THE Celtic support will today pay our collective respects to Billy McNeill who David Potter described as a Celtic God on here earlier this week.
And all clubs across Scotland will have a minute of applause for Cesar including it should be noted at Ibrox tomorrow where Aberdeen are the visitors and they will pay their own respects to their former manager.
Aston Villa will wear black armbands against Leeds Utd this weekend and somewhat stung by the criticism they received for failing to do the same at Old Trafford on Wednesday, they announced that they would wear the black armbands against Leicester City a week on Monday – their next home match.
But it is at Celtic Park that the emotion will be intense, Billy was loved by the Celtic support for everything he did for the club and the support on and off the park.
The first time I spoke to Billy was in the summer of 1980 just before the new season got underway. I was 15 and in awe of the Celtic manager. We were invited as a group of young Hoops to meet the boss – I was 15 at the time – and he wanted to talk to us about the importance of behaving ourselves when representing the club at matches. This was in the aftermath of the Scottish Cup Final win over Rangers and the subsequent riot. It is fair to say that Billy, who had us all sit in in seats around the away dugout at Celtic Park, gave us a row!
For the record I had been at Hampden but was not on the park!
The last time I spoke to Billy was a few years ago when I spend a precious hour or so chatting to him in one of the executive lounges at Celtic Park before he joined up with Davie Hay to do a photo shoot for the Caesar and the Assassin book launch. He was clearly ill but would sparkle when discussing Celtic – I reminded him about the row he gave us in 1980, “I should have clipped your ears,” he said, and I think he meant it.
God bless you Billy and thank you for everything you gave to the Celtic family.
