Kelman, John

John Kelman was a well respected football figure in Scotland and was brought in by Billy McNeill at the start of the 1978-79 season to completely re-organise the scouting system and network at Celtic. He had previously been a scout for Bolton Wanderers in Scotland, the link being made through his brother-in-law and ex-Celt Jim Conway who had gone on to take a coaching role with Bolton Wanderers. He took some persuading to take the role because of his family ties to Bolton, but when Billy McNeill finally got his man he set about completely re-organising scouting for the club which, up to that point, had been somewhat of an ad hoc affair. The plan was to have a Celtic scout representative in every region in Scotland and Ireland.

Part of the pressure to reform the set-up came from a change in the nature of S-Form youth signings which was about to be put through by the SFA. Teams had been in the habit of signing up a large number of schoolboys and when it came to making a committment to them simply annulling the contracts thusd tieing potential footballers to the club and having little responsibility to develop their talent. At this time Celtic had 22 S-Formers, mostly from the ranks of Celtic Boys Club which was very much seen as a feeder to Celtic. Teams were allowed up to 30 S-Formers on their books.

John set the following structure up:-

• John Higgins (ex-Celtic) – 1st and 2nd Division Scotland
• Matt Anderson – Greenock and the Clyde
• Arthur Bellamy – Lothians and Borders
• Tom Brady (ex-Hibernian), Ned Cushley, Frank McGuire – Lanarkshire
• Pat Delaney (ex-Motherwell) – Ireland
• Jack Devlin, Peter Galletly (ex-Clyde) – Glasgow and West of Scotland
• Tom Harvey – Stirling and Central
• Charlie McNaughton – Dundee, Fife and Perth

The set up paid off immediately with the club, in 1978, finding itself light on central defenders – centre halfs. David Young was spotted by the Edinburgh scout playing for North Merchiston Amateurs and recruited. Also recruited at the same time was a young Jim Duffy, spotted by Peter Galletly playing for Possil YM and quickly signed after trialling. He was responsible for signing a raft of Celtic players like Paul McStay, Peter Grant and Derek Whyte for the club and was regularly seen in the Celtic View in photographs showing the manager, Kelman, a smiling parent and a new youth signing for the club. The top picture shows a young Brian McLaughlin and parent signing up in the late 80's.
After 15 years with Celtic, John had a brief period with Partick Thistle before he moved on to Aberdeen and worked as Chief Scout for the Dons taking over from another eminent Scottish footballing figure, Jimmy Carswell.
He moved south of the border to Stoke in the late 90s.
Sadly John died in May 2007.

Articles:

• Coach pays tribute to his late friend Kelman