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Billy McNeill: Celtic's greatest leader, says Bertie Auld

Daily Record
Aug 22 2008By Hugh Keevins

BILLY McNEILL tops Bertie Auld's list as the greatest leader of men he's seen on a football pitch.

And he doesn't believe it's too late for Celtic to appoint the former captain and manager to an ambassadorial role within the club where he clocks up a significant milestone tomorrow.This weekend sees big Billy celebrate the 50th anniversary of his Celtic debut.

And the man who lifted the European Cup and twice managed the club demonstrated the characteristics that made him a Celtic immortal when Bertie first observed him as being "All legs, knees and elbows" half a century ago.

But what Auld remembers most of all about the young man who had his father's military bearing was the way he went about proving his own belief there was a "fairytale aspect" to Celtic.

He said: "There was never any doubt Celtic would be the first British club to win the European Cup when Billy was captain of the side.

"And there was equally no doubting that Billy would commemorate Celtic's Centenary year by winning the league and cup Double as manager in 1988.

"Bobby Murdoch was the best player I ever saw. Jimmy Johnstone was unsurpassed as the greatest entertainer I witnessed on a football field.

"But big Billy was a natural leader of men. He had presence and arrogance without being big-headed. When he walked into the dressing room in 1958 I instinctively felt it was the start of something big for Celtic.

"His father had been a soldier and his mother was a strong-minded person as well. Billy was brought up to be the type who had something to say when he started to shout and bawl. He didn't have any empty words.

"He was a majestic figure as a player. If you think back to the goal that beat Dunfermline to win the Scottish Cup in 1965 he had leapt so high he was actually above their keeper Jim Herriot and had to head the ball downwards to score.

"That trophy win ended seven barren years for Celtic and began the story of the modern-day team under Jock Stein. The goal Billy scored to beat Vodjvodina in the European Cup semi-final two years later was even better in my estimation.

"It's the goal I'll always remember from my time at the club because it took us to Lisbon and the rest as they say is history."

Auld doesn't accept the glory years are in the past and the future holds no prospect of any repeat for Celtic.

He said: "Billy spoke about the fairytale aspect associated with Celtic and that tells me you should never say never where Europe or anything else is concerned.

"After all, Billy followed in the footsteps of the greatest Celtic man ever, big Jock, and brought achievement and dignity to the manager's office on two separate occasions.

"If any player at Celtic Park today wanted to look for a role model they could only look in big Billy's direction.

"People sat up whenever Mr Stein made a recommendation about a player, so no one questioned his judgment when the big man suggested this kid who was all legs, knees and elbows had the stuff to replace a fans' hero like Bobby Evans in Celtic's first team."

McNeill will be introduced to the crowd at half-time during tomorrow's game against Falkirk and then take a guest's seat in the directors' box.
Auld wouldn't mind seeing his former team-mate and lifelong friend call that seat his own one day.

He added: "Billy is nobody's 'yes' man but loves Celtic and he would be ideal for an ambassadorial role within the club.

"I'm sure the fans, even those too young to have seen him play, would applaud that decision."

The Case Of Cesar And The Scribe

Written by St Anthony
Tuesday, 20 December 2011 00:01
Source: http://celticunderground.net/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=815:the-case-of-caesar-and-the-scribe&catid=47:season-2011-2012&Itemid=83

In the early 1970’s Gerald (sic) McNee began to make a name for himself in the world of Scottish football journalism. His big break had came in 1972 when the Daily Express had sent him out to Hungary to cover Celtic’s European Cup quarter final tie with Ujpest Dozsa.

Whilst staying in the Intercontinental hotel in the Hungarian capital, McNee had discovered that the Hollywood megastars Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor were staying in the Penthouse suite high above where a number of Celtic fans and the Scots’ press were located.

McNee managed to make contact with Burton and on the night after Celtic had won 2-1 Burton and Taylor threw a party for the Celtic fans with McNee able to get an exclusive story and pictures back to the Daily Express in Glasgow. It was the stuff journalists dream of and this ’scoop’ had put Gerry McNee very much into the high profile bracket of football journalism in the country.

