The Celtic Star of the Decade – 1930-1939, The Trainer, Jimmy “Napoleon” McMenemy

LAST THURSDAY we started a new series on The Celtic Star. We asked club Historian and author of countless Celtic books, David Potter to select The Celtic Star of the Decade for each and every decade since 1888. Starting at the very beginning during Celtic’s early years, David opted for SANDY  McMAHON and you can read his Celtic story below.

Moving into the first decade of the 20th Century there really only could be one name that David Potter could opt for and that’s JIMMY QUINN who David named as The Celtic Star of the Decade for 1900-1909 Here’s why…

And David’s third pick for The Celtic Star for the club’s third decade running from 1910-1919 is none other that PATSY GALLACHER. You can read about The Mighty Atom here…

And yesterday, for David Potter’s selection for the Celtic Star of the club’s fourth decade running from 1920-1929, who else could he go for but the one and only JIMMY McGRORY Read about Celtic 550 goal legend below…

Now the brief to David Potter was clear, select The Celtic Star of each decade. That means he doesn’t necessarily have to opt for a PLAYER for that decade, although it could quite easily be a former player that the Celtic historian opts for. For instance he may well opt for Jock Stein as The Celtic Star of the 1960s but he doesn’t. The ONLY decade that David has opted for a non-playing winner of The Celtic Star of the decade is the one we’re featuring today for the decade 1930-39.

Turn the page to read David’s logic in choosing JIMMY McMENEMY as The Celtic Star of the Decade 1930-39…

And for David Potter’s selection for the Celtic Star of the club’s fifth decade running from 1930-1939, is the Celtic trainer or manager in all but name, JIMMY ‘NAPOLEON’ McMENEMY…

5. The Celtic Star of the Decade – 1930-1939 – the Celtic trainer Jimmy ‘Napoleon’ McMenemy…

For the man of the decade of the 1930s. I have chosen a man who was not a player – at least he was not a player in the 1930s. There were many good players – John Thomson, Jimmy Delaney, Willie Lyon and Malky MacDonald spring to mind, but The Celtic Star of the decade was the trainer, Jimmy McMenemy.

Jimmy “Napoleon” McMenemy had already played an outstanding part in Celtic’s history, winning 6 Scottish Cup medals and 10 Scottish League medals in the years before the Great War and during the conflict as well. He had been an inside forward with a tremendous creative ability and penchant for scoring goals.

He was a very complete player, but the feature of the teams in which he played was that the forwards could all “interchange” i.e. change positions at will, and confuse the opposition.

He was appointed trainer in 1934, at a time when the club were going nowhere. The self-effacing McMenemy (one of the many great Celts about whom it was said that he just looked “like an ordinary man”) brought a great deal to this job – commitment, tactical knowledge, ability to motivate players, ability to act as a pastoral counsellor, and crucially to act as a conduit or channel to the increasingly curmudgeonly and cantankerous Willie Maley.

McMenemy may have been self-effacing, but he was also shrewd enough to work out that it would be possible for him to run the team, while appearing not to i.e to make it seem that Maley was making the decisions whereas it fact it was he, McMenemy, who was ever so subtly, calling the shots.

And the players all loved and respected him in a way that they did not feel likewise for the brusque, dictatorial and occasionally out of touch “Boss”.

In particular, he resurrected the idea of “interchanging”, the policy which had been so successful in the 1900s and 1910s. The Scottish League was won in 1936 and 1938, the Scottish Cup in 1937 and the Empire Exhibition Trophy of 1938.

Maley claimed the credit (and not entirely without cause) but the man who did it all was Jimmy “Napoleon” McMenemy.

David Potter

Some additional reading about Jimmy ‘Napoleon’ McMenemy on The Celtic Star…

‘Let’s talk about Napoleon!’ David Potter…see HERE.

‘No pillow talk for Celtic Stars, a word about Jimmy McMenemy,’ Jim Craig on The Celtic Star…see HERE.

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