ through. We are still as far away from European recognition than we every were.
Money has changed the demographics of the game. We are left behind and need to embrace that and lower or expectations. That is success is qualifying for the Big Cup Group stages and hopefully finishing 3rd. Not competing wie the Manure or Meelans.
This years Zooropa League last 32 saw teams from Belgium and Poland. Our Zooropa adventure was great and we did well (only Athletico beat us, we got four points from Rennes and Udinese got a right fright against us) but…..that will always be tempered that FC Sion beat us when it mattered.
Doing well in the Zooropa is our level. Making up numbers in the Big Cup is the PLC dream.
Nice post,
Remember doing the same in the early 90’s when Darius Dziekanofski and the rest of the team took us a rollercoaster ride one European night against Partizan Belgrade. Trying to tune into Shortbread from Donegal. What a night. Unfortunately the defence was utter pish and we got knocked out
As for Gordon Strachan, i’m sure when big Jock arrived to take the helm all those years ago there were grumbling of discontent, but nobody is going to admit that now.
I like Strachan, like the way he treated the journos and he wasn’t half bad in the dugout either.
When he left the club he said ‘When i came he i wasn’t a Celtic fan, but i’m defineately leaving a one’
Good enough for me.
I for one was guilty & will own up, i wanted wee Gord out after the 0-5 but he quickly won me over & i was sad when he left. Too many of our fans were complaining throughout his reign which was unfair.
We have a very good squad mostly of young guys & yes thats the only way we can get quality players in but can we hold on to them long enough to get their best? Are we ready to compete in the group stages of the CL (if we get there)? We gave a good account in the EL but i’m not sure how we will do in the big one. Lenny has done an amazing job & he will only get better, i HOPE he stays for many years & am looking forward to seeing where we go.
i supported celtic home and away since my mum and dad topped up my pocket money to give me the money to do so. during the earlier years there were a few highs but the monkeys 9 in a row meant the lows were more frequent, but during that time my love for celtic never wavered and the thought of missing a game would never enter my head. martin o’neill came in and everything changed he put a swagger in the step of every celtic fan that i had never seen before, we had won leagues before but never had a period where even when we didnt win the league i still felt we were the top dogs. every club in scotland were spending money and in advocat the huns had someone who spend without thought but MoN’s signings were inspired and all quickly found a love for the club which was evident during a spell where we had leaders all over the park and a manager who would fight our corner no matter who he upset if thats what it required. his last season ended up with black sunday and although the cup was won in his final game in charge it couldnt mask a dissapointing season. i have no doubts in my mind thatMoN’s wifes battle with cancer took his eye of the ball as he tried admirably to juggle guiding celtic with the problems and worries he had at home.
gordon strachan took over and i welcomed him and found myself defending him after artmedia and a slow start but things changed very quickly from then on in. ive never subscribed to the theory you have to be a celtic fan to manage the club but i do feel you have to embrace the clubs history and traditions and here is where for me GS let us down, for him celtic were founded when he took over and it was his way and if you didnt agree then you had never played the game before or some other put down. He had never managed a club where you were the team to be stopped rather than plotting how to sneak a 1-0 win and this showed in his teams, sure there were some great performances but they were few and far between and even with a PLG rangers miles behind he never took the shackles of. around this time i started like a lot of fans to feel alienated from the players and the club as a whole signing such as kenny miller (who i backed 100% while he was playing even if i didnt think he he should have been given the chance to play in a celtic jersey) and steven pressley didnt help and i felt there was no connection form the fans to the club something i had been brought up to take for granted.
GS fans will point to his trophy record and no one can argue that in the main he was successful (the last 6 months of his final season apart)but the squad of players he left behind is as poor as any weve had in a long time. tony mowbray found to his detriment that the squad had to be over overhaled and payed the price for trying to fill the void with similar calibre players. mowbary faced the same thing when he took over middlesbrough but fared much better in dealing with the mess GS left behind him.
Neil lennon came in and galvanised not only a team but a support and we found ourselves pulling in the same direction again and the bond between fans and players was similar to the one which MoN had nurtured and one which would never have been possible under GS, in his own words “the thunder was back”
we all have differnet opinions but ultimately we all want the same, a successful celtic team but as someone who supported the club prior to MoN i cannont understand any real celtic fan having a go at him. As i said before his arrival changed everything and put the huns in there place and made us the top team in the country. If i had to pick one memory from his time in charge it wouldnt be the treble or seville it would be the day he came on to the ibrox pitch after we had been beaten to put his arm around lenny after our captain had been the target of sectarian abuse for 90 mins. his clenched fist salute to the fans summed up the man and his time in charge so while feel free to praise GS dont do it at the expense of MoN or you may have to put up with me and my terrible spelling and punctuation once again, you have been warned!
Welcome.
Terrible speeling and punctuation’ are allowed – in fact – demanded on this blog.
Though, I don’t think the author of the blog was havin’ a go at MON more that Larsson’s feats maybe remembered more than Saint Martin. I see the two as being completely different and I fondly remember them both.
our pressent team has potential but it does not have a true star man.
HENRIK LARSSON was in my opinon one of the best players in the world at the time and we were so very lucky to have him and i too feel so very lucky to have seen him play week in and week out for the hoops for 7 fantastic years, some people called it the o’neill years but for me it was the larsson years.
this is what our pressent team needs if we want to challenge and do well in the champions league.
HH
Aye, awe we need to a Larsson. There is plenty of them aboot.
I agree with the original poster, the WGS period has been much maligned, wrongly so in my opinion. Its true that the MON years were magnificent until Larsson left, then that last year was one of the worst in my years of watching Celtic play. Thats an undisputable fact in my book, the last year of MON we were bloody awful! Strachan took us to the last 16 of the CL, something MON never managed, and he did it without Larsson…I dont think the poster was slating MON but we do need some real perspective on these events! HAil Hail