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Personal
Fullname: Wayne Biggins
aka: Bertie
Height: 5.10
Weight: 13st
Born: 20 Nov 1961
Birthplace: Sheffield
Signed: 25 November 1993
Left: 24 March 1994
Position: Striker
Debut: Celtic 2-0 Motherwell, League, 24 Nov 1993
Internationals: none
Biog
| “To get the call at the age of 33 to go to Celtic, I just thought it was unbelievable.” Wayne Biggins |
Whatever manager Lou Macari saw in Wayne Biggins, it was not shared by the Celtic support who were left wondering why the limited but hard-working Andy Payton was swapped for an unknown 33-year-old English journeyman with not exactly a stellar record. A reasonable striker in lower division English football, but just not Celtic class. A good record with Stoke was the selling point, but with his last club (Barnsley) he had achieved little.
He was thrown into a demoralised First XI at Celtic to score goals in a side that struggled to make any. It was a task which he was never going to fulfill. It was too much to ask of him.
Andy Payton, in an interview in 2013, kind of summed up the incredulity of the transfer:
“He brought Wayne Biggins up in a swap deal for me which was beyond belief as he didn’t even score a goal for the reserves. I´m not singling out the player, I´m just looking at the comparison in the two records, and it´s frightening really.”
Wayne Biggins made just four starts (plus six substitution appearances) for Celtic but as far as the Hoops support – by now deeply demoralised by the dominance of Rangers – were concerned that was four starts too many.
Possibly the lowest moment was on 1st January 1994, the traditional New Year Derby v Rangers. It could have been a welcome shot in the arm to a then floundering club, but Celtic were to go down 2-0 after only a few minutes and 3-0 after 30mins. This was the days of ‘Sack The Board‘, and the supporters on the terraces were at breaking-point. The team needed a turnaround and a talisman to create it, but to highlight the lack of depth at the club, Wayne Biggins was brought on at the 60min mark, and it was a task that was far beyond him. Celtic lost the match 4-2, and Wayne Biggins despite his lack of success wasn’t even the biggest problem at the club. The only positive note was that this defeat is often credited as the straw that finally broke the camel’s back and generated a united support that ultimately brought down the board.
In a short Celtic career which lasted just four months, Wayne Biggins failed to hit the net (in a competitive senior match), and so he headed back down south in March 1994 to former club Stoke kindly paying £125,000.
Some would caustically say it was a mercifully short stint at Celtic, but it’s not far from the truth. For his own sake, a quick exit was for the best. He didn’t deserve to be at the centre of the flak that was surrounding Celtic’s First Team at the time. It diverted attention from others (e.g. the manager) who themselves should have been looking at their own form.
He has sadly been seen as representative of Celtic at the club’s lowest point during those barren years which is a touch unfair (despite his lack of success at Celtic). Macari brought Wayne Biggins to Celtic, and pitched him into a role with demands he would just never achieve. He came and never spoke poorly about the club or support, and acted accordingly as a professional player. That was all despite the depressed environment the club was in as well as some of the mis-targeted criticism that went his way. That at least is deserving of respect.
“When people say to me now that it must have been great to play for Celtic I feel sad to say that it wasn’t because it was a bad spell. I would love to have gone 12 months earlier or 12 months after.”
Wayne Biggins
He moved onto Luton later after a fair spell at Stoke, followed by Oxford & Wigan, then wrapped up his career with some junior sides. Notably, he won a third division championship medal with Wigan which was a springboard to push them all the way to the English Premiership in time.
We wish him the best.
Quotes & Anecdotes
1) “The talk in the changing room was all the politics instead of getting on with the football side of it.”
Wayne Biggins, Celtic Player during that period (2015)
As a first-hand witness of his debut (he came on as a sub in a midweek game) I can say that one of the less wonderful things the Celtic support has done happened that day. A section of the crowd booed him on for his debut and sang “Who the f*ckin hell are you?”.
