DARREN O’DEA yesterday provided a nice little insight to Tommy Burns, the man rather than the wonderful player or manager at Celtic. The former Celtic defender, who recently called time on his own playing career, was speaking at the SPFL Trust Golf Day, which raises money for mental health first aid training.
O’Dea is going to move into coaching himself – he has a job at Fir Park with the Motherwell Youths and will also play for his ‘local’ side East Kilbride after hanging up his boots in Dundee’s last game of the season against St Mirren, when he picked up a red card for a last man challenge.
And the Irishman’s inspiration is his own mentor as a young player trying to make his way in the game and that was TB.
“I know people who remember Tommy as a player or a manager, but I only knew him as a guy, just a good guy,” Darren said, as reported by Scotsman.
“He was a fantastic coach and he taught me a lot of things technically. But that’s not what I’m talking about with him. He was someone that guided me. I made a lot of mistakes when I was younger, as any young boy does. But Tommy guided me in life.
“When I was six months in at Celtic I wanted to go home. I wanted to go back to Ireland but Tommy was out to my digs within the hour to talk to me and have dinner.
“But when I look back I think about how he must have had 40 other boys to look after. He had a wife and kids, who I know really well, and he had a life. But yet he always seemed to have all the time in the world.
“He was actually a terrible time-keeper, probably because of that. But he was a guy I owe the world to and I have stayed in contact with his family.
“Tommy made me think I was a world-beater, and I wasn’t. I wasn’t. Trust me. He made me write all my ambitions and hopes for my personal life and my career. I found it the other day. If you see what I wrote you would understand how Tommy made you feel a better player than you were.
“My ambitions were ridiculous. I’d need to show you. Put it this way, I was winning the World Cup with Ireland. He made you just feel brilliant and that is a massive trait.
“Tommy was a huge part and I had Jim McInally, who was my 16s/17s coach, Willie McStay, Danny McGrain and Kenny McDowall.
“I look how important they all were in my career. They were a coaching staff who basically molded me into a player. I look at the kid who came over from Ireland, and I wasn’t that talented.
“I didn’t actually have the work ethic when I came over. They transformed me, and built me, and slapped me when I needed it as well.”
