The Lisbon Lions , the pitch and the wardrobe ...
G’ DAY fellow sports nuts, Celtic’s worldwide fan base never ceases to amaze me. Now, if you are a regular reader, then you will be familiar with the daily morning briefing podcasts. I usually speak on the channel from the confines of my spare bedroom. It is my working office. In the said spare room is a wooden wardrobe.
The piece of furniture has taken on a life of its own due to the amount of stuff that is precariously balanced on top of it. For the record, it is home to two boxes of 1970s children’s football game Super Striker, an old- fashioned Guinness pub tap, as well as a glass- encased front page cover of my first book release ‘ Gonnae Gie’s A Kick O’Yer Ba’ Mister’ with me looking as glaikit as ever as I wrap my arm around Argentine football legend Diego Armando Maradona.
The Celtic Way’s reach is far and wide, and we even have viewers tuning into the pod from Australia no less. So picture the scene, ladies and gentlemen, I was sitting in the press box at Accor Stadium on Sunday during the game against Everton and all of a sudden, a randomer bangs the glass window and proceeds to wave to me. He then held up his mobile phone with a picture of a wardrobe!
The spectator is chuckling to himself as he makes his way to his seat, having given me the thumbs- up sign. I can’t move for laughing either, but I need more than that. So I jumped out of the press box and sprinted along the gangway to make my way into the stands.
I greeted my new friend with a warm hug and a shake of the hand. “Hi Tony, I hope you didn’t take offence to my attempt at humour.”
“No mate, I love it, how are you?”
“I’m great, Tony. I had to be here. I wasn’t a Celtic supporter until Ange Postecoglou took over. Now I am obsessed with everything to do with the club It has taken over my life. I tune into the pod every day. I wouldn’t miss it.”
So let’s recap, shall we. The 67 song is being belted out with gusto by the fans, we are in the wonderful surroundings of the Accor/ Olympic Stadium in Sydney and there is a mobile phone picture of a piece of furniture. It got me thinking, dear reader, that the headline surely screamed: “The Lisbon Lions, the pitch and the wardrobe!”
I mean, how random and surreal is that? Postecoglou has a lot to answer for, by the way. However, the Parkhead boss is making sure that the club are winning friends, gaining supporters and extending its global appeal all the time.
Next stop Japan, possibly? This could result in Sean Martin and I stripping to the waist and having a ‘ Marquis of Queensbury’ rules celebrity death match to see who gets shipped off to the Far East. Be sure to tune in for that, as it will be a great bout. However, I’m more Thomas ‘ The Replacement Hip Man’ Hearns these days. After my sleepeating escapades the other night, I’d probably need to call myself ‘ Sugar Ray Diabetes’ or something. Pay- per- view? Paper legs would be more apt.
Anyway, I digress. Celtic may have packed their bags and left Australia, but I had one more football mission to complete by taking in the final match of the tournament – Everton v Western Sydney Wanderers at the CommBank Stadium in Parramatta – before I headed back home.
Watch the Toffees old sport? Toffee! I can do that. Geographically Everton is a big club by virtue of the fact they play in the English Premier League. Financially they are a big club because they play down south. The division is the self- proclaimed greatest league in the world.
As I watched Frank Lampard’s men playing as a total neutral, it struck me that in all my lifetime and association with football, I never once adopted an English team or any other team for that matter. True football fans can only support one club.
Sure I liked other teams.
The great Liverpool side of the 1970s and 1980s, Brian Clough’s double European Cup winners Nottingham Forest, Aston Villa, who also won the cup with the big ears, Tottenham Hotspur’s FA Cup- winning side of 1981 and 1982, Everton’s European CupWinners’ Cup winning team of 1984/ 85.
Arsene Wenger’s Arsenal, Kevin Keegan’s Newcastle United and Claudio Ranieri’s title- winning Leicester City
I wasn’t a Celtic fan until Ange took over
all spring to mind and merit honourable mentions. None have gripped me like Celtic ever did, and they never will.
Liverpool, like Glasgow, is a football- crazy city. You are either a red or a blue on Merseyside or from the green and white or blue and white half of the divide north of the border. It’s like that, and that’s the way it is.
Unlike Celtic, Everton’s fans didn’t come Down Under in their thousands. Yet those same supporters will probably argue that the Goodison Park side is a bigger club than the Hoops. Geography and cash innit?
The Bhoys are known in all corners of the globe. The thousands of Hoops fans who descended on Australia for the Sydney Super Cup are proof of that, if ever any was needed.
Everton may shake the Wirral but, in the heat of Lisbon in 1967, Celtic shook the world.