Ten years at Celtic, working under six different managers – some of whom he had to win over – but it took a life threatening medical episode to convince Jackie McNamara that the time was right to bring out a book and his life and his time in the game, most notably that decade wearing the Hoops.
As an inspiration, Jackie continues even though he’s now out of the game. Have a read at this:
“I’m glad to see Jackie looking so well, he looks and sounds like he’s continued to recover even more in the last couple of months. This could be interesting for his career and life, including his recovery since last year. I’ve been recovering from being in a coma, a subarachnoid haemorrhage, some other type of haemorrhage and several blood clots in my brain after a cycling accident last August and have also made a great recovery that has been beyond the expectations of the Neurosurgeon from QEUH, neurologists and amazing brain injuries team from NHS Lanarkshire that have worked with me. I really need to start reading from books instead of from screens to help further my recovery so this is good timing for me,” Expo Scotland.
“The book is about my life and my career, and while I’ve been asked to do it a number of times over the years, I’ve always been reluctant to do it, especially when I was still playing and managing,” said McNamara in an exclusive interview with Celtic TV.
“The book is about my life and my career, and while I’ve been asked to do it a number of times over the years, I’ve always been reluctant to do it, especially when I was still playing and managing,” said McNamara in an exclusive interview with Celtic TV.
“What happened to me last year and the experience of that made me think it was right to do one then, to put it out there and if someone else is going through what I did last year, then maybe this can help them come to terms with it and maybe deal with it when they’re up against it.”
The former Celtic captain talks about how he coped with various consequences of his life threatening medical scare such as short-term memory loss, learning to walk and talk again on his road to recovery. “But it’s amazing how the body can recover and hopefully when people read my book, it can maybe help other people deal with things. It can take time to get better, but it is achievable.”
Jackie has been featured in the mainstream media over the past few days ahead of the book launch. He’s discussed several topical and previously controversial matters – such as Leigh Griffiths leaving Celtic for Dundee and the fall-out with Neil Lennon and the on-loan striker plus also his own departure from Celtic and his relationship with former manager Gordon Strachan.
On Griffths: “It’s a big moment now for Leigh Griffiths to go and play, to get himself fit. We’re not privy to what happened last year, and the relationship between him and Neil Lennon,” McNamara said, as reported in Scottish Sun.
“There are managers you fall out with, there are coaches and players who don’t get on. But Griffiths has got to get his career back on track — there’s no doubt when he’s fit and doing well, he is a natural goalscorer. That’s what Dundee and James McPake are hoping he’ll show when he’s up there.
“Neil’s said different things as well. But he’ll be wanting to get back into management, and won’t be wanting tit-for-tats with players. It’s a blame culture, unfortunately, and the buck stops with the manager most of the time — as I’ve found out with experience over the years.
“I think for Leigh it’s just a case of getting fit, and the best way to do his talking is by playing well and scoring.”
If there is are grievances there between Griffiths and Lennon, McNamara knows that it’s nothing new. Indeed he held one against Strachan for years after his own departure from Celtic. McNamara left Celtic in in 2005 to join Wolves but he certainly did not want to leave Paradise, as he explains in detail in his book, His Name Is McNamara which is published today.
“It took me time to establish myself under Martin O’Neill. I was in and out of the team and I spoke to him a number of times. I made it clear I wasn’t happy just to stay because it was Celtic. I wanted to play every game,” Jackie explains.
“Eventually he changed things around, I got back in gradually and then he made me captain. That was a hugely proud moment for me, especially when you consider who else was in the team — Henrik Larsson, Neil Lennon, Paul Lambert, Chris Sutton, Johan Mjallby, Stiliyan Petrov and Alan Thompson.
“All of them would have been ideal for captain but Martin went with me and that meant so much, but he left in 2005 and Gordon came in. I hoped for a new contract, but the way things worked out was so disappointing.
“I think if Martin had stayed on it would have been all sorted but Gordon came in and he wanted his own people in,” Jackie told the media, as reported by Scottish Sun, at his book launch last week. He signed Adam Virgo for £1.5million, he brought in Paul Telfer who was older than myself, plus Mo Camara. It wasn’t easy for me because of the timing of it all. We’d finished the season by winning the Scottish Cup and I’d had a testimonial.
“But the manner of the contract talks, and me later joining Wolves, meant I didn’t get the chance to say cheerio to the fans. Sometimes, though, things are just out of your control. My wife was expecting our third child and I wanted to stay at Celtic.
“There are certain things you take personally. You look to be wanted, feel part of it but by the end it was difficult for me. Gordon eventually told me that Celtic’s first offer to me of a one-year deal on the same money was what he was putting to me.
“I wasn’t happy with that. I felt I had shown my value to the team. I arranged a later meeting with him but was then told before it he was instead heading to Poland to watch a player. That left me deeply disappointed. It took me a good while, a few years, to really get over the way I left Celtic.
“I was bitter towards Gordon. But I saw him the other week and we talked away. We’re fine now. Life’s precious, as I’ve especially come to realise over the last 18 months. And I’ve reassessed everything in mine, what truly deserves to be valued, what’s really worth caring about and just as importantly what isn’t.
“Life’s not to be taken lightly. What happened undoubtedly changed my perspective and lots of things. Do I miss football management? Not really. Do I miss playing football? 100 per cent. But perspective is the word that I now keep coming back to.
“I lost the UEFA Cup Final with Celtic and that was a big disappointment. But then my mum passed away just after. In the early months of last year I was in a hospital bed — my wife and my dad were in the room — when they put me in an induced coma, after an operation had gone wrong, and they told them I might not wake up.
“They also said if I did I could have brain damage. Fortunately, I’m all right! It was tough to hear what had been said. But then I thought of how my wife and dad must have felt. So, whatever disappointments I had in football have been put in their place.”
His Name Is McNamara, the autobiography of Jackie McNamara, is published today by Pitch Publishing and is available at Celtic Superstores, selected bookstores and on Amazon.
