Mowbray, Tony – Articles (Misc)

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Tony’s Mowbray’s open Letter to the Support

Glasgow Celtic was a Club that I did not know a lot about when I was told that Liam Brady had been in touch with Middlesbrough about acquiring my services in 1991. I knew that they were a big Club with an illustrious history; the first British team to win the European Cup, and to achieve the amazing feat of winning nine championships in a row.

When I was an apprentice professional footballer at Middlesbrough in the 1980, my youth team coach would eulogise about Celtic and the great players who had played for the Club. The coach in question was indeed one of the very best ex -Celts; his name Bobby Murdoch.

By the time I left Celtic on 1995, the Club and more importantly the supporters, had left an indelible mark in my heart, which will never leave me.

I feel honoured to have played in “the hoops” and to have given my all for the Club at very difficult period in the Clubs history. It was a volatile time in the East end of Glasgow what with the “sack the board” campaign and the domination of the field of the team from across the city. It was a time of change at Celtic, but what stood firm throughout all of my time at the Club was the belief the supporters had that good times were just around the corner and that the Celts would be “singing in the sun” before too long.

Their support of the team on the field was total and the players strived to reward the fans with performances that made you feel as if you were part of a huge family unit – and that feeling of being as one with the supporters could not of been highlighted more than when I was to lose my wife to cancer on new years day 1995. At a time when my life was decimated, and I was as low as any human being can get, the love and warmth I will never forget. Words of support poured in from Celtic folk, from all over the world and at a time when my life was empty, they helped fill that void with their compassion.

So as I said earlier, Celtic will always be ‘my club’ and I feel very humble that I played alongside such great Celts as McStay, Nicholas. Collins, Grant, Bonner and many more, but most importantly that I know whenever I pulled on the Jersey, I gave my all because I knew what it meant to the supporter on the terraces, to be proud to be a Celt.

Take care and God Bless,

Tony Mowbray Hail, Hail FIRST TEAM COACH (Ipswich Town)

Tony Mowbray’s open letter to celtic supporters (June 09)

I am absolutely delighted to be back at Celtic and it’s a great honour for me to have been appointed manager of this football club.

The four years I spent here as a player were very important to me and if I didn’t arrive as a Celtic supporter, I certainly left as one. In particular, the backing I received throughout my time at the club from supporters, in the good times and in the bad, is something that I really appreciated and have never forgotten.

Celtic is more than a football club and all of us who support the team help to make it a special institution.

It is also a tremendous challenge to become Celtic manager but it is one that I am relishing. I am looking forward to meeting up with the players and working with them as we set our sights on bringing success to the club, and it’s going to be an exciting challenge for all of us.

Celtic Park is a famous stadium in football. I was lucky enough to play here when it was the old ground, before it was transformed into the impressive arena it is today, and it’s a wonderful privilege for each and every player to be able to run out for a home game in front of 60,000 supporters.

Any success that Celtic have ever achieved or will achieve in the seasons to come is down to everyone being united. That means the players will give everything on the field, the management will work tirelessly to make sure the squad is properly prepared for each and every game, and the supporters will give their legendary backing to the team.

We are all Celtic supporters, faithful through and through, and together we can bring further success to our football club.

So I am delighted to be back here. As i say, it is an honour and a privilege to be the manager of Celtic Football Club, and I want you all to be here with me and the team for what I am sure will be an exciting new season.

Tony Mowbray
Manager
Celtic Football Club

Tony Mowbray confirmed as Celtic manager

Times Online
(June 09)

Tony Mowbray has been appointed Celtic manager, the club have confirmed.

The former West Bromwich Albion manager will bring assistant Mark Venus and first-team coach Peter Grant with him from The Hawthorns and Neil Lennon, the current Celtic coach, will also join the new management team.

Mowbray will be unveiled at a press conference at Celtic Park tomorrow morning and his appointment finally brings to an end weeks of speculation about who would succeed Gordon Strachan, who departed after failing to win his fourth Clydesdale Bank Premier League title in succession.

