SENTINELCELTS

I guess this article really should start in 1966, when Celtic faced Dynamo Kiev in the European Cup Winners Cup quarter-final, played at Celtic park.

Jock Stein turned to a young 16 year old boy and said to him.

“I’ll give you five pounds if you go out on the park at half time, and play keepy up with the ball, to entertain those fans !”

The young boy had no hesitation in fulfilling Jock’s request, for two reasons.

Firstly, five pounds was a lot of money for him in those days.

Secondly, this young boys average keepy up score was 2,000 anyway (yes… you read that right… two thousand).

He may have been a 16 year old, but entertain those 64,000 fans he certainly did that night, he walked out playing keepy-up with the ball, to the centre circle, then to one goal, down to the other goal, returning to the centre circle, then towards the jungle, and lastly on to the main stand and didn’t let the ball drop once !.

This young boy was called George Connelly, he was born in Fife and brought up a Celtic fan and as a youngster had went with his brother to watch the hoops play.

George had been signed two years earlier in 1964 for Celtic from Tulliallan.

George became part of the well known and much hoped for Lisbon Lions successors, The Quality Street Gang, who’s names included Davie Hay, Kenny Dalglish, Danny McGrain, Lou Macari, and many others. If you had asked then, who was the most highly rated of all these young up and coming stars, you may or may not be surprised to hear it was George Connelly.

Jock Stein recognised the quality that George had, as he had in fact tried to sign him previously for Dunfermline, when Jock was still the manager there, before Jock joined as Celtic manager. George was immensely talented far beyond his young age, hailed as the greatest talent of his generation, and it was not long, until George was introduced to the first team in 1968, becoming a permanent figure, making over 250 appearances.

Such was his talent, that he was said to be earmarked as a replacement for Big Billy and the captaincy, these were seriously big boots to fill, though Jock knew that George was more than capable, this was echoed by most others at the time, including wee Bertie when he said, “George was a wonderful player and could have played anywhere.”

Among some of probably George’s most memorable games, the first came against Rangers(In Liq), in the 1969 Scottish cup final, which Celtic won 4-0 George was immense spraying long and short passes effortlessly, with accuracy, and then put the ball into the net for Celtic’s third goal, after taking the ball off John Greig in defence and rounded the keeper to score.

George would further truly annoy their support, on a later re-arranged league game occasion played at Hampden in 1972 (while work was underway at Celtic park) by playing keepy-up as he taunted the Rangers players to come and try get the ball off him, to the great delight of the Celtic fans, there were no takers. George said he did this showboating to get back at Wullie Johnston who had sat on the ball in a previous game.

Celtic went on to easily win the game 3-1. It was one of those games where you could see almost every Rangers(In Liq) player had given up as Celtic were just too good on the day, John Greig did manage a consolation goal for them, and the Celtic support gave him a sympathetic cheer, and he saluted them in good fun.

George was thought by many at the time to be the best in the country, and spoken of being at least on a par with Germany’s footballing kaiser, Franz Beckenbauer, if not indeed better.

Another game was in the first leg (Battle of Britain) 1970 European Cup semi final against Leeds, with George playing in midfield alongside Bertie Auld and Bobby Murdoch. George scored in 50 seconds of the game to give Celtic a 1-0 lead, George scored another goal 50 seconds into the second half, only to see it chalked off by the referee who ruled that Jimmy Johnstone had been offside.

Celtic that night were forced to wear red socks, that looked almost orange under the floodlights, after Leeds manager Don Revie played his mind games, by complaining to the referee, that both teams should not be able to wear white socks.

Celtic would also win the return leg at Hampden 2-1 using the same midfield of Auld, Connelly and Murdoch, when 136,505 fans attended that game, (still the all time record attendance for a European Cup match), putting Celtic through to another European Cup Final, against dutch champions Feyenoord.

Sadly however George never started the 1970 European Cup final in Milan against Feyenoord, Big Jock preferring a 4 2 4 formation leaving Auld and Murdoch outnumbered in midfield, and I still believe to this day, had George played and Jock chosen the same team and setup we had played against Leeds, we could have won our 2nd Big Ears.

George won many player awards and was voted player of the year in 1973, and should have went on to attain a very lengthy and massive legendary status with Celtic, he was undoubtedly a major talent, he could do it all on the park, but away from the game, it had long before, started to go wrong, there were claims made at the time, that, he had never really settled in to life in Glasgow, he was shy and becoming withdrawn, he had personal issues with his marriage, he did not like the off field pressure that came with Celtic.

Billy McNeil says one day George ran up a hill during training, George had reached the top first, turned, and ran back down to the bottom of the hill, and kept running back to his car, just got in his car and drove off, disappearing for days, and this wasn’t an uncommon occurrence.

George walked out on the club a few times, intent on quitting the game, some briefly speculated it was his low wages at the heart of the matter, (as both him and his closest friend Davie Hay were reportedly at loggerheads with Celtic for higher pay). George himself, later said that, when he finally quit football, he found work lagging pipes and earned double what Celtic were paying him.

Big Jock coaxed George back to Celtic on a few occasions, but George was apparently becoming disheartened with football, even walking out on the Scotland International squad. In 1974 George’s closest friend at the club Davie Hay was sold to Chelsea, and some say this was a major pivot in George’s decision to just finally give up, big Jock was later involved in a car accident in 1975 and George at the age of 26 once more walked out of Celtic, only this time it would be for the last time.

Make no mistake, to walk away must have been hard for George, but even harder still to walk away from the club that you loved.

After he had finally left Celtic for good, he had a visitor at his home one day, Tommy Docherty, had called on him and tried to sign him for Manchester United, but he simply said no and closed the door.

George won the league title 7 times while at Celtic, the league cup 3 times, and the Scottish Cup 5 times.

George stayed away from Celtic park for 30 years, until 2006 when he was invited back to do the half time draw, and he said “I never knew how I would be treated, after my walkouts, but it was great to return to a phenomenal reception”

Like countless others, I just wish we could have had the lasting pleasure of seeing just how high George Connelly could have soared in a full and lasting career, had he been able to find happiness in his life, to go alongside his fantastic footballing ability.

The unanswered question for many years, of why this genius with a ball left Celtic, all those years ago when he had the world at his feet, perhaps we should look towards the fragility of players, I learned long ago, before you judge someone, you should walk a mile in their shoes, so we shouldn’t speculate on the truth, we should leave George to do that himself with his book.

I think it’s always good to look back and remember or appreciate gifted players such as George, though it can, also at times be a tragic reminder that these players are human with real human issues.

ASWGL

Hail Hail

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