On the back of his Budapest big break Gerry had penned a book, aimed at Celtic fans, titled ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’, which detailed the tales and adventures of both himself and Celtic supporters when travelling to foreign shores during Celtic’s halcyon era in the European Cup from 1966 to 1972. This book sold well and was very popular with supporters at that time and it catalogues a period of time when European travel was becoming more affordable and popular for the ordinary fans.
In 1975 he had assisted the legendary Celt Jimmy McGrory with his autobiography, ’A Lifetime in Paradise’. This was an excellent publication which had shown the public what a genuine person McGrory was and at the same time relay what a wonderful story Jimmy had to tell about his long life as Celtic player and Celtic manager. The book was very well received and Gerry, although critical of the club when it was deserving, was known to be from a ‘Celtic minded’ background and could be relied upon to give an objective opinion. The great McGrory even gave McNee a Scottish cup winners medal from his possession in grateful thanks for his efforts with the book, something that McNee was able to dine out on at length in years to come.

Things began to change in 1978. That year, Desmond White had authorised McNee to write a new official club history to commemorate the club’s 90th anniversary. Some people questioned the worth of this as there was only 10 years left until the club’s centenary. However, in the forthcoming 10 years White himself was to pass on as well as noted Celtic personalities such as Jock Stein, Jimmy McGrory and Tom Devlin, so it would seem that the decision to write the book was vindicated while these men could still be of assistance with the story. There had not been an official history since James Handley’s book in 1960 so there was definitely good reason for the publication.

When the book went on public sale in the autumn of 1978 there was some noted criticism towards it. McNee had been very critical of the team which had lost to Feyenoord in 1970 and this wound was still very raw with the supporters who recalled the defeat only too well and it‘s said that some ex Celtic players were unhappy with his assessment of that game. Also, he had told a story of how John Hughes had gone missing on a Zagreb hillside in 1964 when the authorities had sent out a search party as they were worried about Hughes as there were said to be wild bears in the vicinity. McNee had claimed this was how big John had found the popular nickname ‘Yogi Bear’ but this was denied by various members of the Celtic squad of that period.

By 1980 Gerry McNee, with his Pastor Jack Glass style goatee beard, was a highly distinctive media personality with his work in newspapers and could also be heard regularly on Radio Clyde, then in it’s infancy, with Richard Park and the late, great James Sanderson.

But by far the most controversial incident in his journalistic career came in late August 1980 when the Celtic party and press contingent stayed overnight in a London hotel before travelling to Hungary to defend a 6-0 lead against the quaintly named Diosgyoeri Miskolc.

With the players settled down for the night the Celtic manager Billy McNeill joined some press men in the hotel lounge and began discussing football matters. It’s worthwhile pointing out that no one at this point was ‘tired and emotional’ through alcohol.

McNeill was surprised to hear NcNee launch into a vitriolic attack on the discipline of his Celtic players during a recent defeat to Rangers and told McNee that this was a friendly gathering and there was no need for his tone. However McNee went on and as the pair continued their disagreement McNee suggested to McNeill that they ‘step outside to settle this’.

Now big Billy is a proud man and when someone, in the Glasgow parlance, asks you for outside for a ‘square go’ then he was never going to refuse. The stand off resulted in one blow from McNeill with McNee decked on the floor.

Next morning, in the cold light of day, big Billy had realised he had made a severe error of judgement. He should never have risen to McNee and taken the bait. In view of this he called a meeting of those present and apologised for his behaviour. He also personally apologised to McNee and the pair shook hands. Billy also made a point of keeping Celtic chairman Desmond White abreast of the situation and that looked to have been the end of the matter.

In early October Celtic were controversially knocked out of Europe by the Rumanians of Politechnica Timosoara. Billy McNeill had described the Greek referee that day as the worst he had ever experienced. In Rumania during the post match banquet, Gerry McNee on duty with the Daily Star, could be seen verbally berating the referee for his performance. Strangely, the referee then turned on Frank McGarvey and began castigating him for his behaviour on the field as McGarvey had been (controversially) ordered off. Seeing the situation deteriorating McNeill ordered the players from the dining area back to their rooms and went to update Desmond White on the goings on.

Upon entering White’s room he found McNee giving a detailed account of what had happened. McNeill was incensed and told McNee he had no right going to the chairman behind his back and telling tales and the two men then had another heated argument.

Celtic returned home and only four days later on October 5th 1980 the Sunday newspapers sensationally reported in great detail that the Celtic manager, Billy McNeill, had assaulted the journalist Gerry McNee the previous August. That this was now made public was a huge surprise to everyone at Celtic, it was bad publicity for the club and brought big Billy’s name into considerable disrepute. Celtic fined McNeill £500 which was a hefty sum on 1980 and many felt that the punishment was way over the top given the circumstances.

