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Celtic Football Club has a long and illustrious history. In 1967, the club became the first team from the island of Britain to win the European Cup, which had previously been in the preserve of Italian, Portuguese and Spanish clubs. Prior to Celtic's historic win, no other club in Northern Europe had reached the final of the tournament and emerged successful. . Additionally, Celtic remain the only Scottish club ever to have reached the final, and are the only club ever to win the trophy with a team composed entirely of home-grown talent; all of the players in the side being Scottish, and all born within a 30-mile radius of Celtic Park in Glasgow.
History
The early days and Brother Walfrid
Celtic Football Club was formally constituted at a meeting in St. Mary's church hall in East Rose Street (now Forbes Street), Calton, Glasgow, by Marist Brother Walfrid on November 6, 1887, with the purpose stated in the official club records as "being to alleviate poverty in Glasgow's East End parishes".
The charity established by Brother Walfrid, who was originally from Ballymote, County Sligo in Ireland, was named 'The Poor Children's Dinner Table'.
Walfrid's move to establish the club as a means of fund-raising was largely inspired by the example of Hibernian who were formed out of the immigrant Irish population a few years earlier in Edinburgh. Walfrid's own suggestion of the name 'Celtic' (pronounced Seltik), was intended to reflect the club's Irish and Scottish roots, and was adopted at the same meeting. Some have believed this is to also show the diveristy of Glasgow's Catholic community which had significant numbers of Italian, Lithuanian, Polish and Highlanders among their worship as well as the Irish majority.
On May 28, 1888, Celtic played their first official match against Rangers and won 5-2 in what was described as a "friendly encounter". Neil McCallum scored Celtic's first ever goal.
The Willie Maley years
Under their first manager, Willie Maley, the club won 30 major trophies in 43 years. He guided Celtic to six straight league title wins from 1904-1910, a Scottish record that stood for over sixty years, until 1971, when it was equalled (then surpassed) by Jock Stein's Celtic side. In 1939, Celtic also defeated Everton of England 1–0 at Ibrox Park to claim the Empire Exhibition Trophy, which, along with the Coronation Cup (won in 1953), is amongst the most highly-regarded by the club's supporters, due to its unique status as a one-off competition.
Maley's tenure was also marked by tragedy, when goalkeeper John Thomson was accidentally killed during an Old Firm encounter in September 1931. Thomson dived in typically brave fashion at the feet of Rangers player Sam English, suffering a skull fracture and subsequently dying in hospital that evening.
McStay's short reign
Former player Jimmy McStay became manager of the club during the War years of 1940-1945. However, no official competitive league football took place during this time, and McStay was seen as something of an interim manger.
McGrory and the Coronation Cup
Ex-player and captain Jimmy McGrory took over in 1945. Under McGrory, Celtic defeated Arsenal, Manchester United and Hibernian to win the Coronation Cup, a one-off tournament held in May 1953 to commemorate the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II.
Hampden in the sun
On October 19, 1957, Celtic trounced Rangers a record 7–1 in the final of the Scottish League Cup at Hampden Park in Glasgow, retaining the trophy they had won for only the first time the previous year. The scoreline remains a record win in a British domestic cup final. Many fans say this was the first time the club's most famous song You'll Never Walk Alone was sung.
Stein and European glory
Jock Stein succeeded McGrory in 1965. A former player and team captain, Stein gained most of his fame as Celtic's manager, and is widely acknowledged as one of the greatest football managers in the history of the game. He guided Celtic to nine straight Scottish League wins from 1966 to 1974, which established a joint world record and Scottish record, and was not equalled until 1997.
The Lisbon Lions
- Main article: Lisbon Lions
1967 was to be Celtic's best ever year. The club won every competition they entered: the Scottish League, the Scottish Cup, the Scottish League Cup, the Glasgow Cup, and the European Cup. Under the leadership of Stein, and captained by Billy McNeill, the club defeated Inter Milan 2–1 at the Estádio Nacional in Lisbon, Portugal on May 25, 1967. The 11 players who walked on to the pitch that day and made history subsequently became known as 'The Lisbon Lions'. Jimmy 'Jinky' Johnstone, Bobby Lennox and Bobby Murdoch formed part of that famous team, and now rank amongst the greatest ever Celtic players. The entire east stand at Celtic Park is dedicated to The Lisbon Lions.
