What is ‘your’ Celtic Team?

That bus journey back along the M8 was brilliant that day.

 

Martin O’Neill’s without a doubt.

2002/03 is the first season I can remember properly and I can remember it quite vividly, would have only been 7 at the time.

Can remember watching every game in the UEFA cup run from Blackburn onwards, and I think my earliest memory of a goal being scored was Larsson’s first against the Huns at CP early on in the season when we drew 3-3 (think it was a week or two before the first leg against Blackburn.) It was a cracker of a volley as well. I do have vague memories of watching us before that and being in the pub with my da for games but it wasn’t until 2002/03 where I actually became hooked myself.

I became totally obsessed with us that season, in school the teacher would ask a question and I’d put my hand up and start talking about something that had happened in the last game.

Even being so young I knew Celtic was the team for me and had something special about it that separated it from clubs in England. Even the day after Seville I can remember wearing my jersey into school and being questioned by kids ‘why are you wearing that after they lost?’ and I didn’t care, was proud as * and knew I had witnessed something special and would be obsessed for the rest of my life.

The Martin O’Neill era is definitely the most I can remember my da enjoying being a Celtic fan as well.. even with all the good times we’ve had since I think people like him loved seeing us pump the English sides and ramming it down the throats of all the gobshite EPL dickheads they were surrounded by - added to the fact we had cemented ourselves as the dominant force in Scottish football once more.

 

I was 20 years old in the Seville season. * perfect timing. As a student with next to * all to do I spent all day on the Thursdays building up to the games. Tunes on, Jungle Bhoys Forum, some bevvy, then either went to the game (Home) or went to the same pub, O’Shaugnessys in Stirling for the away games, same routine every game. Absolute madness and the best of times. And of course, went to Seville which is a whole other post for another day, and is detailed in another thread actually

 

I wasn't as in to football until I was about 10, but I still supported us and watched games when O'Neill was manager, still knew and loved all the players but wasn't fanatical. Then the last couple of seasons under Strachan I started getting really in to it but I'd say the Celtic team that I would consider to be "mine" was Tony Mowbrays
That was the first season I got season ticket after my dad had me on the waiting list for * knows how many years, and as * as we were I absolutely loved the team. To this day I'll still defend Fortune, Loovens, Nguemo etc. Obviously that led on to Lennon's team which I would also consider mine, summer 2010 was probably my favourite transfer window I can properly remember. We'd just sold McGeady and we must have signed about 7 or 8 players. Exciting times after such a * season.

 

I fell away from football when I was 8 or 9, and it wasn't until 2007 that the Celtic flame was rekindled. Sky was showing the CL game where Massimo Donati scored a late winner against Shakhtar Donetsk on Sky One, so I thought * it haven't watched Celtic in about 10 years. I was instantly hooked.

So my Celtic association really began in 2007, and thus far I have witnessed: the tail-end of the Strachan era, the Mowbray season, the Lennon era, the Deila season and the Rodgers Revolution.

As much as I love our current dominance and success under Rodgers, 'my' team is still Lennon's Lions in the season we beat Barcelona. There was just so many faces in the squad that I really liked on a weirdly personal level. Hooper, Commons, Samaras, Forster, Wanyama, Matthews, Izzy, Ledley, Kayal, Mulgrew, Stokesy, Wee Jamesy... I just thought it was a great bunch of lads.

 

Three Amigos team as well.

Stopping ten and Jansen team was something else. Then of course pretty much all of us (apart from the really young ones) will fondly remember the MON days as recent history best.

 

Excellently put..

Same..

Young enough to remember some of the latter Burns era (when I first started going to game's) . 3 amigos, although my favourite player's were big Morten and Donnelly

Wim Jansen I was with it but still not totally all the way through. Still vivid memories from that season though and one of the best day's ever..

MON. Getting to an age where you're totally gripped by yourself and an unbelievably special time to support us, or start out even for those a bit younger..

 

Yeah O'Neill's team for sure.

Tho, there's something about Lenny's team that really just made Celtic mean that bit more to me on a personal level. I don't really know what it was but just with everything that went all the way through to that moment vs Barcelona at Celtic Park.

 

Team that got consevutive last 16s and 3 in a row. The last of which is still my favourite title win.

