WHEN I WAS “on the tools” - writing about sport for local papers, one lesson I quickly learned was, if you dug down and got a good local story, it sold papers. Suppose you made a big thing about wee Sammy, scoring six goals in one game for his Boys Club team in a local league game, well his Mammy, his Auntie Senga and Auntie Agnes, plus both his grannies, who maybe didn't buy the paper every week, or who complained: “there's never oany local news in it noo”, well they would buy that edition. Good LOCAL news stories sold papers, and I still believe that to be true – only, I will admit, today's local journalists have to work a damned sight harder than we ever did, courtesy of the prevailing atmosphere around our craft.
Schools fitba now has a much-harder furrow to plough than in my day. It's been 40 years or more since the treachers, almost en masse, discovered they did not have to be bothered with extra-curriculum stuff like running a fitba team and could have a life. The damage that industrial action has done to games in Scotland are only now really starting to show. For all the proliferation of Boys Club teams we now have, without in any way being critical of the enthusiasts who run such clubs, they don't encourage the kids nearly as well as our old teachers did.
I may be guilty of over-generalisation here, but, in my experience, writing about Schools Football, one of the side effects of the Teachers Dispute was, particularly in Roman Catholic Schools, The Janitor took over the fitba team. All over Scotland there were Jannies running the skyl fitba team – with but one over-riding ambition: to produce, as one such enthusiast told me: “jist wan boay, guid enough tae pu' oan the Hoops jersey – if Ah can dae that, Ah'll dee happy.”
As they survey the wreckage of another broken Champions League dream this morning, I very-much doubt that the power brokers at Celtic have much time for these enthusiasts; their areas of work experience – the Law, Accountancy, Politics, Business – they are a long way from the traditional picture of where The Celtic Family is believed to come from – but, from the outside, looking-in, I think the “Suits” in the posh seats at Celtic Park have forgotten what their club is supposed to be all about.
The current “Politbureau” at the club comprises: Chief Executive Officer Mciahel Nicholson, Chief Financial Officer Christopher McKay, Chairman Peter Lawwell, Non-Executive Director Thomas Allison, Non-Executive Director Sharon Brown, Non-Executive Director Dermot F Desmond, Non-Executive Director Brian Wilson, Non-Executive Director Brian Rose and Company Secretary Joanne McNairn.
The only one of these I have ever come across is Wilson, sitting beside him in the press seats at a few games' I thought then: “You're a bawbag” - that was 40 years ago and nothing in the intervening four decades has persuaded me to alter that opinion. The truth about the “Politbureau” is, if Desmond says: “Shite!” the other eight all strain – hard.
The majority of “The Celtic Family” may not be well-disposed towards “The Four Families” who ran the club for many years. The late Sir Robert Kelly's legacy may be somewhat tainted by time, but, what cannot be denied is, the structures he put in place – the way the club back in his day believed in youth and development of home-grown talent ultimately brought the club it's greatest prize. Yes, he needed to give Jock Stein his head for it all to come together. I dare say, the ancestors of the Green Brigade, back in the dark days of the 1940s and 1950s cursed Kelly and Co with as much, if not more vigour than their descendants do today, but, on 25 May, 1967 they got the pay-off for all the hard work.
The triumph of The Lisbon Lions came 20 years after Kelly was appointed Chairman. Of course, there was no European Cup when he was appointed, but, I dare say, in 1947, when the club finished seventh in the League, had the grandfather of John Watson's fictional all-purpose Celtic Fan: Sean South from Croy said: “in 20 years we will be Kings of Europe”, he'd have been telt: “Shut Up, ye're haverin'”.
