The Celtic support’s pain and suffering during the early to mid 1990s…

Celtic supporters of a certain age (Celtic Da’s) as we are better known by the younger generation, are quite fond of preaching about the bad old days of the 1990’s.

Who can forget Buster Merryfield’s brilliant character uncle Albert Trotter from Only Fools and Horses, who famously started almost every sentence with ‘during the war’, much to the annoyance of his nephews Del and Rodney? It must be a similar scenario for our younger supporters when they hear us ‘auld yin’s’ mutter the words ‘during the 90s’

I myself am guilty of it more than most and must sound like a broken record to my kids, friends, work colleagues, and fellow supporters. Much like folk of my generation had to put up with tales of how good Celtic were in the 60s and 70s compared to the pampered and less talented stars of today. It’s just a generational thing that will repeat again and again as time goes on.

But the early to mid 1990s was a depressing and dark time to be a Celtic supporter. Having to watch Rangers win everything in sight while we struggled not only to finish second, but sometimes third and even fourth place.

Trophies were scarce also. I myself went through my entire secondary school education without seeing Celtic win a trophy. Well that’s if you don’t count the Tennents sixes!

Six entire years without a trophy, can you imagine the uproar today? You had to have a thick skin in those days supporting our beloved club. Rangers supporters rubbed it in, and we had to take it. We knew they were the much superior side, and just had to sit back and accept it.

It wasn’t only our on field problems though, we had our troubles to seek off it also. The shysters who were in charge of our club were running it into the ground. We had a run down stadium, a run down team and things were looking very bleak indeed. We were on the verge of total collapse, literally. The supporters had enough, crowds were down to as low as eight thousand. We were now seen as an average run-of-the-mill football club, not as the Champions of Europe as we once were.

But change was inevitable. The supporters weren’t going to stand for it much longer and a campaign was launched to save our club and change our fortunes for the better. It was after all only a mere quarter of a century since we won the European Cup in Lisbon, and now we were just an average mediocre side struggling to stay in business and failing to cope with the harsh Financial realities in modern football.

Wee Fergus rode into town and the rest as they say is history. So to all the younger generation, just remember us ‘auld yin’s’ still have those bad experiences ingrained deeply in our minds.

The euphoria you saw in the supporters after the historic and vital title win in May 1998 tells you everything you need to know about what Celtic supporters suffered in those dark days. It wasn’t only a celebration of pure joy, but pure relief. Relief that we were finally free of the suffering and mediocrity we had suffered for nigh on a decade.

So when we preach about the dark days of the 90s, it’s only because we appreciate the success we have today after living through a very bleak period in the club’s history.

Just an Ordinary Bhoy

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