But the question remained; who had gone to the press about an incident which had happened months previously and that only a handful of people knew of ? Every Celtic supporter believed that they knew exactly who had instigated the story and ran to the media for his own end and for his own mischievous reasons. Devious does not begin to describe this behaviour.

After that Gerry McNee became public enemy number one with the Celtic support. It was felt that rather than reporting the issues of the day he became embittered and chipped away at Celtic with every available opportunity. There was no concern amongst the support at this time as to Billy’s behaviour, indeed the only regret that I can recall Celtic fans having was that ‘the big man didnae hit him hard enough’.

On October 11th after a 2-0 win at Love Street against St Mirren McNeill, clearly incensed, declared that he would not speak to the press corps whilst McNee remained with them. This led to more sensational headlines in the newspapers and a protest from the National Union of Journalists which led to Desmond White reprimanding McNeill and apologising to McNee for big Billy’s actions.

Billy McNeill had never had a great working relationship with Desmond White and the Celtic board but this matter only served to widen the gap between them and, indirectly, the McNee affair led to McNeill leaving Celtic for Manchester City in the summer of 1983. Billy had felt that he had received no backing from his board and the fact they chose to make the £500 fine public had not only riled him but had embarrassed him also. White had constantly shown an intransigent attitude towards his manager during his 5 year reign from 1978 – 1983. The recriminations of the McNee affair would be long and lasting for Celtic.

McNee’s career later took him to STV where he was a monotone commentator for Scotsport in the early 1980’s. An Archie McPherson he was not. He also continued to write columns for Sunday newspapers where he proceeded to irrationally attack a number of targets such as the Celtic board, the SFA and Graeme Souness. At least he was consistent. It was felt that he was controversial for the sake of being controversial and would go out of his way to agitate others for cheap headlines.

Speaking of Souness, he too had a spat with McNee, this time whilst flying back from the Rumanian capital of Bucharest and it was said that ''If he (Souness) had had his way that night, he would have chucked Gerry out a window….38,000 feet high.’ It appears McNeill and Souness actually had something in common and the Rangers manager was physically restrained on the flight.

In later years the younger up and coming journalists were to ridicule McNee’s pompous manner and writing style. He had always been sycophantic towards Alex Ferguson but it surprised no one when the two men were said to have had a fall out and as most people know you cross Fergie at your peril. As Ferguson carried on with his huge success at Old Trafford McNee was seen as an embittered, twisted old hack and Gerry was put out to pasture and could be seen seeking solace in the popular Heraghty‘s bar on Glasgow’s south side.

Billy McNeill will always be remembered as the legendary Celtic captain, standing in Lisbon like Caesar had once stood so imperiously in Rome, taking the acclaim of the masses. Gerry McNee will be remembered for nothing other than the infamy of crossing swords with those two great strong personalities, Billy McNeill and Graeme Souness, and coming off distinctly worse in the process.

Last Updated on Tuesday, 20 December 2011 17:04

BILLY McNEILL

by David Potter

It would be hard to underestimate the value of Billy McNeill to Celtic Football Club. 831 appearances speak for themselves, as do 23 major medals, for they were all at the axiomatic, defining time of Celtic's history. Billy experienced the worst before he personally propelled Celtic to the best. He quit at the top and he returned twice to be Manager. Curiously both spells mirrored his playing career in that he experienced the worst and the best in that capacity as well.

Born at Bellshill in 1940 just a few months before the Nazis unleashed their offensive against the RAF and the people of Britain , Billy grew up during the war, then the post-war era and into the prosperity of the 1950s as he made his debut for Celtic against Clyde in 1958. He had been to school at Our Lady's High School and school in the football sense as a Celtic youngster under Jock Stein.

Rapidly, he attracted the attention of everyone and the disappearance of Bobby Evans allowed him a permanent spot as centre half from 1960 onwards. Yet his experiences in 1961 might have ruined many a lesser man. In April he suffered two blows. His International debut was the infamous 9-3 Wembley debacle, and even more painful must have been the loss of the Scottish Cup Final to Jock Stein's Dunfermline after an agonising replay in which the young Celtic simply couldn't score.