OK, we accept, Kelly had his faults as a picker of teams and as a meddler in team affairs, but, in the time between his appointment as Chairman and 25 May, 1967 Celtic produced the following players: (Full Scotland Caps): Willie Miller, Bobby Evans, John McPhail, Bobby Collins, Mike Haughney, Neil Mochan, Willie Fernie, Dunky Mackay, Eric Smith, Bertie Auld, Frank Haffey, Billy McNeill, Paddy Crerand, Jim Kennedy, Jimmy Johnstone, Stevie Chalmers, John Hughes, Bobby Murdoch, John Clark, Joe McBride, Tommy Gemmell, Bobby Lennox, Ronnie Simpson. (Northern Ireland – Republic of Ireland full caps): Charlie Tully, Bertie Peacock, Sean Fallon, Paddy Turner, Charlie Gallacher. Of these players, only Simpson, McBride and the Irish players cost the club a transfer fee. I left Lisbon Lion Willie Wallace off the list, since he won his first caps with Hearts, before joining Celtic.
The Kelly Kids – the youngsters who came to the club from Junior and Boys Club teams also, from the start of Under-23 internationals in 1955 until 1967 produced: Dick Beattie, John Colrain, Bobby Jeffrey, Jim Walsh, Ian Young.
During Kelly's reign, Inter-League matches were popular, and, from season 1947-48 to 1966-67 the following Celtic players represented the Scottish League: Pat McAulay, Tommy Bogan, Jimmy Mallan, Alec Rollo, Joe Baillie, Alex Boden, Jock Stein, John Higgins, John Divers.
Peter Lawwell has been the executive face of Celtic since 2003. Now I am not attempting to say he carries the same power Robert Kelly did, but, if Kelly could claim the credit for the good things that happened during his tenure as Chairman, and take the abuse for the bad, then we can do the same to Peter.
Kelly produced 26 home-grown full internationalists, plus a further 14 near-misses. On Peter Lawwell's watch, since September, 2003, the following Celtic players have been capped by Scotland: Scott Bain, Craig Beattie, Mark Burchill, Ryan Christie, James Forrest, Jack Hendry, John Kennedy, Shaun Maloney, David Marshall, Calum McGregor, Stephen McManus, Charlie Mulgrew, Anthony Ralston, Kieran Tierney, Stephen Welsh, Mark Wilson. Of these, Bain, Christie, Mulgrew and Wilson were bought-in – proving how the Celtic player development programme has been allowed to deteriorate.
On Lawwell's watch, 29 Celtic players: M Anderson, Paul Caddis, Joe Chalmers, Ryan Conroy, Scott Cuthbert, Ross Doohan, Ben Gannon-Doak, S Findlay, Marcus Fraser, Ewan Henderson, John Herron, G Irvine, Mikey Johnson, Paul Lawson, Jamie McCart, Dylan McGeouch, Michael McGlinchey, K McInroy, P McMullan, B McPherson, M Millar, A Montgomery, Lewis Morgan, Aidan Nesbitt, Rocco Quinn, Ben Summers, Joe Thomson, Ross Wallace, Tony Watt have been selected for the Scotland Under-21 team. Of these: Caddis, Gannon-Doak, Morgan, Wallace and Watt all won full Scotland caps after leaving the club, while Mikey Johnston switched allegiance and was capped by the Republic of Ireland and Michale McGlinchey switched nations to play for New Zealand.
The 29 Under-21 caps listed above, however, have, between them played a mere 221 starts plus 14 substitute appearances in the first team. Eleven of these players never got a first-team game, with two others getting one appearance each off the bench.
Only 5 of the 29 got into double figures in first-team games: Mikey Johnston made 93 appearances, Tony Watt 34, Lewis Morgan 31, Dylan McGeouch 27 and Ewan Henderson 12.
I know the arguments about how big-money English clubs can cherry-pick the best young Scottish talent, such as Gannon-Doak and whisk them away at an early age, but, you have to question the way the club treats their youngsters. I refuse to believe that Celtic, or their pals across the city for that matter, could not put two or three teenagers into every match-day squad and still win domestic games with goals to spare.
I am certain the Celtic Family would rather watch a clutch of kids wearing the hoops with pride and bursting a gut for the cause, than some of the badge-kissing mercenaries going through the motions.
Playing and winning The Celtic Way is almost a rite among their fan base, that Celtic Way always included giving kids a chance – I get the feeling, too-many of the decision-makers around the club are guilty of the most grievous sin in the eyes of their support – they've forgotten the club's history.
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