Fergus McCann should be invited to unfurl the league flag in the summer

Aye me I thought he treated good Celtic people and the fans with utter contempt,as I've stated before it wasn't just all fergus yes he was instrumental but the fans saved Celtic aswell

 

McCann and Burns' relationship did eventually break down but Fergus did back him for 3 whole seasons and while I appreciate that Tommy was up against either the best or second best Rangers team in history - which thoroughly outspent Celtic - he ultimately failed as Celtic manager and there is no chance that Tommy deserved the chance to stop 10IAR.

 

I'm not having that tbh if Fergus had opened the purse strings up a little Tommy may well have stopped the Huns,the year Wim stopped them they were poor so were Celtic we had a terrible start and at 1 point Hearts were still in with a shout,say what you want but Tommy had to fight tooth and nail just to get any money off Fergus he was basically working with 1 hand tied behind his back,and that was the best Celtic team I have had the pleasure of watching

 

I had this debate a few times on here and don't really want to get into it again, but here goes.

Hindsight is a wonderful thing where Fergus McCann is concerned. Yes he came in and saved the club when it seemed no one else would step up, yes he helped oversee the building of the fantastic stadium you see to day (although it was paid for by the Celtic Support).

He also delivered a league title under his tenure and for that I was always eternally grateful.

However his Bhoys Against Bigotry campaign was ill thought out, he equated Irish Republicanism as being under the bigoted umbrella, he treated a Celtic great in Davie Hay and a Celtic legend in Tommy Burns with utter contempt, effectively calling them Catholic bigots.



He was an aloof character who rubbed a lot of people up the wrong way.

He also left with a hefty wedge which was totally his right, but he saved the club with that in mind, he was/is a very astute businessman who spied an opportunity to save the club but to make himself a wealthy man into the bargain.

So yes, I booed that day but at the time I felt it was totally justified. Would I do things differently if I knew then what I know now, most definitely.

 

I should be invited to unfurl the flag

 

Great post m8 said so many things I agree with his treatment of TRUE Celtic men was a * disgrace in my eyes

 

He can stay at home, just like me. :icon_mrgreen:

 

Great post, sure it sums up the mood of a lot of the support.

 

If it was not for the bunnet celtic would not be here today! He said he was going to build us a new ground build a new team and win us the league, kept his word and i would always thank him for saving our club

Well done wee man

 

Yes he did but the fans bought the shares this goes hand in hand with saving the club,our biggest manager put it best football without the fans is nothing

 

He done a job and walked away with £30m profit.

All this talk of statues being erected in his honour, stands being named after him etc are pointless.

 

Exactly first and foremost he was a businessman he done what he said he would but walked with his wedge,I'm pretty sure he prefers that to stands and statues

 

He was a business man who's main priority was to turn a crumbling business into a profitable one - resurrecting the club came second.

 

Sadly, judging by these comments, misguided opinion and myth about Fergus remain alive today.

1) Fergus McCann is without a doubt the greatest living Celtic today because without him, there would be no Celtic Football Club. After Walfrid, Maley and Stein, there are no more important individuals than him.

2) He treated the fans fairly - granted it wasn't a loving relationship - against the backdrop of our fans buying into media lies and propaganda which is a significant reason why some of you hold falsehoods today. He was even compared to Saddam Hussein.

3) He never wanted to change our crest, that is a total myth. Contrary to popular belief, he embraced the Irish side of our club and it's a fact that when the Irish tricolour wasn't up at Celtic Park for a few hours, he demanded it be put up immediately.

4) "Masonic mob" = Businessmen who actually knew how to run a club, not like the corrupt Kelly family that almost ran the club into the ground. McCann destroyed the family dynasty nonsense and everyone should be grateful.

5) It's a genuine insult to say he 'fleeced the fans'. He facilitated the most successful share issue in British football history and the club made remarkable improvements because of it. As for what he walked away with? He deserved every penny.

6) He may have had personal differences with both Burns and Hay but as I've stated with Burns, he supported and gave him 3 whole seasons and he ultimately failed. Rightly or wrongly, he saw Hay as a meddling force between the Jock Brown relationship with Jansen and MacLeod. There is no basis to make a claim that he remotely regared either as 'catholic bigots'. McCann was a stubborn man and I respect him for that, it's exactly what we needed at the time.

7) His 'Bhoys against Bigotry' campaign was absolutely a correct initiative to implement. It's not that he equated Irish republicanism to bigotry, it's that he wanted to eradicate a culture which saw, and still sees, a minority of Celtic supporters acclaiming the provisional IRA and other such splinter groups that have nothing to do with the original IRA that rightfully fought for Irish freedom from British tyranny. He made a statement that our club was against bigotry, I can't see how that is either a negative against the man's character or suggests he thought it was 50/50 - in private, he'd have acknowledged that it was a far bigger problem at Ibrox.

I think one part of the negative image of Fergus McCann was that he came along just before the internet boom. If Fergus McCann took over Celtic now, you would see much more balanced discussion on him than took place in those days. You see it on this site to this day. That wasnt the case when he took over. The scottish football agenda at that time was largely driven by the mainstream media and they were fully paid up members of the 'succulent lamb' brigade. Murray was in his pomp at that time and there was not as much citizen journalism to resist him. The media were more than happy to put the boot into Fergus at Murray's behest and there was no concerted opposition to that viewpoint and absolutely no dialogue worth talking about in the scottish media. Murray saw him as a threat and his minions leapt into action ever chance they could. The liquidation of the huns last summer only epitomises how lucky we were to be ruled by the Bunnet; a true dignified man unlike the crooks Murray, Whyte and Green.

 

I'm not having a dig m8 I'm agreeing with you

 

And I'm agreeing with you

 

No disrespect but what a pile of pure *

 

To many beers

 

Ah such an eloquent response, how can I ever recover from such an articulate and constructive counter argument. Clearly I'm not in your league of superior intellect.

 

I'm not sure most people are saying the things in points 4 to wherever you finished.

However, he very much did want to change the crest, to a thistle and clover entwined. I have two Celtic books which allude to this fact.

He also wanted to rid Celtic Park of Irish Republicanism, Bhoys Against Bigotry wasn't an assault on the dead bigots across the water, it was aimed much closer to home than that.