Celtic supporters will never forgive Maurice ‘Flymo’ Johnston

He performed well for Nantes and Scotland 

The hit-man performed well for Nantes, and also for Scotland. He was relatively low-key for two years, until Billy McNeill stunned us all with a bid to bring our hero home. The upshot is this; Johnston agreed to a dramatic return, signed a contract, and shook the hand of Cesar before being joyously paraded before the Celtic fans in his 1987 Celtic top.

Paradise was just that, until there was a dispute over the contract which Uefa had ratified. He was a Celt, or, was he? It was alleged he told Celtic he would play if the club agreed to settle a tax bill with Nantes, or that is what I was told, true or otherwise.

There are many rumours about what actually happened 

Celtic said no, the bill is yours, if indeed it happened.

The other (more credible) rumour was that the spendthrift Celtic board could not come up with his fee and they were dragging their feet. If so, it cost Celtic big time. Simultaneously, in a ‘chance meeting’ on the marble staircase of Ibrox, Souness bumped into Johnston’s agent, Bill McMurdo who had his house decorated as a mini-Ibrox.

Souness asked the agent a question, and the answer was, ‘Yes, probably’. McMurdo went to visit his client, and, in a matter of days, Maurice Johnston was sitting in the press room at Ibrox, smiling and shaking hands with Graeme Souness, drooling over a fresh contract which had filtered one million pounds into his bank account.

The fallout was beyond belief

The fallout was beyond belief, if you live on Mars that is. A group of Rangers fans burnt their season tickets outside Ibrox, whilst many Celtic fans threw up. Literally. I did.
Johnston had not only crossed the great divide which blights Scotland, but, in the process, stabbed Billy McNeill and the millions of we Celtic fans around the globe so deeply in the back that we never recovered. The hatred was palpable. Still is if you ask the fans.

When he scored in the last second of his first Glasgow Derby at Ibrox, he ran to the Rangers support and wept. The feeling across the city was one of numbness, disbelief even. The Glasgow bhoy had become an unashamed blue nose, even indulging in the vile, sectarian, anti-Catholic songs which are a staple among the Ibrox hordes.

Maurice Johnston went on to have a sterling career at Ibrox, scoring against Celtic at Parkhead to underscore his bizarre new allegiance. To this day I still don’t know how he could have done such a thing.

Hence his moniker at Celtic, ‘Wee Flymo!’

Recently, Frank McAvennie revealed how Johnston told him about the possibility of moving to Ibrox, months before he did! It’s now an open secret. Hence his moniker at Celtic, ‘Wee Flymo!’

Many years have passed since, and things have moved on. Johnston played for other clubs, Everton and Hearts among them, before retiring to the ‘safety’ of the NSL. He knows he will never be welcome back in Glasgow and he’s probably better off there.

There have been mini-wars around the dear green place over his fence-jumping, and that is no joke. I was living in London at the time of the debacle and was waiting for my Tube at Bank Station. As I looked to my left, a guy came staggering across the platform, blood gushing from a large slash on his face. I assisted him until the ambos came along.

“Mate, what the hell happened to you?”

“Mate, what the hell happened to you?” His guttural Scottish voice spat back at me, “Mo Johnston!” I still don’t know which team he supports. This happened 800 miles away in London.

Footie fans are notoriously unforgiving, and this begs the question, would you ever forgive him? I consider myself a reasonable man, but, I know my answer…

Hail Hail!

Eddie Murray