Gary Hooper

Just crazy and I say that as someone who was a big fan of Garry Hooper Was a terrific player for us he was. Should never have left us for a club like Norwich and sadly for him the move proved to be a disaster as it always seemed likely to be but always will have fond memories of his time in the hoops. I always felt if he had of stayed with us long term he could have gone on to be among our all time great strikers.

 

Scored his first goal for Barnet last night equalising in the 97th minute to keep them 2nd.

 

Looks like its between Barnet and Chesterfield who wins the league and gets automatic promotion to the football league.

 

Started tonight for Barnet Against Oldham live on TNT1

 

The last time Gary Hooper ran out at Paradise was in July 2013 when he came on as a substitute in a UEFA Champions League qualifier against Cliftonville.

Now, nearly 11 years later, the striker will pull on the green and white Hoops at Celtic Park again on Sunday, May 26 when he plays in the Celtic FC Foundation Legends Match against Borussia Dortmund


Now 36, Hooper is looking forward to taking a trip down memory lane when he returns to Glasgow next month.

A superb striker who was always a fans’ favourite, he signed for Celtic in 2010 from Scunthorpe United, and over the next three years scored 82 goals in 138 appearances, picking up two league titles and two Scottish Cup winner’s medals along the way.

Not surprisingly, he’s delighted to be returning to Paradise on May 26 and playing for the Celtic Legends side, when he will be reunited with his former captain, Scott Brown, who will skipper the Celtic side.

Speaking to the official Celtic website, Gary Hooper said: “I’m really excited to get out on the pitch again.

“I’ve been up for a couple of games before but this will be the first time putting the kit on again at Celtic Park.

“Going into the changing room, going out for the warm-up and going out and playing a game – I can’t wait. Even being back in Glasgow again will be great.

“It’ll be a good reunion with some of my old team-mates, and having Browny as the skipper again, so I’m really excited – even I have to listen to him one more time in the Huddle



That was a very good team I played in, and we should have won the league the first year I was there, although we did win the next two titles.'

Scott Brown will captain the Celtic Legends team, which will be managed by Paul Lambert and Tom Boyd, and fans will enjoy seeing some of their former heroes in action at Paradise again.

Of course, the focus of the day will be on Celtic FC Foundation and the incredible work the club’s charitable arm do, both near and far.

“That’s the main thing, raising money for the Foundation and all the work they do,” said Gary Hooper.

“It’ll be nice to play in front of the Celtic fans again as well as meeting up with some of my old team-mates again, but the charity is the main focus of the day.”

The Legends Match against Borussia Dortmund on May 26 (KO: 2pm), sponsored by Dafabet, will also be the 11th anniversary of Celtic’s Scottish Cup triumph over Hibernian at Hampden, when Gary Hooper scored twice in a 3-0 win to secure a league and cup double.

That was one of many highlights for Hooper in the Hoops, which also included some other impressive personal achievements such as five goals in a Trophy Day 5-0 victory against Hearts in 2012 and a number of decisive derby goals.

“It was everything, to be fair,” said the former Celt, “the Champions League, derby games, everything.

'That Scottish Cup final in 2013 was just one of the highlights. We wore the black kit and I was lucky enough to score a couple of goals that day.'

Those goals, two of the 82 he netted for Celtic, ensured his place in the affection of supporters, something he continues to be reminded of.

“Even now, I meet Celtic fans wherever I go, whether that’s on holiday or even down here where I live,” Hooper explained.

“I’m sure that, as soon as I walk into the changing-room or when I walk down the tunnel and on to the Celtic Park pitch, that’s when all the memories will kick in – those games when you couldn’t hear yourself because of the atmosphere, like the Spartak Moscow game under the floodlights.

“I can’t wait to put the Hoops on again, pull the boots on too and get out there again and play in front of the fans.”

 

Class to see him back up here for that, one of my favourite players for us, still think he was incredibly underrated. His lone striker performance away against Moscow for our first ever CL away win was a * masterclass.

 

He did more damage to Moscow than a Ukrainian Drone

 

Shouldn't have left when he did.

He could've bagged us many more goals but decided to go back to England to have a crack there. I don't blame him but the grass isn't always greener.

 

And was extremely unlucky the team he picked, lost their manager very quickly into the season, ended up style completely changing and Lafferty was played ahead of him. His 1st season he only scored 7 or something, was the top scorer, barely played and was almost 1 goal 1 shot record in the Premiership.

He left to have a crack at the England squad and it backfired on him, the annoying thing about that is round that time Gary Lineker and Jamie Redknapp were shouting about him getting a look in, he was the top scoring Englishman in the CL and they had 4 strikers out injured, Forster got called up so they’d seen him live and he was never considered.

That was a blow to him, and us. He was never ever going to get recognition down there regardless of what he did at the very top level in the CL.

That happened with Van Dijk as well btw, he was far and away the best Dutch defender at us, he was ignored up until he was in the Premiership. Possible he’d have been here longer if that wasn’t the case.

 

The snobbery in the game is unreal. I know we are to an extent but at least we have the awareness from our successes in the transfer market that greatness can come from anywhere.

Crazy how they ignored Hooper. He still should've stayed at us. * England.

 

Hooper gets a hard time from some for that move. For me he was very unlucky with how things panned out.

Take someone like Drogba, hailed as one of the EPL best strikers in the 21st century.
Think only twice in about 8 seasons he scored a good return of goals (over 20).
Most seasons it was, 12, 10, 5, 8...those sort of figures.

For a striker so wildly praised for a title winning side, that's not great.
But then you've Hooper who scored 8 his season in the EPL for a side that was on the back foot, relegated and played only one up top(when he's one of the last to be a true 2 up top sort of striker). That's a good return for where he was at.
Just shame it was at Norwich and they went down, he wasn't gonna get a look in at England.

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Drogba was a monster for big games though, and that’s what people remember. Like compare Drogba in bog standard games just stats with Henry, he’s nowhere near in the equation, look at cup finals and that, Henry’s nowhere near the equation.

Plus his all round game. Drogba was a big game, not goalscoring majorly sorta striker but Lampard playing off Drogba, was something else goalscoring wise due to to what he done.

Hooper got it stinking off of us when he left, Celtic fans in general I mean there was a lot that disagreed with the talk around him leaving but there was a lot that just said money chaser. That for me was a label he never deserved, we accepted two offers, QPR and Norwich, QPR offered more and were closer to where he grew up. He gambled on the role he was offered by a manager that was sacked shortly after.

It was a bad move, and hindsight he’d probably say was the worst decision he could have made, but I totally understood why at the time. And if it was a different team or the manager he signed for stayed, then he was more than good enough to play at that level. As it is, he never, he lost confidence and he never recovered. Watching somecunt playing Kyle Lafferty ahead of you, despite being top scorer in little game time, I’d get a blow to my confidence anaw tbf

 

apparently he's just signed for my local team down here.. used to go to games when I was a kid. might have to go along with my hoops on to meet the big fella

Kettering Town add more firepower as former Celtic striker Gary Hooper signs (northantstelegraph.co.uk)

 

Thought I was going to see the actual goal

 

You'll be lucky if it's even being filmed