Celtic reached the European Cup Final again in 1970, but were beaten 2–1 by Feyenoord at the San Siro in Milan.
Cesar takes over
Billy McNeill (nicknamed "Cesar") the former player and captain of The Lisbon Lions, took over as manager in August 1978 and snatched the league title from the huns in the final game of the season, notching up a 4-2 win. McNeill led Celtic to another two league titles in 1981 and 1982, along with the League Cup (also in 1982) and the Scottish Cup in 1980. However, the lack of European success and a dispute over transfer funds meant that the former hero's first stay as manager was short-lived, and he departed the club in 1983.
Davie Hay and broken Hearts
Another former player David Hay took over from McNeill in July 1983, but it would be two years before Celtic would see success. In 1985 Celtic overturned a 1-0 deficit at half-time in the centenary final of the Scottish Cup to defeat Dundee United 2-1, thanks to a virtuoso free-kick from Davie Provan and a diving header from Frank McGarvey. The following year, Celtic clinched the league title on the last day of the season under the most improbable of circumstances. In order to win the title, Celtic were required to win their final game by a margin of three goals or more against St. Mirren, and hope Hearts would lose to Dundee. Hearts contrived to lose their match 2-0, while Celtic notched up a historic 5-0 victory and sealed a memorable league championship title at St. Mirren Park on Love Street in Paisley. Hay left the club the following season, and was replaced by returning legend Billy McNeill at the board's behest.
The return of Cesar
When Billy McNeill returned to manage the club in 1987, Celtic embarked on an excellent 31-game unbeaten run, culminating in a historic League Championship and Scottish Cup double win in the club's centenary season. However, the success generated by McNeill's return was followed by a dismal performance in the league the following season, along with a crushing 5-1 defeat by Rangers. They did manage to retain the Scottish Cup in 1989 though, beating Rangers 1-0 through a Joe Miller strike. The 1989-90 season would be a very disappointing one. Celtic's talented but erratic new Polish striker Dariusz "Jacki" Dziekanowski scored a stunning four goals in a First Round UEFA Cup encounter with Partizan Belgrade but the team still went out of the competition under the away-goals rule. The team's league campaign was poor and despite reaching the Scottish Cup Final in 1990, Aberdeen beat them on penalties.
The following season saw their league fortunes fall away fairly quickly, despite their excellent centre-back Paul Elliott being voted Players' Player of the Year. They reached the SKOL Cup Final only to be beaten in extra time by Rangers. However, they would finally get their revenge in a memorable 1991 Scottish Cup quarter-final tie with their rivals, beating them 2-0 through Gerry Creaney and Dariusz Wdowczyk goals. It was a wild St. Patrick's Day encounter which saw three Rangers players (Terry Hurlock, Mark Walters and Mark Hateley) and one Celtic player (Peter Grant) get the red card. However, the joy was short-lived as Motherwell knocked them out of the semi-final 4-2 and the beleaguered McNeill left the club for the last time at the end of the 1990-91 season.
Liam Brady, Neuchatel Xamax and Lou Macari
Liam Brady took charge of Celtic shortly after McNeill departed and became only the eighth manager in over 100 years, but the first to have not previously been a player at the club. Despite his credentials as a player with Arsenal and the Republic of Ireland, he failed to bring any measure of success to the club in a managerial capacity, and on October 22, 1991, in the first leg of an away UEFA Cup encounter against Swiss minnows Neuchatel Xamax, Celtic lost 5-1, notching up one of the worst European defeats in the club's history. In the return leg at Celtic Park, they could only manage a 1-0 victory and crashed out of the tournament 5-2 on aggregate. Coupled with a defeat against Airdrie in the CIS Cup a few weeks earlier, Brady soon departed, and the so-called "barren years" at the club continued under the new manager, another former player, Lou Macari.
The Fergus McCann era
The Bank of Scotland informed Celtic that it was calling in the receivers on Thursday 3 March 1994 as a result of exceeding a £5million overdraft. However, expatriate businessman, Fergus McCann, wrested control of the club, and ousted the family dynasties which had controlled Celtic since its foundation. According to media reports, McCann took over the club as little as eight minutes before it was to be declared bankrupt.
