Liam Brady’s years at Celtic Park were not good ones. Two full seasons and a bit in which not a trophy was won, not even a Final was reached while the club was frankly going to Hell.
It was not all the likeable Irishman’s fault; he was not even the main culprit. He was working for a Board whose total lack of knowledge about football, finances, business and even the realpolitik of Glasgow was truly astonishing.
Liam’s appointment was itself astounding. He had been a great player for Arsenal and Juventus, but he had never been a Manager. And now in summer 1991, he suddenly found himself in charge of Celtic, and an underfunded Celtic side who were light years behind Rangers and even a great distance below teams like Aberdeen. It defied belief.
Liam Brady Celtic football manager August 1991
And Liam also showed a total lack of knowledge of Scotland and Scottish football. He kept belittling the Old Firm derby games and comparing them to Arsenal v Tottenham, and Juventus v Torino. Celtic went out of the League Cup to Airdrie – a seismic, cataclysmic event in most Celtic households, but Liam said “Ah, but Airdrie are not a bad team. They beat Aberdeen as well, you know!” The man simply did not understand Celtic and their fans.
His acid test came in the Scottish Cup semi-final of 1992 one wet (very wet) April evening. For a few weeks Celtic had been playing well in League games and were even being talked about as “the form team of Scotland”. They dominated Rangers that night – but simply couldn’t score. But goalscoring is a very important facet of football, and domination counts for nothing.
Things went from bad to worse in 1992/93, the situation not helped by Rangers having a good run in Europe. The return of McAvennie might have worked with better management, and in men like Boyd, McStay and Collins there was obvious quality, but several other players were clearly not Celtic class.
Brady was allowed to continue against the background of imminent revolution until October 1993. After a dreadful defeat at McDiarmid Park, Perth in which, allegedly, there were fisticuffs in the Celtic dressing room, Brady was asked to leave by a Board who were desperately trying to blame it all on the Manager.
The faults lay a lot deeper than Liam Brady, but he had to go – a man clearly not cut out for the job.
David Potter
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