An Interview About Life In Professional Football And Playing For Celtic With Geordie Bhoy Alan Thompson

The first Celtic goal that I ever saw live was scored by Alan Thompson at Anfield. I was just six years old, watching the Hoops reach a European Semi Final! Yesterday, 18 and a half years after that famous night, I interviewed Tommo about his life in professional football and time as a Celtic player.

The half an hour interview was the 18th episode that I recorded for The Celtic History Podcast. It covers the most recent period of the club’s history in the series so far, yet Thompson’s time at Celtic was historic in every sense. After all, he played in teams that delivered Celtic’s first domestic treble for 32 years, and a first European final for 33.

We published an article with the audio embedded last night, but for those who wish to read a transcript of the conversation here’s how the interview unfolded:

Q) How did the idea to publish a book (A Geordie Bhoy) come about, was it something you’d always planned to do? Because I notice from the famous Seville team that you were part of that many of you have published books (Petrov, Lennon, Sutton, Hartson, McNamara). As well as having great careers, you all have stories off the pitch, so I had wondered if it was something you’d all spoken about.

No, I’d never planned to do a book at all. I’ve had contact with people in the past who’ve asked me to do one and I’ve always passed on it, but I just thought the time was right now. As you’ve said lots of my ex-teammates, Chris and Lenny, John, Jackie and Stiliyan have all done books. It’s about my football career, it’s about life after football since I retired and it’s interesting. I talk about a lot of things that people won’t know about, mental health struggles and all that – so it’ll be a good read and it’s something that I felt the time was right now to get it off my chest and talk about it in the open.

Q) One of the major personal stories that I know is included in the book is about the bad car crash you were involved in when you were younger, before you’d even started your professional career. What happened in that incident?

Obviously it goes into quite a lot of detail in the book. I was 16, I’d not long left school and was just about to embark on hopefully a glittering career and I had a serious car accident. It was touch and go whether I would walk again, I was extremely lucky. I could have been in a wheelchair being fed through a tube. I missed a lot of my childhood football, 16-18 was disrupted through the severity of the neck break, so I was an extremely lucky boy.

Q) Thankfully, you did make a full recovery not just in terms of your basic health but actually to go on and have a proper football career. You came through at your boyhood club Newcastle and went on to play for Bolton and Aston Villa too. Is there a lot in the book about your early career?

Yes it goes from being a young boy, how I fell in love with the game growing up in Wallsend in Newcastle, going on to play for my boyhood club Newcastle United which is a dream come true for any kid to play for the club in the city where they grew up, especially after the long road to recovery from the neck injury and car crash. Then it goes on to Bolton and Aston Villa, then obviously the big chunk of the book is about my time at Celtic, both as a player and a coach.

Q) Most football minded people will know about your success at Bolton, but for younger listeners, my age and below, they might not be as aware. You didn’t just play for Bolton, you won two promotions and had really successful time there so it’ll be good for readers to get the full picture of your career.

Yeah, one thing I’ll say about the book as well is that there’s a lot of other people that speak in it. People like Bruce Rioch, who was my manager at Bolton, he’s in the book. Ex-teammates from Bolton, Celtic, Aston Villa they’ve all got little bits in there. It’s interesting to get other people’s take on myself and what they thought of me. It’s a little bit different and there’s lots of interesting content.

Q) After playing for three huge clubs you eventually went to Celtic, just after the 6-2 game. I remember the good times, but your experiences in the Glasgow Derby fixture were mixed in the sense that you scored seven goals but had a few red cards. Did the players dislike each other, or was it purely the importance of those games for winning trophies that made them so intense?

I think everyone was personal. Everyone had their own views on different people and different players, but I think when you went on the pitch you always respected the opposition whether it was an Old Firm game or not. So yeah there was love hate relationships. A big part of the book is just about Old Firm games. Obviously the red cards and the goals you mentioned, and my relationship with Fernando Ricksen god rest him. They were great times and they were brilliant games to play in. If you won there was no better feeling, but if you lost there was no worse feeling.

Q) When you signed for Celtic were you made aware of the basic history, of the club being founded by Irish immigrants to feed the poor Irish in the city, so that you get a sense of what it means and the history behind the rivalry?

I knew a bit about it. My mother’s family are from Ireland, the Kelly’s are Irish, and I knew the tradition and the history, and the great players who played for the club over the years – 67 winning the European Cup – and I had mates already at the club, Tommy Johnson and Alan Stubbs who I’d already played with at Bolton. So, I followed it and kept an eye on it. I knew what it was all about but it’s only when you get there that you realise the size of it.

Q) Besides Henrik Larsson, who was the best player you’ve ever played with?

One that always stands out for me would be Peter Beardsley. Watching him as a kid at Newcastle United, he just had a football brain like a computer, just always ticking it was always thinking, it was ahead of everyone else. He just had pure natural ability you can’t coach that, you can’t teach that. Peter would probably be the one, although when I played with him it was at the end of his career – the beginning of my career at Bolton Wanderers. But having watched him as a kid and then having the opportunity to play with him at Bolton I’d say Peter would be the standout one. He’s a big Celtic fan as well so that makes him even better!

