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Personal
Fullname: Patrick Timothy Crerand
aka: Pat Crerand, Paddy Crerand, Patrick Crerand
Born: 19 February 1939
Birthplace: Glasgow, Scotland
Signed: 7 Aug 1957 (from Duntocher Hibernian)
Left: 6 Feb 1963 (to Man U)
Position: Midfield, Right-half
Debut: Celtic 3-1 Queen of the South, League, 4 Oct 1958
Internationals: Scotland
International Caps: 16
International Goals: 0
Biog
A boyhood Celtic fan from the Hoops heartland of the Gorbals, Pat Crerand attended Holyrood Secondary in Glasgow’s South Side along with his cousin another future Celt Charlie Gallagher. Pat Crerand was a talented attack minded right-half who had the ability to go on to become a Celtic legend.
He signed for the Hoops in August 1957 from Duntocher Hibs and made his debut in a 3-1 league victory over Queen of the South at Parkhead on 4th October 1958. Pat Crerand quickly established himself as a key member of the Celtic side and a firm favourite of the support.
A lack of pace didn’t prevent him from pushing forward and his ability to deliver defence splitting balls was second to none. He loved to get forward and shoot from distance. Apart from this willingness to attack Pat Crerand was a steely type and added some real bite to the midfield, he was a player who never shirked a tackle.
Pat Crerand’s biggest problem was that he too frequently lost his discipline on the field, and he was at the centre of several disciplinary issues while on international duty with Scotland. Celtic chairman Robert Kelly clamped down hard on these indiscretions and the relationship between player and chairman was frosty and fragile.
During the 1963 Ne’erday game at Ibrox, Pat Crerand had a poor first-half and subsequently had an explosive half-time row with Sean Fallon. Fallon believed that Crerand was not pulling his weight and that the Bhoys needed to go out and all-out attack in the second half (they were 1-0 down). Pat Crerand took great exception to Sean Fallon’s attack and went on the attack himself. Into the midst of this walked Celtic Chairman Robert Kelly.
From that moment his time at Parkhead was all but over. He found himself dropped and his place taken by John McNamee. Pat Crerand claims that he had been returning from mass at St Francis in his native Gorbals and was walking back to his mother’s house when he was approached by a reporter Jim Rodger who asked him about his move to Man Utd and that this was the first he knew anything about the move. Exactly if Pat Crerand was pushed or jumped is unsure and really depends on whose side of the story you believe.
There were reports he was in a room pleading that he did not want to leave Celtic. Others, that he requested a transfer south on 28th January. One way or another he signed for Manchester Utd on 6th February for between £50-55,000. One thing is for sure that Pat Crerand’s ability on the football pitch was much missed by Celtic who were ailing during his time at the club (not due to him though).
Post-Celtic
Although the player enjoyed significant success in Manchester, the truth is he would miss out on Celtic’s greatest triumph, and as wonderful as the Manchester United team he played with was they were less successful than Jock Stein’s Celtic. He did go on to win the European Cup in 1968 with Manchester United but only after the Lisbon Lions had won it first.
In 1978 it was said that Pat Crerand was on a short list of three for the Celtic manger’s job after Jock Stein moved on. Bertie Auld and Billy McNeill were the other two candidates and McNeill ultimately got the job in late May of 1978.
The common perception is that Celtic remain very close to Pat Crerand but there is no doubt Manchester United is where his heart now lies. Indeed, for all his talk of retaining a “soft spot” for the Bhoys, Pat Crerand struggles to hide some bitterness towards his former employers. In one interview he admitted that he was in tears when Celtic won the European Cup – not out of joy but because they beat Manchester United to the feat.
He would use his newspaper column to urge Paul McStay to quit Celtic for Old Trafford (admittedly this is when Paul McStay was considering moving on and had even said he wanted to also) and more recently in the run up to Celtic’s Champions League ties with Manchester United in 2006 he told anyone in the English media who would listen that the Bhoys had no chance against his Red Devils (which in all honesty few disagreed with even at Celtic). This from a man who admitted not seeing a game at Celtic Park for more than 25 years.
To compound matters, in his match programme column for the Old Trafford tie, Pat Crerand compared ‘plucky underdogs’ Celtic to non-leaguers Exeter and Burton Albion who had recently played Manchester Utd on FA Cup duty. In the programme Pat Crerand also recalls the time he went to see Celtic defeat Manchester United in the Coronation Cup in 1953. He said:
“I wasn’t supporting United that night, but obviously it will be different for this game”.
