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It is fair to say that over the generations the relationship between the Celtic support and the Scotland team has at times been as prickly as a thistle.
Despite attempts by others to claim otherwise, no club has been as supportive of the national team as the Bhoys. No rational person can deny Celtic has served Scotland well. But Scotland has not always served Celtic well. Indeed at times you have to wonder if the Scotland team would prefer an average player from anywhere else rather than a good or great player from Celtic.
There is no doubt that the seven caps won by the legendary James McGrory were insultingly scant reward for such a phenomenal forward. While the great Hughie Gallacher would provide tough competition in the early years of McGrory’s career the Celtic man was for many seasons unquestionably the outstanding Scottish centre-forward.
McGrory was the supreme goal scoring talent of the age. His ability to put the ball in the net was unrivalled. He was a world class talent and a model professional. Yet the man whose late winner against England in 1933 gave birth to the famed ‘Hampden Roar’ was frequently overlooked in favour of men who were simply not in his class. The ever humble McGrory was too modest to ever question the motives of selectors but he would not have been surprised when other Celts suffered similar injustice at the hands of Scotland selectors and managers.
Parkhead and Scotland skipper Bobby Evans enjoyed a lengthy career and although his total of 48 caps appear to be a significant amount the reality is that it could have been double that amount. But perhaps the starkest evidence of this inexplicable reluctance to select Celtic players can be found in the cases of Billy McNeill, Jimmy Johnstone and Bobby Lennox.
All three men represented their country on many occasions but like McGrory these caps are a woefully insignificant representation of their outstanding qualities. Particularly so when you compare them to the international honours received by players significantly less gifted.
A strong and imperious centre-half McNeill was a natural leader who had magnificently marshalled the Celtic defence against the very best in Europe. Johnstone was a unique talent, a tiny terror who struck fear into any defence and was without any doubt among the most gifted players in the game. Lennox was blessed with devastating pace, great touch and an eye for goal. Equally effective out wide or through the middle he would have walked into any squad in the world.
McNeill spent his entire career lifting silverware and his influence was omnipresent as Celtic dominated Scottish football and climbed the heights of the European game. In terms of ability, leadership and ability Ron McKinnon, McNeill’s Rangers counterpart during this period, was over-shadowed in every department by Cesar. Yet during this period of direct competition McNeill won 13 Scotland caps to McKinnon’s 28. It really should be a case for the X-Files. Johnstone and Lennox could tell similar stories.
Indeed while Celtic’s all conquering Lisbon Lions side won a combined total won 114 caps the Rangers side that lost the ECWC final the same season would win 155 caps.
A noteworthy exception in that period was when Scotland hosted the USSR in a friendly match on 10 May 1967, just over 2 weeks before Celtic were to contest the European Cup Final, a feat never before achieved by any British team. The then national manager Bobby Brown, a former Rangers goalkeeper, had been asked to go easy on the Celtic players given the importance of their forthcoming match in Lisbon. USSR won 2-0 at Hampden against a Scotland side which started with 6 Celtic players (Simpson, Gemmell, Clark, Johnstone, McNeill and Lennox) with Willie Wallace coming on a sub for Denis Law – that’s 7 Celtic players in the 12 man squad. Who says the SFA were biased. Incidentally the opening Russian goal was a superb lob by Tommy Gemmell fully 30 yards out, over the head of Ronnie Simpson.
Being selected however was not the only issue for Jimmy Johnstone. He and fellow Celts like Davie Hay also found themselves targeted by a large section of the Scotland support. They would be booed and heckled from the opening minutes of a game. Frequently such abuse would originate from the traditional Rangers End of Hampden and the demand would be for these Celts to be replaced by a Ranger off the substitute’s bench.
Kenny Dalglish was another who suffered at the hands of a seemingly anti-Celtic bias. Having quickly established himself as a Scotland regular Dalglish was on course to beat the record for successive Scotland appearances held by Rangers’ George Young. But on the eve of the game which would have seen Kenny capped for a record breaking 34th time he was dropped without explanation.
Kenny was recalled for the next match and would go on to beat Young’s record. By then though he was, significantly, no longer Dalglish of Celtic but Dalglish of Liverpool
Ironically, while few clubs have served the Scotland cause as faithfully as Celtic the same cannot be said of the Ibrox club – the self-styled Scottish institution. The poison of sectarianism wasn’t the only legacy left by Bill Struth. In the days when the annual Scotland V England clash preceded the Scottish Cup final the Rangers manager, eager to rest key men, would regularly order his players to withdraw from international duty. Struth would ease the blow for players eager to represent their country by ensuring they would be paid for their unpatriotic actions.
Graham Souness may have ditched Struth’s sectarian employment policy but – as Ally McCoist has testified – he thought nothing of using the excuse of a vague and imagined injury to withdraw perfectly fit players from Scotland duty. Judging by the action of the current Rangers set up both McCoist and Walter Smith obviously learnt well from Souness.
Yet while Celtic were slaughtered by the Scottish press in 2006 for making players unavailable for the post-season Kirren Cup in Japan the same media has been noticeably subdued in commenting on Rangers’ long history of neglect towards their national team.
Of course in recent years the paucity of talent from Scotland means that the national team can no longer afford to ignore Celtic players. But history means that for some Scottish followers of the Hoops their support for the national side will always be tainted by a sense that they are not as welcome as they should be.