The frustration was utterly understandable given the situation that Celtic were in at the time. He wasn’t up to it, we knew it and probably he knew it as well. In fact I rank him as the worst player I have ever seen in a Celtic strip.
Harsh but fair – his nickname was ‘Bertie’ but nobody really knew why. The fanzine “Not The View” suggested that it was because he had the same amount of football ability as the large liquorice all sorts creature.
Nevertheless, it was unfair to boo the man on for his debut.
3) “When people say to me now that it must have been great to play for Celtic I feel sad to say that it wasn’t because it was a bad spell. I would love to have gone 12 months earlier or 12 months after.”
Wayne Biggins
Playing Career
| Club | From | To | Fee | League | Scottish Cup | League cup | Other | ||||
| Leek | 01/08/1997 | Free | 8 (0) | 8 | 0 (0) | 0 | 0 (0) | 0 | 0 (0) | 0 | |
| Wigan | 17/11/1995 | 31/05/1997 | Free | 31 (16) | 5 | 1 (0) | 0 | 1 (1) | 0 | 0 (0) | 0 |
| Oxford | 06/07/1995 | 16/11/1995 | Free | 8 (2) | 1 | 0 (0) | 0 | 3 (1) | 1 | 0 (1) | 0 |
| Luton | 20/01/1995 | Loan | 6 (1) | 1 | 2 (0) | 1 | 0 (0) | 0 | 0 (0) | 0 | |
| Stoke | 24/03/1994 | 06/07/1995 | £125,000 | 18 (9) | 6 | 0 (0) | 0 | 1 (1) | 0 | 3 (1) | 2 |
| Celtic | 25/11/1993 | 24/03/1994 | Swap & £100,000 |
4 (5) | 0 | 0 (1) | 0 | 0 (0) | 0 | 0 (0) | 0 |
| Barnsley | 02/10/1992 | 25/11/1993 | £200,000 | 44 (3) | 16 | 3 (1) | 0 | 0 (0) | 0 | 0 (0) | 0 |
| Stoke | 10/08/1989 | 02/10/1992 | £250,000 | 120 (2) | 46 | 6 (0) | 0 | 10 (0) | 2 | 10 (0) | 5 |
| Man City | 15/07/1988 | 10/08/1989 | £150,000 | 29 (3) | 9 | 2 (0) | 0 | 4 (0) | 1 | 0 (0) | 0 |
| Norwich | 17/10/1985 | 15/07/1988 | £40,000 | 66 (13) | 16 | 4 (0) | 0 | 6 (0) | 2 | 6 (2) | 3 |
| Burnley | 04/02/1984 | 17/10/1985 | £7500 | 78 (0) | 29 | 3 (0) | 1 | 6 (0) | 1 | 7 (0) | 5 |
| Matlock | 01/01/1982 | 04/02/1984 | No appearance data available | ||||||||
| King’s Lynn | 31/05/1981 | Free | No appearance data available | ||||||||
| Lincoln | 22/11/1979 | 31/05/1981 | Apprentice | 8 (0) | 1 | 0 (0) | 0 | 0 (0) | 0 | 0 (0) | 0 |
| Totals | £772,500 | 420 (54) | 138 | 21 (2) | 2 | 31 (3) | 7 | 26 (4) | 15 | ||
| goals / game | 0.29 | 0.08 | 0.2 | 0.5 | |||||||
| Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | ||||
Honours with Celtic
None (Barren Years)
Pictures
Articles
“He can’t be worse than…” Wayne Biggins
When Saturday Comes
http://www.wsc.co.uk/the-archive/31-Players/6568-qhe-cant-be-worse-thanq-wayne-biggins
Graham McColl delves into the lowest – and perhaps slowest – point in Celtic’s long history
Jock Stein’s first signing for Celtic was Joe McBride, a consummate striker who, in 1966-67, was Scotland’s leading scorer with 35 goals despite missing the second half of the season. In 1980, Billy McNeill gave a debut to a much talked-about goalscorer with the newest of New Wave hairstyles who looked exciting, fresh and eager when first seen warming up on the Celtic Park touchline – Charlie Nicholas.