In order to alleviate the club's considerable financial debt, McCann reconstituted Celtic as a public limited company - Celtic PLC - resulting in one of the most successful stock market flotations in British financial history. The share issue netted £14million towards the refinancing of the club and saw the redevelopment of Celtic Park into a 60,830 all-seater stadium to rival the best in Europe. During this period, Lou Macari was sacked by McCann and replaced by former Celtic player Tommy Burns, who restored a more attacking style of play.
However, for many of the supporters, the ramifications of the McCann takeover changed Celtic FC forever. Despite this, in recent years the club has remained relatively successful, whilst maintaining a frugal approach to finances. Under Burns' leadership, the side managed a Scottish Cup win in 1995, but failed to end Rangers' dominance in the Scottish Premier Division. After the near-miss of 1997, there was a feeling amongst supporters and the board that the club were not capable of mounting a serious challenge to Rangers under Burns, and with just three weeks left of the 1996-1997 season, Burns was sacked, along with the club's entire coaching staff.
Also of note during this period was an incident in which Jim Farry, acting as the Chief Executive of the SFA, deliberately delayed the registration of former Portuguese Internationalist Jorge Cadete, leaving Celtic without the services of this player for a series of vital matches. Fergus McCann complained to the SFA, who subsequently found Jim Farry guilty of gross misconduct in relation to his behavour in this matter.
Wim Jansen
After Burns' dismissal, former Celtic defender Roy Aitken was widely tipped to take over as manager. However, the club's directors made a surprising choice in Dutch coach Wim Jansen. Furthermore, it was announced that the traditional manager's position at Celtic Park had been abolished, with the responsibilities to be split between the new roles of head coach (Jansen) and general manager. The office of general manager was somewhat controversially taken up by solicitor and former football commentator Jock Brown. Jansen was joined by former Celtic player Murdo MacLeod as assistant head coach.
With a number of new signings (including club legend Henrik Larsson for a fee of £650,000), Celtic won the Scottish League Cup, before overcoming an ageing Rangers side to win the Scottish Premier Division title for the first time in almost 10 years (although a slump late in the season required a final day victory against St. Johnstone at Celtic Park).
Despite the triumph, the title-winning celebrations soon turned sour when Jansen was refused extra funds to strengthen his squad. He resigned just two days after the club sealed the title, with Brown leaving shortly afterwards.
Doctor Jo
A number of high-profile names were proffered as the replacement for Jansen - mostly by a bored Scottish media - but the man eventually appointed by the Celtic board was Slovakian Josef Venglos. Many fans were disappointed and angry at the decision, citing Venglos' poor record in charge of English club Aston Villa. Following the embarrassment of early exits in the European Cup, UEFA Cup and League Cup (all to comparative minnows), Celtic recovered and challenged for the title until the penultimate game of the season - including a memorable 5-1 victory over Rangers early in the season. However, many fans agreed that the side seemed incapable of realistically challenging Rangers for the title, and a defeat in the Scottish Cup Final only confirmed the team's ongoing lack of progress. Shortly after the end of the season, Venglos resigned, ostensibly on health grounds, but remains a European scout for the club.
John Barnes
The 1999-2000 season is widely considered to be one of the biggest disasters in the club's history. Kenny Dalglish returned to the club to fill the general manager's post (which had been vacant all throughout Venglos' tenure), while the head coach position was filled by former England and Liverpool player John Barnes.
Many observers were surprised at the appointment of Barnes, and in Dalglish's reluctance to take on the role for himself, especially given his own relatively successful managerial record and Barnes' totally unproven pedigree as a coach. Barnes had never managed a professional club, and the fans' worst fears were realised when Celtic's title challenge drastically faltered shortly after the winter break. Following a series of poor results - including elimination from the UEFA cup and a broken leg in Lyon for Henrik Larsson - Rangers dramatically increased their lead at the top of the SPL table and demands for Barnes to be sacked commenced.