Jeremy Peace, the West Brom chairman, reluctantly allowed the Old Firm club to speak to Mowbray on Saturday after they agreed to pay £2million in compensation for the former Celtic defender. Lennon, who was part of Strachan’s coaching team, was promised a role at Parkhead for next season by Celtic chief executive Peter Lawwell.
There has been speculation that Lennon would take over as reserve team coach from Willie McStay, but his job will become clearer at tomorrow’s press conference.

Mowbray’s first job will be to assess his squad ahead of the first of possibly two tricky Champions League qualifiers at the end of July. With the league fixtures being announced tomorrow, Mowbray will discover who will be his first opponents in the league campaign. Mowbray will need no introduction to Scott Brown, Gary Caldwell and Chris Killen, all of whom were under his charge when he was Hibernian manager.

However, Mowbray will have to address several areas in the side and has already been linked with numerous players including Paul Robinson, the West Brom defender, Marc-Antoine Fortune, the Nancy striker, Portsmouth defender Hermann Hreidarsson and Mattias Bjarsmyr, the Sweden Under-21 captain.

Mowbray will have to hit the ground running at Celtic

16 June 2009

Provided by: Guardian Unlimited

Ewan Murray: Tony Mowbray is well-placed to deliver the free-flowing football Celtic fans desire, but faces uncharted waters at Parkhead

Forming a character assessment of Tony Mowbray is a troublesome business. Publicly, at least, he gives little away. His natural shyness can and often is mistaken for arrogance, an unwillingness to open up perhaps partly a resonance of the tragedy he suffered while a Celtic player.

Yet there is an underlying sense of humour, an ability to relate to football players and an unquestionable work ethic within Mowbray the manager. When in charge of Hibernian, he said to me only partly in jest that “as a big ugly bloke with a face like this, I get used to people looking at me in the street; I just try to keep my head down”.

Anonymity is not an option when you are in charge of Celtic. Albeit Mowbray has just left a season in England’s Premier League behind him, he has walked into a role where his every move, tactic and pound spent will be analysed as never before.

More significantly, he must deal with a scenario where expectations are higher than he has ever encountered ? as a manager, that is; Mowbray should be well aware from the four years he spent as a Celtic player just how much success counts and defeat hurts for both halves of the Old Firm. Between 1991 and 1995, after all, Rangers were cantering towards nine titles in a row.

In general terms, Mowbray was a success during almost two and a half years at Hibs. Two top-four finishes in the SPL were secured although, in fairness, the talent at the manager’s disposal meant that should have been the case. Many of those players ? Scott Brown, Kevin Thomson, Steven Whittaker among them ? departed Easter Road for hefty transfer fees thereafter. Mowbray also arguably left Edinburgh at the right time for West Bromwich Albion, Hibs enduring a below-par opening to season 2006-07.

There were obvious positives, though. Hibs gained a reputation as a free-flowing, fine footballing side with Mowbray in charge. Since he departed, supporters have regularly bemoaned the absence of such style. Mowbray’s Hibs developed a penchant for defeating Rangers, most memorably by three goals to nil at Ibrox in a Scottish Cup tie in February 2006. Either in victory or defeat, Mowbray’s honest descriptions of matches in their immediate aftermath impressed many onlookers.

West Brom has subsequently been a bittersweet experience for the man who, because of his earlier affiliation to that club, has been regularly tipped as a future Middlesbrough manager. Achieving promotion from the Championship is no mean feat in anyone’s language, while demotion back there given the budget at his disposal was hardly unexpected.

Only Hawthorns regulars could fully explain why Mowbray was still afforded a rousing reception as last season closed considering the points and goals against columns; the style of play on offer, again, seems the most widely held view. The manager plucked the odd cheap gem from the transfer market, Graham Dorrans among them, and never seemed willing to enter into media hubris; something that will endear him to his new employers.

