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Fans will second that devotion
The Scotsman 22/01/1997
HUGH KEEVINS
THE bond between a club and its supporters will rarely be better exemplified than by the size of the attendance at tonight's testimonial match for Peter Grant.
There will be as many of the player's detractors in the expected crowd of 35,000 to see Celtic play Bayern Munich as there will be those whose admiration for Grant is undiluted. The vote of thanks from the fans in the stands will be unanimous, however, because there is a universal recognition that, for better or worse, he is one of them.
Grant has shown sufficient forbearance in the face of adversity in a variety of forms, on and off the park, to vouch for his devotion to the club he joined 15 years ago. Long service medals will not be able to be struck in future as a consequence of the Bosman ruling and the arrival of a meaningful freedom of contract. Tonight's game may even be the last testimonial match ever given to a Celtic player.
The contest falls within a glut of competitive games but, against the odds, it will be a noisy celebration of a career based on honesty and application.
Nobody, least of all Grant, would claim that his was an underestimated talent. But there is enough there for him to be, from the age of 17 until today, a first-team choice for five managers at Celtic Park. Scotland also bestowed the highest playing honour on Grant twice during the late Eighties.
"He has a commitment to the club that is second to none," says Paul McStay, Celtic's captain and Grant's lifelong friend.
When the pair were much younger, a night out led to McStay, who was celebrating his 21st birthday, temporarily losing his angelic image and Grant demonstrating the fearless side of his personality.
Innocent horseplay involving a supermarket trolley led to the former being given a dressing down in his local police station. Grant was a late arrival on the scene, loudly suggesting that a Celtic player might know what kind of justice to expect in Larkhall.
The player's garrulousness is legendary. When his colleague Paolo Di Canio gained notoriety through stating that 90 per cent of referees in Scotland were Protestant and openly biased against Celtic, Grant was immediately placed under suspicion of having prompted the Italian.
The charge was denied when Grant said, with his tongue in his cheek, that he would have told Di Canio the correct figure was 100 per cent.
On the day that Fergus McCann launched Celtic's Bhoys Against Bigotry initiative, tonight's honoured guest was the butt of good-humoured innuendo.
It would all have been a source of mystery to Jurgen Klinsmann, whose presence will help swell the numbers tonight, even though he once had a Rangers supporters club dubiously named in his honour.
The German, though, can understand the affinity between the Celtic supporters and Grant. "Peter must always have felt that he was part of a family at Celtic. I admire that," he said.
"I think supporters more readily identify with players like him than those who stay for two or three years and then go away again."
Tommy Burns, Celtic's manager, threw his boots into the crowd on the night that he played for Celtic for the last time. He understands the emotional toll that has been taken of someone like Grant at a club where a once plentiful supply of success dried up nine years ago.
"This night has been a source of worry for Peter for the last 12 months because he thinks nobody will turn up and he will be considered a failure," he said.
"But he has shown a level of dedication that has been above and beyond the call of duty at times and has learned more about himself in adversity.
"If I had to sum up his contribution to the club in a few words, I would say he has been a wholehearted servant."
It is probably the only epitaph Grant would want.