But the bad days were just beginning. Three and a half barren years followed with repeated defeats at the hands of Rangers and a serious injury picked up in August 1964. Billy, the captain since 1963, a married man with children, toyed with the idea of leaving his beloved Celtic for Tottenham Hotspur, but in early 1965 Jock Stein returned as Manager. Billy was Jock's voice on the park, and how appropriate it was that on that bright spring day of 1965 it should be the golden head of Billy McNeill who rose above the Dunfermline defence to head home Celtic's glorious winner in the Scottish Cup Final!

The next ten years were almost unbroken success with Billy undeniably Scotland 's best defender. Curiously, he did not get all the Scottish caps he deserved. Ian Ure of Dundee and Arsenal was arguably as good on the ground, although not quite so dominant in the air, but it was more difficult to maintain the claims of Rangers Ron McKinnon against McNeill. McKinnon was a good centre half, but nothing like the class of McNeill. Billy should have won more than 29 caps.

Lisbon was a McNeill creation, notably in the Quarter Final when the golden head once again won the day against Vojvodina, and the nine League titles in a row would not have been achieved without Celtic's King Billy. Great performances are too many to mention, but he scored in the 1969 4-0 Scottish Cup Final rout of Rangers, performed brilliantly in both games against Leeds United in 1970 and scored another Hampden goal in Dixie Deans' Cup Final of 1972. Poor performances over 90 minutes are as scarce as the teeth of a hen, although there are two mistakes that come to mind. One was his error in August 1963 for Rangers' first goal in the rain on the first day of the season, and the other was his blunder in 1969 which allowed A.C. Milan an undeserved victory. Such things prove that the man was human.

Billy announced his retirement immediately after winning the Scottish Cup Final against Airdrie in 1975. He thus knew exactly the right time to quit as a player. He became Manager of Clyde, then Aberdeen and when Celtic parted company with Jock Stein in 1978, where else would they look?

In his first spell of five seasons, Celtic won a trophy in each of the five of them – notably the epic 1979 – "Ten men won the League" – game against Rangers, but crucially failed to make any impact on Europe , largely because the Board would not finance him. In 1983, he politely asked for a contract, and was very soon on his way to Manchester City and then Aston Villa – but his heart remained with Celtic.

In 1987 he was invited back for the Centenary Season. This was a glorious triumph in the Celtic tradition as Celtic lifted the Double. Then the Scottish Cup was won the following season as well, but Billy once again suffered from a parsimonious Board as his rivals bought everything in sight.

In 1991 after two dreadful seasons (although only a penalty shoot-out prevented him from lifting the Scottish Cup in 1990 and he did put Rangers out of the Cup in 1990 and 1991) McNeill left Celtic for the last time…but remains what he always was, a Celtic supporter!

How good a player was he? Well, put it this way. If asked to nominate the greatest Celtic team of all time, I would have two dead-certs – Henrik Larsson in the forward line and Billy McNeill the centre half. That is how highly he is rated.

Athletic Bilbao honour Celtic’s ‘one-club man’ Billy McNeill
by Press Association
16/04/2019, 1:26 pm

https://www.eveningexpress.co.uk/sport/athletic-bilbao-honour-celtics-one-club-man-billy-mcneill/Billy McNeill is to be honoured for his “faithful service” to Celtic (Danny Lawson/PA)
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Celtic’s European Cup-winning captain Billy McNeill is to receive a prestigious award from Spanish club Athletic Bilbao in tribute to his “faithful service” to the Hoops.

Athletic’s ‘One Club Man Award’ was set up four years ago with the aim of honouring players whose career with one team represents the values of “commitment, loyalty, responsibility, sportsmanship and respect”, which embody the Basque side’s own identity.

Now 79, McNeill – nicknamed ‘Cesar’ by his team-mates – spent his entire career with the Hoops, with his crowning achievement coming in 1967 as he led Jock Stein’s ‘Lisbon Lions’ to victory over Inter Milan in the final of the European Cup.

As well as becoming the first British player to lift the trophy, McNeill’s tally of 790 competitive appearances for Celtic between 1957 and 1975 remains a club record.

He captained the Hoops to nine league titles in a row, claiming seven Scottish Cups and six League Cups, while also contributing 34 goals.

McNeill, whose family confirmed in 2017 that he had been diagnosed with dementia, would later return to Celtic for two successful spells as manager, while the club marked his special place in their history when in 2015 they unveiled a statue of his likeness holding the European Cup aloft.

