Your Greatest Ever Celt

Lubo's the best player in my lifetime.

 

Lubo was the most gifted player I've seen at Celtic, Henrik Larsson was by miles the best player though.

 

Id bet a fortune that if we could somehow graph posters's age groups against their vote for best ever Celt then it would correlate fairly well.

Younger fans (like me) dont remember players pre the mid 80's and similarly many older fans remember great players of their own youth.

As time goes on and (especially on an internet poll which tends to skew the age of voters) the older players lose out in these polls. It would be intersesting I think, if we had the type of TV coverage of the likes of McGrory, Tully, Deans, Jinky etc available, how they might move up this poll over the more recent 'sky sports era' players.

Could be complete Pish mind, but the less people in a poll saw a man play in the flesh, the more his legend diminishes.

 

I don't think the OP means talent wise. Just being Celtic men. :icon_mrgreen:

 

It speaks volumes, for me at least, that Jinky was voted the Greatest Ever Celtic Player when we had Henrik in his prime

 

It also speaks volumes that at the time when that vote was cast they also did the all time Celtic team... and Jimmy McGrory still didn't feature, despite having scored roughly double the amount of goals that the next best Celt ever has.

 

Very true. But I think it's safe to assume that next to no one in the support at the time of voting would have saw him play or remember much of him if they did, making it understandable, if not agreeable.

 

Thats my point exactly, looking at McGrory's stats (as theres nothing else to go by due to time passed) he should be a definite contender: 14 years with the club (and thats only as a player), over 500 goals for Celtic and is undoubtedly one of the greatest goalscorers in the history of the game from any era. He also managed us for 20 years up to the Stein era.

And yet barely a mention.

Can anybody truly tell me if he had done that career in the last 20 years he wouldnt be up near the top of the poll?

 

True... but then again if anyone who watches cricket were to name an all time team, undoubtedly Don Bradman would be there. Same with baseball, and Babe Ruth would no doubt feature, despite either of them would have been seen much of live by voters.

I know it's different sports but there are similarities also in terms of statistics alone, that should justify their inclusion.

 

Don't think anyone would claim that he wouldn't be. Not least because if he scored that amount during a timeframe where we - or at least some of us - as a support would have him firmly in our minds and would have saw him with our own eyes/on TV he'd be the first name in the Greatest Ever Team.

Skill-wise Tully, Gallacher, etc. were supposedly unreal. But as none - or very little - of our support would remember them they had no chance of being voted in over people a majority of our support who voted grew up with. And there's the European factor to consider as well.

 

No doubt. But I don't think you can place footballers in the same bracket as Cricket and Baseball though. And I think it's very rare for people to be asked for a subjective opinion and base it on statistics of players they and a great deal of their immediate relatives never saw. That's a definite minority of supporters who will do that anyway. But it does intrigue you - and I suspect any outsider's looking at our greatest team - why our greatest scorer by such a distance isn't in it.

 

Agreed and that was the point I was making. That these polls will inevitably be weighted in favour of recent players.

Not a criticism of the poll just an observation.

 

Aye I agree mate, that's my point as well - the greatest ever team may as well have been called "the greatest team of the last 50 years". A hypothetical poll of every Celtic fan ever would yield intriguing results :icon_mrgreen:

 

Based on what i have witnessed in my lifetime Larsson.

Jinky will always win it but I can only comment on what I habe witnessed.

It's great we have had so many wonderful talents at Celtic though.

 

In my opinion, there are only three TRULY world class players to have originated from Scotland. Guys who would walk into any team, and would be discussed as the best ever in their position. All three of them are Celts. Jimmy Jonstone, Danny McGrain and Kenny Dalglish!

I appreciate the thread is best ever Celt, but these three are, for me, the best three to ever have worn the jersey, amongst a myriad of excellent talent.

The best ever, in my opinion, is Danny McGrain! He was absolute class in his position. A true pioneer of the attacking full back, strong, great in the tackle. He had it all. If he were playing today, he would be likened to a Roberto Carlos or Cafu.

 

I've only saw a limited number of clips of McGrain, but what you're saying certainly seems spot on. I've never saw anyone talking about him and not mention the words "world class".

 

I think Murdoch, Gemmell, Lennox would have a quibble about the not being World Class tag.

 

Yes would tend to agree there but if George Connelly had managed to keep it together he would have been on that list.

 

Danny McGrain.

 

Jimmy McGrory is still the most prolific striker in the history of British football. Surely over 550 goals at better than a goal a game for a team that wasn't particularly successful for much of his career deserves recognition as world class.

We are all aware of the 'questionable' selection policies that were employed by the SFA in relation to the national team selection, which disgracefully saw the him only play 7 games for Scotland, but even then he still managed to score 6 goals.