On Tuesday, February 8 2000, Celtic hosted a rearranged Scottish Cup tie at home to Inverness Caledonian Thistle. Caley Thistle were an in-form side, fourth-placed in Division 1, although only in the Scottish Football League since 1994. A lengthy protest by fans against Barnes was held before the match, which was expected to be an easy victory for Celtic. However, Caley Thistle won the match 3-1 in one of the biggest Scottish Cup upsets ever. Following the match, Barnes informed the media that he was satisfied with the side's performance, and believed they had simply been unlucky. The memorable headline in The Sun newspaper the following day, attributed to a junior sub-editor read: "Super Caley Go Ballistic, Celtic Are Atrocious". Few observers were surprised when Barnes was sacked two days later.
Kenny Dalglish took over as head coach until the end of the 1999-2000 season, and brought Tommy Burns back to assist him. While Dalglish generally retained the respect of the supporters, Celtic's league form deteriorated further and the club finished 21 points behind Rangers at the end of the season. A League Cup victory over Aberdeen was the only consolation in one of the most embarrassing periods of the club's history.
Martin O'Neill and Seville
Martin O'Neill, a former European Cup winner with Nottingham Forest, from Kilrea in Northern Ireland arrived at the club in the wake of the Barnes and Dalglish fiasco and left an enduring memory which has now attained legendary status amongst the fans. Under his leadership, Celtic won three SPL championships out of five and in his first season in charge, the team also won the domestic treble.
The 2000-2001 season was additionally memorable largely because of some excellent results against rivals Rangers. A famous 6-2 victory in the opening Old Firm encounter of the season at Celtic Park proved to everyone that the balance of power in Scotland had shifted. The "Demolition Derby", as it became known, was followed by a 5-1 loss in the subsequent league meeting of the pair at Ibrox. However, two further league victories against Rangers – 1-0 (at Celtic Park) and 3-0 (at Ibrox) – ensured O'Neill's first league title. In the same season, Celtic swept to their first domestic treble since 1969, winning the CIS League Cup and the Scottish Cup.
Part of Martin O'Neill's success was in returning Celtic into a European force, perhaps at the expense of domestic triumphs. On three occasions, his Celtic side qualified for the group stage of the Champions League, and on the only occasion they failed to qualify for Europe's biggest club football competition, they went on to reach the final of the UEFA Cup.
Under O'Neill's leadership, Celtic Park became a fortress in domestic and European competition. Teams such as Juventus, Porto, Valencia, and Barcelona all visited Glasgow to face Celtic and returned home defeated. Celtic also commenced an unbeaten run of 77 home matches, which spanned from 2001 to 2004 and notched up an SPL record for the most consecutive run of wins in a single season.
In 2003, more than 80,000 Celtic fans travelled to watch the club compete in the UEFA Cup final in Seville in southern Spain. Celtic lost the match 3–2 to F.C. Porto after extra time, despite two goals from Henrik Larsson during normal play. Celtic's cause was not helped by the booking of Alan Thompson early in the match, and the late sending off of defender Bobo Balde, and was frustrated by Porto's obvious time-wasting. However, there was some consolation as the exemplary conduct of the thousands of travelling Celtic supporters received widespread praise from the people of Seville (not one single supporter being arrested) and the fans were awarded prestigious Fair Play Awards from both FIFA and UEFA.
In 2004 Celtic continued to prosper in the UEFA Cup by reaching the quarter-finals but lost to the Spanish side Villarreal (3–1 on aggregate), winning the SPL and Scottish Cup double. The Scottish Cup final was especially memorable as it was the final match Henrik Larsson would play for the club, and typically he scored two goals in a 3-1 defeat of Dunfermline.
Season 2004/2005 saw Celtic retain the Scottish Cup but lose out on the SPL title which they looked set to win, only losing out after being beaten by Motherwell in a match they were winning with ten minutes to go. At the end of the season Martin O'Neill parted ways with the club, to care for his wife. O'Neill left with the best wishes of the fans and everyone at the club.
Enter Strachan
Gordon Strachan was unveiled in June 2005 as Martin O'Neill's replacement after apparently being recommended by O'Neill himself.
After an unpromising start, Celtic went on to win the SPL championship and the Scottish League Cup in season 2005-2006.
For more details, see Celtic FC: 2005-2006
See also
| Celtic F.C. seasons | |
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External links
| Scottish Premier League (1998–2013) | |
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| « Scottish Football League Premier Division (1975–98) Scottish Premiership (2013– ) » | |
| Former teams | |
| Seasons | |