This is where it starts to get a bit trickier and potentially more controversial. With so much more choice in outfield positions, consensus is that much less likely; but the established selection principles remain. We begin with Full Backs: Without a moment’s hesitation, the latter-day “shoo-ins” are the peerless Danny McGrain, despite his celebrated inability…

Amongst the many who have served between the Celtic posts these past 60 years or so, three stand head and shoulders above the rest. Veteran Lisbon Lion, Ronnie Simpson; Irish legend and Centenary Double stalwart, Pat Bonner (Celtic’s shut-out king); and Polish “Holy Goalie”, Artur Boruc, form that great triumvirate (though it has to be…

Every now and then, somebody comes up with a “Greatest Ever” proposition, be it in Football, Golf, Boxing … or any other field of sporting, or, indeed, every-day endeavour. They invariably founder on the same treacherous rocks of inevitable subjectivity and the unfeasibility of equating the “Greats” of the present with those of former eras….

(Celtic’s First “European Cup” Win?) Celtic’s first “European Cup” win? No, it’s not the Lisbon story again – though, for those of a certain vintage, that’s a story that doesn’t lose any of its appeal in the re-telling. Celtic very early embraced the challenge of spreading the football gospel; and by the turn of the…

The finale to the 1931 Scottish Cup Final was one of the most dramatic of all time and led to one of the strangest situations in Scottish sporting media history. Celtic were well and truly up against it, 2-0 down and just six minutes, or so, remaining, with Motherwell, deservedly ahead and ill-advised to have…

Depending on your point of view, John Glass, one of the principal founding fathers of Celtic Football Club, was either a far-sighted visionary, who foresaw the huge potential of a successful Irish community club in Scottish professional football, or a cynical opportunist, who distorted and exploited both Brother Walfrid’s charitable idealism and Hibernian’s benevolent naivety,…

Everyone knows the story of the supposedly unsinkable “RMS Titanic”, the ill-fated White Star Line vessel that struck an iceberg and sank on 14th April 1912, four days into its maiden voyage. Not so many, though, will be aware of the spooky link between the Titanic and Celtic, through its sister ship, “RMS Celtic”, which…

The story of how the magnificent Glasgow Exhibition Cup comes to be part of the collection of permanent trophies housed at Celtic Park is a classic example of grabbing a second chance with both hands. Ironically … amusingly, even … as its inscription tells, Rangers originally won it, beating Celtic in the bruising final of a…

The iconic “Hoops” we supporters all know and cherish have not always been Celtic’s trademark. They were, in fact, pioneered by the old Edinburgh Hibernians, who were the original football standard-bearers of the Irish immigrant population of Scotland, until they became defunct in 1891. Celtic subsequently adopted green and white hoops as their traditional home…