Andy Lynch was full of enthusiasm for the walking football he’s got into recently. He plays down at Largs and was skeptical at first when a friend was trying to entice him to go along for a game.
“You work up a great sweat,” he told me when we met up last week for a coffee and a chat at the Starbucks at the top of he Braehead shopping centre.
“The good players still stand out, and it’s very competitive, I really enjoyed it.”
You can find out more about walking football in Scotland HERE.
Andy was back in Scotland – he splits his time here and over at his place in Spain – and is very interested to talk about How Celtic are doing. He doesn’t see too much to worry about regarding the league – although reckons that is has got more interesting with the arrival of Steven Gerrard at Rangers. That has given the Scottish game a wider profile overseas and there is a focus once again on the great, historic Glasgow rivalry.
The former club captain was more concerned about Celtic pushing on in European football under Brendan Rodgers and for all he recognises that two double trebles has been sensational, the manager himself will want to make an impact in Europe during his time in charge of the side.
“I’ve been surprised that Brendan has set up the team the way he has done in some of the away games in Europe. They’ve taken some heavy punishments as a result. Sometimes you need to think about parking the bus in these games,” he said.
Andy made the news earlier in the year when some of his quotes in his book, Hoops Stars and Stripes, became very relevant to Scottish football when Rangers appointed Steven Gerrard as their new manager.
Andy you see had spoken to the Liverpool legend about Scottish football and Gerrard had clearly indicated that he was a Celtic man! Here’s what he said.
“The decisive factor could be that he (Steven Gerrard) is a real Celtic man. That took me by surprise when I met him at half-time during a Liverpool game at Stoke. I had travelled up from London with the club owners, Hicks and Gillett, to be guests of Liverpool. Gerrard wasn’t playing so at half-time he was introduced to me.
“It was him who brought up the subject of Celtic and you could see he was pretty excited talking about it. He said ‘that’s my team, that’s who I support.’
“Obviously, I’m sure he’s got a great love for Liverpool and I’m not saying Celtic would have been a greater love. But he was very adamant about his passion for Celtic and said whenever he gets opportunities he would come up and see them because that was his team when he was younger.
“Then he told me he has a Celtic strip framed at home and it has Lynch on the back of it.
“So I’m racking my brains thinking I have played in a few testimonials against Liverpool but it was before his time – and then it dawned on me.
“I said to him ‘that’s my son’s shirt’. When Simon was at Celtic he played in Ronnie Moran’s testimonial at Anfield. I don’t know where Simon’s put Gerrard’s shirt but the fact we know where that Celtic jersey is says a lot.”
Apologies re the typo below (available)…
*Photos in this article are from the day when Neil Lennon’s Celtic defeated Liverpool – managed by Brendan Rodgers 1-0 in Dublin in a pre-season friendly.
Also on The Celtic Star today…
Brilliant video from the Green Brigade Food Drive 2018…See HERE.
Oh Hampden in the rain…the end of an eight-year hoodoo – Celtic’s season 1982/83 (Part 2)…See HERE.
Astroturf pitches? “The Celtic guys came with a bit of tightness,” Scotland boss…See HERE.
Jim Craig – Six goals for Dixie Deans as Jimmy McGrory watched…See HERE.
If you would like to write for The Celtic Star, on any Celtic related subject of your choosing, we’d love to hear from you. Simply send an email to editor@thecelticstar.co.uk and we’ll get right back to you. HH