By 1993, Lou Macari had another individual prowling the touchline. Lumbering up, ready for his debut, was a man whose appearance and pedigree made him seem more a natural understudy for Benny in Crossroads than a centre-forward for Celtic. Wayne Biggins had arrived that November from Barnsley, having scored twice in 13 league matches for the Yorkshire side that season. In his subsequent playing career at Celtic Park, he fully lived up to that enormous lack of promise. He was the perfect totem for the lowest point of the worst period in Celtic’s history.
The litter that scudded wildly across Celtic Park in the recent wind-ravaged match with Raith Rovers may have left a longer-lasting impression on Celtic fans than Biggins’ performances (those crisp packets also moved faster and more purposefully across the penalty box than he usually did). But those fans have much to thank him for. He was one of the most consistent centre-forwards in Celtic’s history: on each one of his 10 appearances he failed to score and that striking record helped to hasten the end for Celtic’s unloved old board of directors.
A more significant contribution – or any contribution at all – from Biggins might have prolonged those directors’ stay. Had he, for example, come on as a substitute in the Scottish Cup tie at Motherwell in January 1994 and scored an equalizer, Celtic might have gone on to win an elusive trophy after five barren years and propped up those directors’ sagging fortunes. Instead, he came on as a substitute and made his usual insignificant contribution in a 1-0 defeat that saw Celtic’s season end in January.
Biggins, Lou Macari’s first signing for Celtic, provided an indication of the direction in which the new manager wanted the club to go and helped Celtic’s players and fans to decide where they wanted Macari – and the old board – to go.
For Macari to bring in a 32-year-old who had thoroughly explored England’s lower-level strata at eight different clubs, never staying more than three years anywhere, was poking the wounds just to see how much they hurt. Biggins made his final appearance just before St Valentine’s Day 1994. There weren’t any broken hearts among the Celtic support on his departure for Stoke.
In the Potteries, an on-tour Celtic side had, decades previously, been described as ‘the greatest team on earth’. Any lingering remnants of that reputation in the area were probably destroyed with Biggins’ arrival in the locals’ midst. He should never have been at Celtic Park in the first place, of course, but whenever Celtic fans nowadays get a tad exasperated with one of their foreign strikers they should think back to Biggins and shudder. The memory of Celtic having gone so low is one of the guarantees that it will never be allowed to happen again.
Former striker Wayne Biggins can’t wait for Celtic to win Old Firm game so he can hit back at Gers fans in his local boozer
HOOPS flop knows all about playing in Glasgow derby for a club in turmoil after debuting in 1994 League Cup semi-final for Parkhead side.
http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/football/former-striker-wayne-biggins-cant-5053901
ByGavin Berry,
06:00, 28 JAN 2015
WAYNE BIGGINS thought joining Celtic would be a dream. Instead he walked into a nightmare.
And it was during one Old Firm game 21 years ago that he realised the club really had hit rock bottom.
Three down to Rangers inside half an hour, booed by his own fans as he warmed up and anti-board protests on the terraces.
Now the the Englishman reckons this Sunday’s League Cup semi-final at Hampden will be a complete role reversal of that infamous 4-2 win for Walter Smith’s men in the 1994 Ne’erday clash.
This time it’s the Light Blues who are in disarray off the park with supporters having reached breaking point with the current board.
Biggins just hopes the Hoops can seize the chance they’ve been waiting for to really hammer home their superiority just as Gers did that day.
The 53-year-old’s very name is synonymous with the darkest period in Celtic’s history while their bitter rivals dominated Scottish football.
Biggins knows some see him as the worst striker ever to pull on the famous Hoops (10 appearances, no goals) during his miserable four-month spell.
But his experience won’t change his affection for the club and that’s why he hopes to be the one smiling at full-time on Sunday afternoon.
Rangers-daft Colin Gamble is the landlord of his local pub in Sheffield and admits he is often the butt of jokes between the pair and other local Light Blues.
