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Fullname: Alan Stubbs
aka: Stubbsy
Born: 6 Oct 1971
Birthplace: Kirkby, Merseyside, England
Height: 6ft 2in
Signed: 1 August 1996
Left: 5 July 2001
Position: Defender, Centre-half
Debut:
Internationals: none

Biog

Alan Stubbs arrived at Celtic Park in the summer of 1996 in a £3.5 million move from Bolton which made him the Hoops record buy.

The capture of the highly rated centre-half was a significant coup for Celtic and manager Tommy Burns who moved quickly to secure the services of Stubbs from under the noses of several English sides including Arsenal.

The deal though was not without controversy and Celtic found themselves in disagreement with FIFA. Eventually the club were fined £41,000 for the use of an unlicensed agent during his transfer - brothers Ian and Neil Rioch. This became a hotly contested case and another of Fergus' bees-in-the-bonnet.

The Merseyside-born defender had been a standout performer in the English First Division for a Bolton side that also included future Celtic favourite Alan Thompson.

Comfortable in possession and a fine passer of the ball Stubbs was regarded as an elegant centre-half who could also play the holding role in midfield. Hopes were high that his arrival would greatly improve the notoriously shaky Bhoys defence.

It took Stubbs some time to find his feet in Glasgow and inconsistency and niggling injuries meant his trophy-less debut season was far from the success many had hoped.

However the following season (97/98) Wim Jansen, who had replaced the axed Burns, brought in Marc Rieper from West Ham and the Danish international defender brought out the best in Stubbs.

The pair immediately formed an impressive partnership and the duo played a significant role as Celtic took the League Cup and then - on the last day of the season - claimed the championship to stop Rangers from making it a record breaking 10 league titles in a row.

Stubbs even scored a last-gasp headed equaliser to claim a 1-1 draw and a well deserved point against Rangers in a rearranged game at Parkhead on November 19th - the original game having been postponed in the wake of Princess Diana's death.

A career ending foot injury struck Rieper early into the next campaign, and both Stubbs and Celtic suffered as a result. Despite defensive partners - and indeed managers – changing regularly, Stubbs’ remained a solid and mostly impressive performer in the Hoops although Rangers had by now regained the upper hand.

Rumours that Stubbs was ready to return to England seemed to circulate regularly, with the whisper being that his wife could not settle away from her family on Merseyside. In truth the rumours and Stubbs’ apparent angling for a move did not go down well with the support who believed that Stubbs had not yet fully lived up to his lavish price tag (the media played it all up too).

All that seemed insignificant though when in the summer of 1999 a routine drug test after the Scottish Cup final defeat to Rangers revealed Stubbs was suffering from testicular cancer.

With the full support of everyone connected with Celtic the big defender fought back not once, but twice from the illness.

His battle against cancer meant that naturally his appearances for Celtic were limited in his last couple of seasons with the club and he played little more than a cameo role in the treble winning 2000/2001 campaign.

With his contract up in the summer of 2001 Everton moved in and Stubbs moved to Goodison to join the club he supported as a boy. He would later join Sunderland but briefly returned to Everton before a short spell at Derby. He retired in August 2008 at the age of 36 after suffering a serious knee injury.

Stubbs was undoubtedly a quality defender and he put in many impressive performances. His battle against testicular cancer meant the player was probably robbed of the opportunity to really stamp his mark on history of the club and in the hearts of fans.

As it was, many supporters believe that for a variety of reasons Celtic, apart from that one season alongside Rieper, never saw the best of Alan Stubbs. In total Stubbs started 138 games for the Hoops in five seasons, but maybe the truth is that we could have seen an even better player than we did hampered by the clubs' predicaments. It was a rough time in the early years when there was a desperation to win the league title which didn't help, but in any case Stubbs played his part for the club and we wish him well.

Playing Career

{need to check stats below, two tables have very different figures}

Club	From	To	Fee	League		Scottish/FA Cup		League cup		Other
Derby	31/01/2008		Free	9 (0)	0	0 (0)	0	0 (0)	0	0 (0)	0
Everton	20/01/2006	31/01/2008	Free	43 (2)	3	1 (0)	0	3 (0)	0	0 (1)	0
Sunderland	02/08/2005	20/01/2006	Free	8 (2)	1	1 (0)	0	0 (0)	0	0 (0)	0
Everton	05/07/2001	02/08/2005	Free	117 (7)	3	11 (0)	1	5 (2)	0	0 (0)	0
Celtic	01/08/1996	05/07/2001	£ 3,500,000	88 (5)	3	11 (0)	0	9 (1)	0	13 (0)	1
Bolton	24/07/1990	01/08/1996	Trainee	181 (21)	9	16 (3)	2	23 (0)	4	12 (1)	0
				Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals

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Sturdy Alan Stubbs was vital cog in a green machine that blocked 10-in-a-row

Evening Times
Chris Jack31 May 2010

Celtic are set for a summer of major transfer business as they attempt to wrest the title back from Rangers.
Here, in the first of our lookback series on the Parkhead club’s big deals of the last two decades, we focus on ALAN STUBBS’ 1996 big-money move from Everton. The summer of 1996 proved to be the beginning of the end of an era at Celtic, but events that unfolded had a profound impact upon the Parkhead club.
In the shadow of Walter Smith and a Rangers side closing in on an eventual nine-in-a-row, Tommy Burns was preparing for what would be his final season in charge.
The decisions Burns made during that last summer at the helm did not help him break Rangers’ domination of the Scottish top flight, but one signing was to prove invaluable to successor Wim Jansen.
Attempting to fix a fragile defensive unit, Burns broke Celtic’s transfer record to lure Alan Stubbs from Bolton, beating off interest from a number of Premier League sides to secure the big Englishman.
The £4million acquisition was a shrewd move and one that was later to prove invaluable to the Parkhead side. “It was a good bit of business” said Stubbs’ former team-mate Malky Mackay.
“Celtic had him watched the year before he signed, Tommy had people going down to see Alan play and everyone was impressed by him. “Bolton were doing well at the time and Alan performed well in the big games.”
Mackay immediately struck a rapport with his fellow centre-half, helping Stubbs come to terms with the change of scenery and expectations that accompanied his move across the border.
Stubbs endured a difficult debut season in Scotland with injuries and inconsistent form summing up a campaign which again saw the Hoops end a season trophy-less.
But he earned respect from both sides of the Old Firm divide for his combative style and the way he battled testicular cancer during his Celtic sojourn. Mackay would only spend one full season sharing a dressing room with Stubbs before he joined Norwich City, but the Liverpudlian made a lasting impression.
“He was the same age as me so myself and a few of the other local boys took him about and played golf with him and stuff like that,” he said. “It can be lonely at a new club when you are young so we went out together and I think that helped him settle quicker.
“You have to immerse yourself in the club, especially somewhere like Celtic, and realise what you are buying into to and Alan did that.”
After finding his feet on the park and adjusting to life in Glasgow’s goldfish bowl, Stubbs was to play an integral part in preventing Rangers securing an unprecedented 10 league titles on the bounce.
His injury-time goal in a 1-1 draw with Walter Smith’s side in November, 1997, kept the Hoops in a title race that they would later go on to win, while the understanding formed with Marc Rieper also saw Celtic lift the League Cup in Win Jansen’s debut season.
“I thought at the time when he joined that it would be a good signing and that ended up being the case” Mackay said.
“He was one of the stalwarts of the team that Wim Jansen ended up winning the title with.
“He had a good range of passing, he had good feet but he would put his head in where it hurts.
“He was a leader on the park and a good talker and that is why he was worth £4m. He was an excellent servant for Celtic.”