Jose Angel Iribar, a former Athletic goalkeeper and their own record appearance holder, will lead a delegation from Bilbao to present McNeill with his award, whose previous recipients include former Barcelona captain Carles Puyol, Bayern Munich favourite Sepp Maier and retired AC Milan defender Paolo Maldini.

Celtic chairman Ian Bankier said: “This award is a fantastic recognition for Billy and recognises the phenomenal contribution he made to Celtic over so many years. A towering figure in the history of our great club, Billy’s achievements at Celtic form a legacy which we will always be so thankful for.

“Billy has always represented Celtic at all times in the best of ways with true integrity and professionalism and is someone who has always been the finest ambassador for the club.

“I am delighted that his unwavering commitment to Celtic has been recognised by Athletic Bilbao in this manner and we congratulate Billy, Liz and all the family on this great achievement.”

Celtic chief executive Peter Lawwell added: “Billy is a hugely deserving recipient of this highly prestigious award. I know that Billy’s family is tremendously proud of this accolade, and on behalf of everyone at Celtic I would like to send our sincere congratulations to Billy and the entire McNeill family.

“I would also like to thank Athletic Bilbao for honouring Billy in this way, it’s a tremendous gesture which is greatly appreciated.

“I have had the genuine honour and privilege of knowing Billy for so many years now and he is someone who always set the highest of examples with his values of family, respect and humility. He is rightly revered as a true Celtic great and he will always be one of our favourite sons – a special player and a very special man.

“He has been voted our greatest ever captain and it is fantastic that Billy’s selfless contribution to his one club has been recognised in this way.

“Billy will always be one of European football’s major figures. He has given such a huge part of his life to Celtic and for that, we will forever be grateful and we forever hold him in such high esteem.”

Obituary: William ‘Billy’ McNeill, Celtic footballing legend, leader of the Lisbon Lions, Scottish internationalist

Billy McNeill in 1967 (Picture: SNS)
Billy McNeill in 1967 (Picture: SNS)
Published: 12:13 Wednesday 24 April 2019
https://www.scotsman.com/news/obituaries/obituary-william-billy-mcneill-celtic-footballing-legend-leader-of-the-lisbon-lions-scottish-internationalist-1-4914141
William “Billy” McNeill MBE – Celtic footballing legend. Born: 2 March 1940 in Bellshill, North Lanarkshire. Died: 22 April 2019 in Glasgow, aged 79

A bad year for Scottish football got worse on Tuesday, with the news that Billy McNeill, the greatest Celtic player and a true legend of the game, had lost his long and public battle with dementia.

The image of McNeill, standing on the balcony in Lisbon’s National Stadium, holding aloft the newly minted European Cup is one of the iconic football ones. It has been replicated in bronze in front of Celtic Park, capturing as it does the greatest moment in the near 150-year history of Scotland and the Beautiful Game.

McNeill’s club career is the stuff of legend. Born in Bellshill, the son of an Army PTO, he – apart from a short spell in England, where he went to a rugby-playing school – was a commanding centre half throughout his six years at Motherwell’s Our Lady’s High School.

He won Scotland Under-18 schoolboy honours, and his performance in a 3-0 win over England at Celtic Park in 1957, according to legend, forced the watching Jock Stein to tell Chairman Sir Robert Kelly: “We must get that boy to the club.”

McNeill needed little persuading. He left school, worked briefly for Lanarkshire County Council, then for Stenhouse, the insurance brokers, but, still a part-timer, he made his first-team debut against Clyde in August 1958. Celtic won.

He had to wait for his turn, since Bobby Evans was the incumbent Celtic and Scotland centre-half. However, Evans’ transfer to Chelsea in 1960 saw McNeill take over. He was still a part-timer, as he would continue to be until, after a successful apprenticeship via the Under-23 and Scottish League teams, he made his Scotland debut, in the notorious 9-3 Wembley loss to England in 1961.

McNeill emerged from that disaster with some credit, but, in what was to be a feature of his career, he never replicated at international level the success he would enjoy at his club. He only won 29 caps over an 11-year period, only led Scotland eight times, and was never the automatic choice for his country he was at club level.

Certainly, some injuries restricted his international appearances, but, at a time when the central defensive partnership of McNeill and John Clark at Celtic was recognised as just about the best in the business, they were only ever picked together once, in a 2-0 defeat to USSR in 1967.

The Celtic team which McNeill broke into was long on promise, short on silverware, and it was not until Stein was brought back as manager in February, 1965, that the club’s fortunes turned. This was a fortuitous move for McNeill, who, disappointed at the way the club was stagnating, was contemplaing asking for a transfer.

