With the story of the summer in Scottish football being the Copeland Road building fiasco over at Ibrox, you have to admire Celtic’s stubborn attempt to avoid taking possession of the coveted Summer Cup.
Not signing a goalkeeper to replace Joe Hart, who did the club a massive favour by giving plenty of notice that he was hanging up his gloves. Or bringing back either Adam Idah or Paulo Bernardo or better still both. Or losing our best young players from the Celtic Academy, first Rocco Vata and now it looks increasingly like Daniel Kelly.
Maybe St Johnstone should pick up yet another unexpected trophy after today’s introduction of their new owner who obviously has absolutely no intention of selling the real estate amid a property bubble in the west of Perth?
🔵 Why he bought St Johnstone
🏟️ Moving from McDiarmid Park?
🏆 Top six, Europe & Cup run hopes
📝 Bigger budget for transfers
🇺🇸 More US investment in Premiership
❌ Why Sidibeh bid was rejectedAn exclusive interview with new St Johnstone owner Adam Webb ⤵️ pic.twitter.com/Hq64HZEaqZ
— Sky Sports Scotland (@ScotlandSky) July 10, 2024
Anyway back to Ibrox and the appallingly poor attempt at adding 600 seats to their capacity and narrow the 10,000 seat advantage that Celtic Park enjoys.
When Fergus McCann took over he envisaged a 60k stadium and achieved that by build three new stands. However the Main Stand at Celtic Park was untouched and today is still very much the same as Fergus inherited in March 1994 from the old Celtic Board.
In the years before the McCann Takeover the old Celtic Board carried out extensive work on the Main Stand and while their scoring on any competence scale certainly is not vey high they achieved all the building works and seat installation without Celtic Park being closed or unavailable.
So essentially the current board at Ibrox can be deemed more incompetent than the old board at Celtic prior to the Fergus McCann era!
Last summer former Celtic Director Tom Grant gave The Celtic Star a unique and unpublished collection of photographs. Around 800 prints and slides that he found up in his loft when getting ready to move home. Tom wanted Celtic supporters to see these images so contacted his favourite Celtic site to get them out there.
We digitalised them at our own expense and have periodically shared over the past year on The Celtic Star. But we have never shown you the images of the work the old Celtic board organised in the early 1990s that in comparison to the events this summer put the current Ibrox board to shame.
A shout out to Willie Collow on X for re-sharing some of the images we’re talking about today, from Celtic training in the 1970s at Barrowfields, where Celtic themselves are currently developing and the club themselves recently poked their Ibrox counterparts with their Barrowfield steelworks.
PHOTOS COURTESY OF THE CELTIC STAR…
Paul Wilson ☘️☘️☘️ pic.twitter.com/yHnXfwPBOo
— Willie Collow (@CollowWillie) July 10, 2024
Johannes Edvaldsson ☘️☘️☘️ pic.twitter.com/bnOnpw9Szi
— Willie Collow (@CollowWillie) July 10, 2024
Jackie McNamara Sr. ☘️☘️☘️ pic.twitter.com/w8tsmoEFEb
— Willie Collow (@CollowWillie) July 9, 2024
They say every picture tells a story, well we have many pictures all telling the same tale. And these have never been seen before as the upper section of the main stand at Celtic Park was modernised.
Enjoy these fascinating images and we are sure that you will see the point we’re making…
Looks like the green brigade were left unsupervised again.
Tom Grant on the LEFT!!! of the BUNNET
These are 1994-5 pictures hahaha WTF
Read the article before commenting on it is always wise. Saves making an arse of yourself….
Could have sold the seats to fans just like Bayern München did and give the proceeds to the Celtic Foundation or peter liewells bank account.hh