 

I would probably have to go for O'Neill's team.

Even though I've been supporting Celtic long before then and loved the winning at Love Street, the Centenary season etc, a lot of all those years supporting Celtic for me was watching VHS tapes of games, sometimes 2-3 weeks after they had been played from family we had still over in Belfast sending them to my granda, for us to watch.

Back then it really was just my granda & I that got to share that, because it wasn't like my friends at school had any idea about Scottish Football, to say the least. Back then, on SBS, the only station that would ever show football (*, the station had a nickname of * Between Soccer, because it showed so many 'foreign' films which included * scenes which the mainstream channels would never show), would be lucky to show the Scottish Cup Final live.

My granda & I would watch pretty much any game that was on, I would go to bed early so I could be awake at 4.30am for European games for instance, etc, and back in those days, didnt matter if it was Liverpool winning everything or Nottingham Forest, my granda would always lean over to say, that they are good, but the Lions were better, lol.

So we really were dependant on these videos being sent over, and obviously back then it wasn't like every single game was televised here in the first place for them to be recorded for us, so to say the least there were gaps.

When I moved abroad, was in NZ, America or Canada etc, would catch games where I could, or in the infancy of the internet would find text updates of what was happening in games or highlight clips after the fact. Again, it was the best could manage at the time.

So it wasn't til moving here in 2001 that finally got to really feel like I was able to follow it all as it was happening. No more VHS tapes and 3 week delays. No more constant F5 refresh for a single line of text biting my nails hoping we would stop the 10. Now it was all about being able to go to Paradise for games, or watch them live on tele, the walk through the Gallowgate and the pubs there etc. After having been a fan from afar for so long, it made it all that bit really special, not to mention it was a really special team that O'Neill had.

 

Hear Hear Brother!!

 

Good thread.

"My" Celtic team is the Centenary side. I was 11/12 in 87/88.

Although I'd been following Celtic for a few years before that, I'd say I started to get into it properly at 8/9 years old and was hooked by ten years old.

So the first team I remember clearly is the side who who won the league at Love Street.

Then Souness arrived, and 86/87 was a bitter disappointment; but 87/88 was a magical season.
From watching a documentary marking the 20th anniversary of Lisbon, to the return of Cesar, totally immersing myself in the history of the club, then the pure fairytale of the season.

Big Billy wanted us playing in the style Jock Stein had implemented, and we swept to an historic double with entertaining football and so many last gasp winners - The Celtic Way.

Can still rattle off the line-up and squad in my sleep. I loved the strip, the Centenary crest, the significance of the season and joy and celebrations throughout it. I was reading The Celtic View religiously at the time and was totally obsessed.

As an 11/12 year old, Celtic's results really did have a huge impact on my week, and my week revolved around the next Celtic match.

I kind of see Celtic's history (thus far) as split into 3 ages: early years (1887/88-1938), middle period (38-93) and the present modern era.

87/88, with the terracings, and a team full of Celtic fans playing in a genuinely competitive league saw our club heading towards the end of an era.

There's a romance and nostalgia in that.

 

Wim's team is when I first properly started getting into football, would have been 7. But it was MON's team that made me a fanatic. That will always be my team.

 

Given my age and when I started supporting us, it ought to be the Tommy Burns or the Wim Jansen team. Or if we go by how many times I've seen us play in the flesh, it ought to be Jo Venglos' team or John Barnes' team. My favourite ever player, Lubo, I associate more with those teams too (although he had some special moments under MON too).

It ought to be one of those, but it's O'Neil's team. A manager that took over when I was already 23 and a team I only ever saw in the flesh once.

We were a really good team. A really good team. I doubt I'll ever see that again.

 

Seville season and Henriks last both for pure emotion.

 

How did you find it?

 

Maybe just rose tinted glasses but i genuinely felt we could beat anyone and i mean anyone at Celtic park whilst under O’Neill and WGS.

Both had the right mix of power and flair.

 

Henrik, Hartson and Sutton upfront. Hard to imagine having that nowadays and that’s the team I always remember.

 

I could say o'neills but Strachan team consists of some of my favourite ever players, boruc, mcgeady, nakamura to name a few