Stein’s return altered the Scottish football landscape totally and it was a towering McNeill header which secured a 3-2 Scottish Cup final victory over Dunfermline in 1965, ending the club’s near eight year trophy drought and signalling the start of something special.

A League and League Cup double in 1966 demonstrated how the Stein revolution had changed things, but, Scottish football had not seen anything yet. In 1967 Celtic won every competition they entered, their season capped with that iconic image of McNeill holding aloft the European Cup, after holders Inter Milan had been totally crushed. The result might have been 2-1, the reality was, Celtic won by a mile. The legend of the Lisbon Lions was born.

The following years brought fantastic success, nine league wins in a row, other cup successes. In all, McNeill would go on – before he quit at the top – his last act as a footballer was to lift the Scottish Cup following victory over Airdrie in 1975 – to lift a then record 23 trophies as Celtic captain.
He retired, after 789 games for the club, all those trophies and medals, a Footballer of the Year award and an MBE for his services to the game.

He took a break for some 18 months, concentrating on a burgeoning business portfolio, but Clyde persuaded him to return to the game as manager and a record of four wins and three draws in eight games as a manager, saw him lured to Aberdeen in 1977 to follow Ally MacLeod, who had become the Scotland manager.

At Pittodrie, he won the League Cup, and gave Jock Wallace’s treble-winning side a terrific run for their money. He had proved himself a more than competent manager, so, when the strained relationship between Stein and the Four Families who ran Celtic finally snapped and Stein was eased out of the door, the board turned to McNeill to continue his mentor’s great work at the club.

Stein had survived 13 years of the machinations of the families, McNeill stood it for five. He turned also-rans into champions in one season, then won the Scottish Cup, then back-to-back league titles, before, in 1983, failing by one point to make it three titles in a row.

By then, however, McNeill had had enough of the board and, when the men upstairs offloaded Charlie Nicholas to Arsenal, McNeill too quit for England, and Manchester City.

City back then were the very-poor relations in Mancunian football, languishing in England’s second tier. It took him two seasons, but McNeill got them back into the top flight, but, as at Celtic, he faced boardroom interference, and quit to join Aston Villa in 1986. This was not perhaps Billy’s best move, since, at the end of that season, he had the unique distinction of having managed two of the relegated sides, as Villa and City both went down.

Peter Swales, his chairman at Manchester City, perhaps best summed-up the situation McNeill found himself in England, when he said: “If ever a man was made for one club, it was Billy McNeill and Celtic; his heart was always at Parkhead.”

To Celtic he returned. His successor, Davie Hay, had also had a difficult relationship with the men at the top of the club and when, in 1987, Celtic failed to defend the league title they had won so-memorably on the final day of the previous season, Hay was out and McNeill returned for a second spell at the club he loved.

He presided over a Centenary Year league and cup double in 1988, but, in addition to his travails with the four families on the board, McNeill also had his battles with chief executive Terry Cassidy before, in 1991, he walked away from the Celtic job.

He concentrated on his growing family and his business interests. McNeill’s, his south-side pub was a place of pilgrimage to Celtic fans. He wrote a trenchant newspaper column, had a brief spell as director of football and caretaker manager at Hibs, but his rapprochment with Celtic was healed by the arrival of Fergus McCann.

McNeill and the Lisbon Lions were given their due place in Celtic history, the captain took on a Club Ambassador’s role in 2009 and everything seemed set fair for his old age.

Then came the devastating news: dementia, that dreadful disease which seems to feast off former footballers, had taken Billy McNeill. His illness became public knowledge in 2015.

Celtic had to act. A statue of McNeill, in that legendary pose, holding aloft the European Cup, was commissioned and sited at Parkhead. The Celtic family, and the wider football community held its breath, Billy fought with all his amazing courage, but, on Tuesday morning came the news everyone had dreaded – he had lost his battle.

Wife Liz – they were one of football’s most-gilded and loved couples – daughters Susan, twins Carol and Libby, Paula and son Martyn, have lost a loving and devoted father. Billy’s grand-children have lost a doting and much-loved Papa.

The surviving Lions have lost the leader of their pride, the Celtic family has lost one of its icons. In his early days at the club, because he was one of the few players who owned a car, McNeill was dubbed “Cesar” by his team mates. The name came from actor Cesar Romero, who had played the getaway driver in the original version of Ocean’s Eleven.