On the other hand, he has said in interviews that he is a Celtic fan. With the way that things ended at Celtic (being pushed out when he didn’t want to leave which left him & his family in tears) it’s understandable that there is some hurt involved in the memories of his time at Celtic. Joining Man Utd under the great Matt Busby (who himself was disgracefully rebuffed by the Celtic board) was a golden period for Pat Crerand, and it’s understandable that his loyalties shifted to Man Utd above Celtic.
He will always be respected at Celtic for his time as a player at the club. A man who deserved all the honours that came to him at Man Utd but ultimately a disappointment on his loss to the Celtic fans who idolised him.
Playing Career
| APPEARANCES | LEAGUE | SCOTTISH CUP | LEAGUE CUP | EUROPE | TOTAL |
| 1957-63 | 91 | 14 | 13 | 2 | 120 |
| Goals | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 |
Honours with Celtic
none
Quotes
“Big Jock used to drive down to see our games in Manchester. He would always bring down rolls, square sausage, macaroon bars, and Irn Bru for me and Denis Law. ”
Paddy Crerand, who had been transferred to Man United.
Pictures
Articles
Paddy Crerand – Never turn the other cheek
by Pat Crerand
Harper Sport, £18.99
Reviewed by Ashley Shaw
From WSC 254 April 2008
https://www.wsc.co.uk/reviews/64-Players/1023-paddy-crerand
You would struggle to find a more optimistic Manchester United pundit than Patrick Crerand. Ever bullish about the club’s prospects and reluctant to criticise the team’s poorest displays, he makes an enthusiastic cheerleader and the perfect summariser for MUTV.
The title of his autobiography portrays the subject as an uncompromising Scot unafraid of settling an argument with his fists. Yet throughout it throws up surprises. During an appearance on the Kop to take in a Liverpool match in the 1960s, he and some fellow United players suffer Scouse witticisms but no worse, “a contrast with today’s Liverpool supporter”, he suggests.
Crerand pops up again at a safe house in Derry at the height of the Troubles to talk to the IRA – although he admits that the terrorists just want to discuss football and largely ignore his political pleas. Nevertheless, Never turn the other cheek is no-run-of-the-mill autobiography – how could it be with connections like that?
Coached by Jock Stein in the Celtic youth team, Crerand’s rise to the first team brought only disillusionment, culminating in a half-time bust-up with manager Sean Fallon during an Old Firm game on New Year’s Day 1963. Celtic fans were shocked when the rising star subsequently left for United, playing a blinder in that year’s FA Cup final to secure the club’s first success since Munich.
During his United career Crerand was regarded as Busby’s representative on the pitch – a player built in the boss’s image (a stylish wing-half renowned for shrewdness rather than pace and power) – while off it the pair were close enough for Crerand to play go-between in the audacious attempt to recruit Stein in 1971 and other backstairs deals.
Crerand largely denies his presumed role in the decline at the club in the six years following the European Cup triumph in 1968. It has been widely assumed that his closeness to “the boss” undermined Busby’s immediate successors. Instead he blames the tactics of Wilf McGuinness and Frank O’Farrell and the new-fangled training regimes belatedly introduced to the club by the pair and the poor players recruited in this period.
After his playing career, Crerand was promoted to assistant manager alongside Tommy Docherty, whom he had helped bring in from the Scotland job. Yet the pair shared little in common and, sure enough, the relationship declined into mutual hatred. Nevertheless they contributed to a fantastic revival, turning a club struggling for goals in 1974 into the most exciting in English football by 1975.
Crerand’s list of grievances against Docherty could run to a book by itself, but the latter’s approach to man-management was summed up by the “disgraceful” treatment of Denis Law and the manner in which the old guard were pensioned off. After trying and failing at club management at Northampton, Crerard quit the game to become an after-¬dinner speaker, salesman and publican before moving to MUTV in the 1990s.
NTTOC is only marred by what is omitted. For a man who professes to be a staunch socialist and is rightly regarded as the keeper of the Busby flame, there is no mention of the Glazer takeover, save a grumble about ticket prices. It’s unfortunate that Crerand should avoid this issue as his honest views about the American owners’ debt-laden plans for the club would make interesting and entertaining reading. Perhaps Crerand, like another Scot at the club, wisely prefers the diplomatic approach to his paymasters. That aside, this is a cut above the usual fare.