I’ll cherish the words I was able to have with Liam before he passed
Former Celtic teammate John Hartson explains why he’ll be first on a plane to show appreciation for his late friend. I’M looking forward to an evening of tribute to Liam. I’ll be first on a plane to come over, Liam was a personal friend and I want to pay my respects.
I’m sure many of the footballers he played with and against will want to be there too, as well as his managers.
I don’t want to get involved in the politics of the row because I don’t quite understand it.
Liam was much-loved and very well respected; the game will bring in a huge crowd so all I want to hear is an announcement that the problems have been solved and they’ve agreed a stadium that can hold a considerable amount of people.
More people in a bigger stadium will mean more money for Liam’s family.
I’ll cover my own expenses to come over because I believe the money raised should go to his family
Liam broke into the team during my second or third year there and had an immediate impact.
Martin O’Neill wanted him to stay with Celtic but when the call came from Manchester United, not many players can turn down an opportunity like that, even though Liam was leaving a big club like Celtic. Liam came through with players like Shaun Maloney, Craig Beattie and Stephen McManus. They were great kids, they got the job done and respected the senior players. We had some really big characters at the time – Neil Lennon and Alan Thompson. They weren’t shy with a few words but Liam was very unassuming and quiet. He kept his head down and did his talking on the pitch. He was very popular in the dressing room and very well liked, no-one would have a bad word to say about him.
The minute I heard Liam wasn’t well I called him, I had had my own battle with cancer (testicular cancer which spread to lungs and brain) and I wanted to speak to him.
I’ll cherish those few words we had. He was so positive and fought to the end.
I’ve been very lucky and blessed to come through it, unfortunately Liam wasn’t. Now we just want to get as many people as possible to Ireland to give him a really big tribute.