After seeing him with the European Cup in Lisbon, Bertie Auld decided: henceforth Billy would be Cesar, because he looked like a Roman God as he held aloft the giant cup.

As we prepare to bury Cesar, we should praise him. Billy McNeill MBE, with his honorary Doctorate from Glasgow University and his place in the Scottish Football Hall of Fame, was not just the greatest Celt, he was one of the all-time greats of Scottish football.

MATTHEW VALLANCE

Danny McGrain pays tribute to Celtic legend Billy McNeill

The late, great Billy McNeill pictured presenting Danny McGrain with a Celtic shirt to mark his 60th birthday in 2010. Picture: SNS
The late, great Billy McNeill pictured presenting Danny McGrain with a Celtic shirt to mark his 60th birthday in 2010. Picture: SNS
Andrew Smith
Published: 23:36 Wednesday 24 April 2019
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Few played with Billy McNeill then served under him when he subsequently entered management. Danny McGrain was among that select band. It provides one former Celtic captain and all-time club great with an exceptional vantage point to assess the status of another in that bracket, whose transcendence is entwined with becoming the first man to lift the European Cup for a British club.

McGrain doesn’t just mourn McNeill, who died this week at the age of 79 after a decade-long struggle with dementia, as one of Celtic’s supreme standard bearers. He sees the legend whose loss has precipitated a national outpouring of love and respect as a man whose flag flutters only below the coaching architect of that 1967 triumph on the continent, one Jock Stein. Or, as McGrain has referred to him since he broke into the Celtic senior ranks in 1970 to inhabit the domain of the Lisbon Lions in which McNeill roared, Mr Stein.

McGrain won 11 of his 14 major honours either with McNeill by his side on the pitch, or on the trackside as the coach guiding him. That transition, which came when McNeill replaced Stein in 1978 – three years after he retired as a player – wasn’t a straightforward one for McGrain, made club captain the previous year following the departure of Kenny Dalglish to Liverpool.

“I remember the first day he came in I was the captain. No one else would take it…” the mischievous McGrain joked. “Big Billy had been a player at the club recently and when he told us what we were doing I either said to him, ‘OK, big man’ or ‘OK Billy’. I think I said Billy. I never called him Cesar. And he wanted me to call him ‘boss.’ I would have been quite comfortable calling him Billy. I felt I had earned the right. Not in public, maybe. But he gave me no inkling before then. And then he said, ‘I want you to call me boss.’ I then apologised for calling him Billy and he said, ‘that’s alright it was my fault.’ From then on he was ‘boss’. That was it, done and dusted. And we got on fine after that because we kept winning everything….”

Despite McGrain’s comic overstatement about that early 1980s period in which Aberdeen and Dundee United vied with Celtic for silverware, such dominance did belong to the Celtic side in which the Stein-McNeill axis was monumental. And such was the place that the Celtic manager reserved for his on-field general that young players were directed to McNeill by Stein for a pep talk when introduced into the first-team ranks. The words of wisdom that centre-half colossus McNeill reserved for teenage right-back McGrain didn’t prove as profound as he had geared himself up to expect. “He didn’t really come out with any great pearls about ‘train well, eat well, get sleep or that kind of stuff’” said McGrain, who was speaking at the launch of Six Foot Two Eyes of Blue, a new biography of Jim Holton. “I don’t actually remember him telling me anything that did me any real good. There was just one piece of advice I remember; ‘don’t eat yellow snow.’”

With McGrain’s 69th birthday only weeks away, the passing of McNeill, and the dreadful toll that his illness took on his mind, can’t but cause McGrain to consider the price extracted by ageing. McGrain had a stent operation following a heart attack five years ago that leaves him flummoxed because neither event was accompanied by any pain.

“All of 20 years ago I was aware of getting older,” said McGrain. “I see people of my age who look old and I ask myself, ‘do I look old? The answer is ‘yes’ I am old. But you don’t see yourself getting old. You never think of yourself as an old person. I’m still reasonably fit for someone of my age.

“Big Billy was fit as well and looked fit. It was simply the case that his mind went and when that happens you’ve had it. I’m so sorry he’s gone but glad he is away from that terrible illness. I’m glad he is at peace and his family have some time to grieve now. I hope he will be happy now because he is gone and free of all of that and we should remember now what he did. He had 13 years as a captain of a great Celtic team. It’s almost unimaginable.”

l Six Foot Two Eyes of Blue is written by Colin Leslie and published by Empire Publications, £10.95.