However, even Celtic fans are quick to remind him of how badly things turned out for him after his £100,000-plus-Andy Payton move from Barnsley in November 1993.
And that’s why Biggins knows better than anyone the difficulties the Rangers players are going through just now with the off-field troubles at the club.
He said: “The only Old Firm game I played was the Ne’erday derby in 1994 which came just before Fergus McCann came in. The fans had reached breaking point – a bit like the Rangers fans now.
“The circumstances surrounding both matches are so similar. We were 3-0 down inside half an hour. I was a substitute and I remember we used to warm up behind the goal and there were boos from some Celtic fans.
“I was thinking ‘S*** I’ve just arrived here, what’s going on?’. I came on after an hour. I was a bit scared scared and nervous because I wanted to make an impact but it just didn’t materialise.
“The Rangers players really felt superior and in that game you could tell the confidence in their players. I can imagine it will be the same on Sunday the other way around. Celtic have waited a long time to be this far ahead.
“I’ve got lads in the local pub who are Celtic fans, and a couple of Rangers fans. They take the p*** out of me but in a funny kind of way. They have a laugh and a joke and I can accept it.
The Jubilee Sports and Social Club in Sheffield where Wayne Biggins drinks
“I read little articles in papers saying Wayne Biggins was the worst striker to play for Celtic and that’s understandable.
“If Celtic win then I will make sure I give a bit back. The landlord Colin in my local – Jubilee Sports & Social Club in Sheffield – is a big Rangers fan and goes to all the games so he’ll get some real stick from me.
“My back is broad enough and I can accept the criticism. I just wish I could have shown what I could do and it went against me. I don’t regret moving one bit because it was a dream come true.
The Jubilee Sports and Social Club in Sheffield where Rangers fans drank before a friendly with Sheffield Wednesday last year
“I am 200 per cent behind them on Sunday and I will be over moon if they win because I still love the club to bits. It was a pleasure just to be involved and I hope the roles are reversed from 1994 on Sunday.
“The current Celtic players probably won’t be aware of the circumstances back then so that won’t be in their minds. They are professionals who just want to win a football match. The politics side of it goes to one side.
“But I can see the game going a similar way to the 1994 new year game. Rangers were top dogs then. The Rangers players definitely had a cockiness about them and strutted about and Celtic need to make sure they hammer home their superiority. It’s funny just how much the roles have been reversed since my time 21 years ago.”
Biggins time at Celtic didn’t get off to a great start when he visited a shop on day one in Scotland and came out to find the windows of his car had been smashed. That set the tone for a disappointing time.
He said: “When I got the call from Lou Macari I was at Barnsley in the Championship and doing well but to get the call at the age of 33 to go to Celtic I just thought it was unbelievable.
“But when I went up there it wasn’t what I expected because of the upheaval. It was quite frightening at first because the first day I got there I left the ground, went round the corner and jumped into a shop and when I came out my car windows had been smashed.
“I never really settled because of that. I suppose it was the worst possible time for anyone to go there when I signed. I was only there for four months of an 18-month contract and it was hard to settle in with everything going on.
“The talk in the changing room was all the politics instead of getting on with the football side of it. I can pretty much understand what the Rangers players are going through now. It was just such a bad time to join the club when you realised the state it was in.
“For me to join that environment was hard. There were so many questions. Were going to move to a new ground? Was Fergus McCann coming? My family were back home and I was in Jacki Dziekanowski’s rented house in Cumbernauld which was out of the way.
“But the players were great with me. John Collins, Paul McStay and Peter Grant were diamonds and helped me so much. Collins took me to his house twice a week for tea. They tried to make me feel welcome and explain what was going on at the club because I was blind to it. “
The thing is they all had success with Celtic either before or after but it saddens me that I only experienced the bad times. When people say to me now that it must have been great to play for Celtic I feel sad to say that it wasn’t because it was a bad spell. I would love to have gone 12 months earlier or 12 months after.”