David Potter has this to say about the transfer of Lou Macari to Manchester United on this day back in 1973, while writing in his Celtic Diary on The Celtic Star this morning…
Lou Macari, who has been unsettled for some time, signs for Manchester United for £200,000. He is a fine player but has been looking for a transfer to England, and there have been occasions, notably in the League Cup Final of a month ago against Hibs and in the Old Firm game of 6 January, when he has not performed as well as the supporters might have expected. It is however still a very sad day for the club. It would not be true to say that the supporters wish him well.
We promised we’d have a look at this transfer later in the day, and it’s a story about Celtic’s fiver pay-rise not being enough for the unhappy player so Jock Stein sorted out a deal with his great friend Bill Shankly only for a former Celtic Star to intervene and divert the plater away from Anfield to sign instead for Manchester United.
Given the fortunes of the two English giants during the remaining years of Macari’s playing career you could be forgiven for wondering if that was the shrewdest decision that Lou Macari ever made.
Speaking to the Utd Podcast a few years ago Lou Macari talked through his reasons for leaving Celtic, how he heard about his transfer to England but knew nothing about the club he was being sold to and then how a former Celt got involved to scupper the deal to instead divert the player to one of their biggest rivals.
It all started with Macari, one of the Quality Street Gang at Celtic that was coming through to fill the boots of the Lisbon Lions side which was slowly but surely being replaced by Jock Stein, going into see the the legendary Celtic manager to ask for a pay-rise.
“I went in and told him my father had died and I was having to support my mother now,” Lou Macari explained. “How I plucked up the courage to go in, to this day I still don’t know. But I did. I had to because I needed more money on my contract if I wasn’t going to be offered enough.
“Jock told me I would be getting an extra five pounds per week on my wages and that was it. So I said, ‘Look, I need to support my mother, I can’t be having a fiver.’
“That was it, there was no more money being offered, so I said ‘I’m off.’ I knew I could get more in England, because I’d been around players [who played for English clubs]in the Scotland team.
“I sat at home for a couple of weeks, after training every day. I was looking at the phone, praying for it to ring. I was hoping someone would know I was available, but I didn’t know how the system worked. I had no agent and no one there to support me.
“The phone did ring one night and it was the manager, Jock. He said, ‘Get ready, you’re going to England in the morning’. Then he put the phone down on me.
“‘Where are you going?’ my wife said. “I said, ‘I don’t know, he never told me.’”
Next morning as instructed, the 23 year-old Macari made the road trip south of the border, passing places like Carlisle, Blackburn and Burnley but with no clue where he was being taken. He did know that he’d be spending the night in Southport who he knew was the home to a club then struggling in the lower reaches of the Football League. Surely that wasn’t Jock Stein’s plan for him, Macari worried. His fears were eased the next morning when he was taken to Anfield.
“I arrive at Liverpool FC,” Macari recalled. “I have five or six minutes to digest in my mind how I got here and I realise Stein and Shankly are the best of pals, big friends, similar backgrounds, top managers and before I know it, I’m in Bill Shankly’s office.
“He’s seen me play, likes me, says all the things I’d like to hear and then says, ‘I’m going to pay you £180 a week.’ What happened when you got transferred in those days was you got 5 per cent of the fee. I was going to be going for £180,000 and I’m quickly working out I’m £9,000 richer for that journey from my home to Liverpool.
“Shankly had to go because they were playing that night, so he went to the dressing room and I went to the director’s box. This guy walked in 10 minutes late for the game and sat down. It was (former Celt) Pat Crerand.
“There’s nothing wrong with Pat Crerand being late, he’s always late, as you know. We looked at each other and said: what you doing here? So I told Pat, ‘I’ve just been brought down here. I’m signing for Liverpool.’
“‘You’re not signing for Liverpool, you’re signing for Man United,’ he says.
“‘But you’re not in charge Pat?” Macari replied. “‘Right now, I’m in charge,” Crerand responded. Macari didn’t know if the former Celtic star was joking or not. A quick telephone call later, however, and it became apparent how deadly serious he was.
“You know Pat, he’s not one for giving up. At half-time he phoned up [then United manager]Tommy Docherty, who said he wanted me. And I’m thinking, I’m not signing for Liverpool. I’m signing for Man United.
“But I had to go back and tell the Liverpool manager, who is ferocious, no nonsense, who doesn’t mess around, that I’m not going to sign for Liverpool. How do I do it!?
“I’m a Man United fan. I knew George Best, Denis Law, Bobby Charlton. I knew George Best was the best player I was ever going to see. I don’t care what they’re doing. They might be fifth-bottom of the league, but they’ve got those three and I’ve got to be training with them next week.
“I went back to Shankly’s office and I lied, I’ve got to be honest. I said I need time to think about it. Next morning, I was going to head up north to Glasgow, meet up with Paddy and the Doc and sign for United. The fee went up because it was United, up to £200,000, which meant an extra thousand for me!”