A national hero in Scotland… and Lithuania: Vilnius hails Celtic legend Billy McNeill’s family roots in Eastern Europe

by Stacey Mullen
May 5, 2019, 12:01 pm

© Popperfoto/Getty Images
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He is a hero in his Scottish homeland but Lisbon Lions legend Billy McNeill has also been hailed in Lithuania, the homeland of his maternal grandparents.

A tribute to the player, whose funeral took place on Friday when fans and football greats paid their respects, has been paid by the country’s minister of Foreign Affairs Linas Linkevicius.

After the Celtic legend’s death, aged 79, Linkevicius posted a tribute on social media: “You’ll never walk alone, Cesar. RIP Billy McNeill – you made Celtic FC great and Lithuania proud. A football legend, a grandson of Lithuanians who made Scotland their home, Billy McNeill, 1940-2019.”

A spokesman for the Lithuanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in capital Vilnius told The Sunday Post, the Celtic legend’s life and successes would be of great interest to Lithuanians around the world.

He said: “It is estimated up to 1.3 million Lithuanians and persons of Lithuanian descent live abroad.

“Therefore it is difficult, and at the same time very important, to collect every piece of information that helps build a coherent history of Lithuanian people.

“We will pay tribute to Billy McNeill by posting corresponding information in Ministry of Foreign Affair’s Facebook account for Lithuanians all over the world.”

McNeill’s maternal grandparents, Kazis and Urzula Walatkaviczus, were Lithuanian immigrants. His mother Ellen, who was known as Nellie, was named Anele at birth but her family later anglicised their names, adopting the surname Mitchell.

In his 2004 autobiography Hail Cesar, Billy joked he might have been a “Yank” had his grandparents not boarded the wrong immigrant ship to Scotland.

He said: “My Lithuanian grandparents boarded an immigrant ship believing they were bound for the New World but, instead of landing in New York, they disembarked at Leith.

“But for the geographical hiccup I might have been born a Yank on March 2, 1940. I can only assume my maternal granny and granddad were duped by some unscrupulous wheeler-dealer when they chose to leave their native land to seek a better life in America, but I am rather glad that they were, for I could never envisage myself starring in the NFL or playing major league baseball.”

Billy, whose father James was of Irish descent, was born in his grandparents’ home in Main Street, Bellshill where he lived until the age of six.

A census entry for 1911, before his birth, reveals the family once lived in Muirpark Rows and his grandfather was a coal miner.

In his autobiography, he said: “I remember them as very proud, kind people. Years later, on a trip to the Ukraine to play Kiev, local journalists were keen to interview me about my family connections behind the Iron Curtain, although I have to confess that I wasn’t able to enlighten them greatly.”

His grandparents, who later changed their names to Charles and Grace, never saw his 1967 Lisbon Lions victory for his grandmother died in 1947 while is grandfather passed away some years later in 1960.

They made up the ­thousands of Lithuanians who came to Scotland between 1870 and the First World War. Many settled in the industrial central belt, including Billy’s hometown of Bellshill, seeking work in the mines and steelyards.

The town is home to the Scottish Lithuanian Social Club, formed in the 1950s, and it is thought there was 7,000 Lithuanians in Scotland by 1914.

Professor Marjory Harper, chair in history at Aberdeen University, said: “They came because of the push of agricultural hardship and Russification policies in Lithuania, and the pull of agents’ promises about high wages and amenable work in Scotland.

“The majority of them came to Lanarkshire, where they worked in the coal mines. There were clusters of Lithuanians in places like Bellshill.”

Mary Rose McAleenan, 77, from Mossend, grew up with Billy. Both her mother Anastasija Kursvietaite (Nancy Coris) and his were friends, and she shared the same heritage, with her father also of Irish descent.

She said: “Having come from a mixed background like Billy McNeill, we probably weren’t as immersed in the Lithuanian culture.

“We, as a family, ate Lithuanian food and followed certain traditions but, because it is a mixed background, we weren’t as Lithuanian as some.

“We didn’t have a Lithuanian name for a start, so people didn’t associate us with Lithuania, the same as Billy McNeill I suppose.”

May 2019

One Man Award Given by Athletic Bilbao to Billy McNeill, in attendance John Clark & Susan Chalmers (dauthter of Billy McNeill)