Celtic legend David Hay on his five roles at the club, and convincing his grandson he’s as big as Larsson
IMMORTALISED in a famous song, Hay is one of the most recognisable faces around Celtic Park as he returns for a fifth job with the Bhoys.
https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/celtic-legend-david-hay-five-6955973
Sport
ByTony Haggerty
06:00, 5 DEC 2015Updated07:14, 5 DEC 2015
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“AND they gave us James McGrory and Paul McStay, they gave us Johnstone, Tully, Murdoch, Auld and Hay.
“And most of the football greats, have passed through Parkhead’s gates, all to play football the Glasgow Celtic way.”
The Hay in question in the famous Willie Maley Song is David. And this week it was announced he will be returning to Celtic in his fifth role after being appointed to the board of directors for the club’s Development Pools.
Hay’s new role follows previous stints as player, manager, chief scout and assistant general manager.
Not bad for someone who was born in Paisley and grew up supporting St Mirren.
Yet Hay has since gone on to become a Celtic legend. In his six-year spell as a player between 1969 and 1974, he helped win five of their then British-record nine successive Scottish championships, two
Scottish Cups and a League Cup.
But he also experienced his first career crushing disappointment as Jock Stein’s side lost the European Cup Final 2-1 to Feyenoord in Milan.
Now, 45 years on, Hay admits Celtic underestimated the Dutchmen. He said: “The semi-final win over Leeds was lauded as a tremendous achievement for Celtic. But it was tinged with the bitter disappointment of losing the Final.
“After we beat Leeds we thought we could beat anybody. But the difference is you can’t think that, you have to do it.
“We probably underestimated Feyenoord and I’m convinced had we got it to a replay it would have been a different outcome.”
Hay enjoyed a superb World Cup for Scotland in 1974 before things went downhill rapidly.
He joined Chelsea but knee
injuries blighted his five years at Stamford Bridge before a detached retina made him blind in his right eye and finally brought his career to a premature end.
Hay said: “I look back fondly at my time with Chelsea. The club looked after me during the spell I had trouble with my eye.
“It’s not the obvious connection you’d make but I always look out for the Celtic and Chelsea scores.”
Hay then reinvented himself as a manager and enjoyed tremendous success. He won the First Division with Motherwell in 1981-82.
Then in 1983 he was offered the chance to succeed another Celtic legend Billy McNeill in the Parkhead managerial hot seat.
In four seasons Hay won the 100th Scottish cup final in 1985 followed by the league title a year later.
That championship was clinched after an unforgettable last-day shootout with Hearts.
Celtic beat St Mirren 5-0 at Love Street and the Jambos lost 2-0 to Dundee at Dens Park to hand the championship crown to the Hoops.
Even 30 years on supporters still hug Hay and remind him of his greatest feat as a Celtic boss.
He said: “I won the 100th Scottish Cup Final when we beat Dundee United 2-1 in 1985 and it’s great to go down in the history books as the manager who did that.
“But the league championship win in 1986 over St Mirren will live with me forever.
“It was ironic as I used to live 100 yards away from Love Street
and I grew up a St Mirren supporter so it was special for me to achieve the ultimate high as a Celtic manager by winning the championship on that ground.
“It was the style in which Celtic won the league that day as we went 16 games unbeaten and won our last eight on the bounce.
“If ever something typified the Celtic way and the manner in which this club plays football it was Maurice Johnston’s goal that made it 3-0 and it was second to none.
“Now, 30 years on, Celtic fans still come up to me and want to talk about that day in Paisley and thank me for it.
“There is no better feeling in the world. Money can’t buy that.”
But Hay’s time as Celticmanager was not without its disappointments too. After a controversial 2-1 Skol Cup Final defeat to Rangers in 1986 Hay made an astonishing outburst about anti-Celtic refereeing bias by whistler David Syme which led him to say: “If it were up to me our application to join the English league would be made tomorrow”
He recalls: “I wanted Celtic to apply to join the English Fourth Division and maybe I had some foresight.
“I don’t regret saying that as I felt it was an injustice at the time with the penalty award that won the match for Rangers.
“Syme admitted later that he had made a mistake but it didn’t change the result.”
However, he admits his dismissal from Celtic as manager in 1987 to make way for McNeill for a second crack left him a bitter man for a while.
Hay said: “Two of the biggest disappointments with Celtic were the European Cup Final loss in 1970 and the day I got sacked as manager.
“The European Cup Final was easier to deal with as I just got back to playing football. Being sacked as the manager was more hurtful and it took me a period of time to get over that and get on with my life.
“I became bitter for a short period but I had to shed that bitterness in order to move on and I managed to do that.”
Hay went on to have further spells in management with varying degrees of success at Lillestrom, St Mirren, Livingston and Dunfermline
At Lillestrom he won the Norwegian championship in 1989 and he guided Livingston to third place in the SPL and a UEFA Cup spot
as well as beating Hibs in the 2004 League Cup Final.
In between times Hay returned to Celtic to become chief scout as well as a short stint as general manager where he recommended the Three Amigos – Pierre van Hooijdonk, Paolo di Canio, and Jorge Cadete – as well as Mark Rieper, Stephane Mahe, Paul Lambert and Craig Burley to the club.
The 67-year-old said: “I won the title with my first three clubs – Motherwell, Celtic and Lillestrom – and guided Livingston to third in the Premier League and the League Cup success in 2004.
“Livi were supposed to just turn up for a day out at Hampden against Hibs. But what a day out that turned out to be! It was a phenomenal achievement winning the League Cup with a club like Livingston.
“Although I didn’t enjoy the best of times as manager of St Mirren and Dunfermline, overall I wasn’t a bad manager.”
But Hay joked his youngest relations have yet to be convinced of his status as a real Celtic legend.
He said: “I have to thank Eric Riley for being instrumental in offering me the new post as director of the Development Pools.
“It’s a great feeling to be involved with the club in this capacity again.
“My grandson Vincent has joined the academy up at St Ninian’s in Kirkintilloch and my other grandson Louis, who is seven, has just got his first Celtic season ticket this year.
“I first went to train with Celtic as a 16-year-old so my association with the club goes back a long way. My love for Celtic has grown and grown over those 51 years.
“Louis is still unsure about his grandpa’s achievements with Celtic.
“He loves playing the Celtic Monopoly board game. The Mayfair and Park Lane of Celtic Monopoly are Jock Stein and Henrik Larsson.
“Louis had us all creased with laughter when he recently asked, ‘Is Henrik Larsson a bigger Celtic legend than grandpa?’
Rest assured Louis, Grandpa is a Celtic legend. The Willie Maley song is proof of that.