LISBON LION CRAIG ON DALGLISH AT 70
Dalglish’s superstar potential was always clear to Lisbon Lion Craig
‘That wee fat boy won’t make a player.’
FOOTBALL mythology has it that Sir Alex Ferguson, who proved himself to have something of an eye in that particular department, offered a passing verdict after a Rangers v Celtic reserve match on the Parkhead striker who had started the game with some repute.
It might have been the first time that Kenny Dalglish, celebrating his 70th birthday today, took some delight in silencing his notoriously opinionated countryman.
Ferguson might not have been the only one who needed convincing on Dalglish. Sean Fallon, whose house visit had persuaded Dalglish to sign for Celtic, had to offer assurances to Jock Stein that the striker would come good in his own time.
Dalglish might have been a late bloomer but his arrival, when it came, was seminal.
In an unusual turn of events with construction on Celtic’s main stand underway, the Parkhead side played Rangers three times in as many weeks and with all games at Ibrox between August and September 1971.
Dalglish not only scored his first senior goal in the opening match between the teams but went on to score in all three of the fixtures.
His first goal, a penalty, came after Billy McNeill handed him the ball. Bending to tie his laces before he took the spot-kick, Dalglish was nonchalance itself.
Not that it came as any great surprise to his then team-mate Jim Craig. The Lisbon Lion had been handed the task of driving Dalglish to training every day and his immediate impression of his travelling partner was his quiet self-assurance.
‘What set Kenny apart right away was his temperament,’ said Craig. ‘I’ve seen players, well-known players, who would be in pieces before big games. Some people are born with the temperament that nothing fazes them and for others it never comes. Kenny was in the born-with-it camp.
‘Even back then in the car, Kenny was chatty. He had a dry sense of humour. But what always came through was a very quiet confidence about his own ability. He wasn’t boastful or big-headed but he carried himself in a way that you knew he sensed his own talent. ‘You have to remember that Kenny came into the club at a time when there were real big characters there. ‘There was the Lions, obviously, and what they had just achieved, and by the time he was looking to get into the first team, the club were on the back of the 1970 European Cup final, which they blew. ‘Then, of course, you had the Quality Street gang all coming through. It would have been quite an intimidating environment to come into.
‘Kenny was calm. He just had that presence about him.’
In some ways, Dalglish’s Celtic chapter has become little more than a footnote in a career, where his status at Liverpool is unrivalled. Worshipped by the Anfield support as he won three European Cups with Liverpool and played a pivotal role in their dominance of English football in the ’80s, Dalglish’s place in their culture and history took on even greater weight in the months following the Hillsborough disaster. Then manager of Liverpool, Dalglish attended every one of the funerals of the 96 victims.
But while the most decorated Scottish player of all time is woven firmly into Liverpool’s history, his time at Celtic should not be overlooked, according to Craig.
By the time he left Celtic for a then British record transfer fee of £440,000 in 1977, he had already played in two European Cup semi-finals for Celtic in 1972 and 1974. He had also won four Scottish titles, four Scottish Cups, a League Cup and had 47 of his 102 caps. Of the 30 goals Dalglish scored for Scotland, 16 came as a Celtic player.
‘Because of the weight he holds with Liverpool and the way he is woven into the fabric of the Anfield club, I sometimes think his Celtic career can feel like a footnote but that’s unfair,’ said Craig. ‘He was tremendous at Celtic and also for Scotland. I don’t think there is anyone who would question that Kenny was the greatest forward that we have ever produced.
‘I felt as though his first 50-odd caps he was still feeling his way in the team — but from then on in, for the other 52, I think, he really stamped his authority on the Scotland team, too. He was world-class, no doubt about it, and we don’t produce too many of them.
‘There are not too many football players that find themselves knighted, so although it makes me feel old to know that Kenny is celebrating his 70th birthday, I think we can all appreciate what a wonderful career he had.’