Q) While you were at Celtic you became the first player who, during their time at the club, received an England cap. All the talk I heard in England at that time was how people wished Ryan Giggs had declared for England, because the English played Scholes wide left to accommodate Gerrard and Lampard. I felt you should have been on the left with one of Gerrard or Lampard dropping out. You’d scored major goals in Europe, so I felt you deserved more than one cap. It must have been a great experience to get that cap and I know that’s covered in the book, but do you think you should have got more games for England?

Obviously everyone as a kid wants to play for their boyhood club, which I achieved, and then to represent your country. Although I’d represented my country at under age, at U18 and U21 level, you want a full cap. It was towards the end of my career when I got that cap, but maybe I was doing enough in Europe, whether it was UEFA Cup or Champions League, to justify getting a call earlier or getting more than one chance, but I got my one cap and I was extremely proud to get it. Would I have liked more opportunities? For sure. It wasn’t to be but it’s certainly a proud moment when you pull on the strip for the country of your birth. I don’t think it gives you much opportunity in a friendly away from home to show what you can do and I think I got 70 minutes, so yeah I’d like to have gotten an opportunity to play in a home game or something like that as well with a home crowd and possibly put a bit of a stamp on a game and prove I could play at that level.

Q) You eventually left Celtic and you weren’t too happy about the manner of your exit. You went on to a big club in Leeds and you finished at a smaller club with Hartlepool. Was it hard retiring from the game?

It’s always hard to stop playing, but if you told me when I was 16 and I could possibly have ended up in a wheelchair for the rest of my life – you’re going to have a career, retire when you’re 34, play 500 plus games, play for great clubs and get an England cap; I would have snatched your hand off. So, although it is hard to retire, I wanted to go down the coaching route and I look back on my playing career with fond memories and I’m extremely proud.

Q) Away from football you’ve been involved in a boxing match recently and you’ve written a book, so what does the future hold next; are you looking to get back into football?

It’s nice with covid lifting and getting a bit of normality back. I was up in Glasgow last week for three evenings, which was hard work. I’m going to Dublin next week and I’ve got lots of book signings coming up with the book coming out keeping me busy. But I’d like to get back into football in some capacity. Possibly coaching, possibly recruitment or something like that. Who knows? 2022 might be the year when I get back in. It’s fast approaching and I haven’t worked for over three years now so the batteries are fully charged and I’d like to get back involved in some capacity without a doubt.

Q) Is there a favourite story you want to share as a taster for people to get a copy of the book?

Not really off the top of my head. I’ve gone into it completely open, there’s nothing I’ve avoided in the book. There’s a lot of humour included, but also a lot of serious stuff from playing days to losing my job at Celtic in 2012, so it goes into a lot of detail about a lot of things. Hopefully it’ll help people out in a few ways, it’ll give people a laugh and a smile, and then there’s a few truths in there as well. It’s just an open account of my life.

I’ve played with some unbelievable characters, not just at Celtic. Everyone who listens to this podcast will know about the Celtic ones, but there’s characters at everywhere I’ve played. As a kid at Newcastle there was people like Micky Quinn and Brian Kilcline. At Bolton there was people like John McGinlay, Jason McAteer, Alan Stubbs; and Aston Villa had characters like Stan Collymore, so there’s a lot of characters in the group who I’ve got some funny stories about.

Chris (Sutton) was a big joker. I’ve seen one of his tweets yesterday saying ‘I thought Gerrard was happy at Rangers’, he’s always having a little pop and a wind up.

The dressing rooms are the hub. There’s a lot of humour in them and a lot of raw emotion going on in dressing rooms, so you do get the laughs but you also get the fall outs and the arguments, the fights. It’s an interesting place the dressing room, and one that every footballer misses when they retire. That dressing room atmosphere, the camaraderie, the highs and lows, the winning and losing, the red cards and massive victories over big clubs. The dressing room is a massive part of every football club and that’s something that gets spoken about a lot in the book.

People used to think I was a fighter because I’d get involved in a few tear ups with other players and then when I done the boxing match a few weeks ago I think everyone realised I wasn’t a fighter. People have different opinions on us outside the dressing room.

Q) The book is written by Jamie Boyle, published by War Cry Publishing and is available for pre-order now, on Amazon and warcrypress.co.uk. It’s fully released on 1 December 2021, so where can people buy it from then?

It’ll be on Twitter and social media, it’ll be available in good bookshops. Amazon, War Cry Publishing and look out for the audio version and all the links will be on social media for people to get and have a good read.

Big shout out to Martin O’Neill as well. When I rang him up and asked him if he’d do the foreword for the book he was over the moon that I asked him because I could have asked other people but I just thought there’s no better man to do the foreword for my book ,especially after everything he done for me, so a big shout out to Martin for doing the foreword. I’ve read it and it’s a marvellous piece of writing. He tried to take me to Leicester so I didn’t think he’d come back in for me any time after that but as soon as he gave me the chance to go to Celtic I was all over it.