Mowbray has appeared Celtic’s most viable and attainable option from the day it was confirmed that Gordon Strachan had decided four years in Glasgow was quite enough.

He is the man who started Celtic’s pre-match huddle, has frequently spoken of his fondness for the club and their supporters and there will be an obvious emotional pull towards Parkhead. Mowbray showed tremendous dignity in coping with the death of his former wife when a Celtic player; Bernadette’s family were and are all staunch supporters of the Hoops.

Fiscal realities mean Celtic cannot shop at the top end of the managerial market as they did when Martin O’Neill was appointed or, previously, when they courted Guus Hiddink. That is not an excuse for the club’s board, who seem to have procrastinated unnecessarily in agreeing compensation to the value of merely a competent centre-forward, but a basic fact.

Mowbray’s first challenge may be his biggest. Two sets of qualifying matches for the Champions League will open Celtic’s season. Strachan found out only too well that defeat at stage one can have massive implications: many fans simply never took to him after that Artmedia Bratislava disaster. In more basic terms, the fact that Rangers have secured automatic entry to the group phase means Celtic have to do likewise to ensure financial parity for a season at least. The new manager, of course, is inexperienced in such a scenario.

There is plenty of romanticised nonsense spoken about playing football “the Celtic way”. That is, as if the club have some historical monopoly on an attractive version of the game. Under this absurd theory, Lionel Messi took inspiration from Roy Aitken and Kaka’s career will never fully be complete until he dons green and white hoops.

Celtic fans are basically no different from others: they want, perhaps demand, success and a product on the park that is worth paying good money to watch.

Mowbray has the capability to deliver that. He will be under time-honoured pressure, nonetheless, to hit the ground running.

guardian.co.uk © Guardian News and Media 2009

Guardian Unlimited

Mowbray, the ‘miserable sod’ whose life was truly kissed by an angel

By Alan Fraser
Last updated at 9:20 PM on 03rd April 2008 (Daily Mail)source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/article-1007078/Mowbray-miserable-sod-life-truly-kissed-angel.html

Dressed from head to toe in sinister black, a bit like Tony Soprano does the Milk Tray advert, Tony Mowbray greets the photographer with a warning. ‘I don’t do fancy pictures,’ the West Bromwich Albion manager growls.

Later, as the photographer skilfully steers him into a ‘fancy’ pose, Mowbray adds: ‘You are not going to get a smile. I am a miserable sod. At least, that’s the way I am perceived.’

There are at least two serious sides to Tony Mowbray, born perhaps out of working-class hardship in the North East and the tragedy that scarred his life. Mowbray greatly values his precious time with his loving wife Amber and young children Lucas and Max, yet he freely acknowledges the effect on him of the death from breast cancer of his first wife 13 years ago. Bernadette, from Glasgow, was only 26 when she died in his arms on New Year’s Day. The couple had been married only eight months, a painful period documented movingly in his celebrated cathartic book, Kissed By An Angel. The wedding ceremony took place on April 3, 1994 and, even in the midst of preparations for Saturday’s FA Cup semi-final against Portsmouth, Mowbray took time out privately to mark the anniversary yesterday. Of all days, Bernadette would have been 39 on Saturday.

‘Please, please, don’t make this out as if I want to win the Cup for Bernadette. That would not be the case and it would be so disrespectful to Amber and the kids,’ he says. ‘Going through an experience like that undoubtedly impacted on my thinking and my way of life. It has given me a certain perspective. I don’t get too uptight with my team. I don’t throw teacups, for example.’

It was different in his playing days. ‘I could never socialise after defeats. I would lock myself away. The hurt of losing as a player was much greater before I lost my wife, which happened late in my career. ‘As a manager now, defeat can still spoil my weekend. But I have learned to try to look at the bigger picture. Are we moving in the right direction? Is the team playing the way we want them to? Are we entertaining? Over the longer term will we win more games? I don’t get too stuck on a bad result.’ Mowbray feels the answer to the above questions, in relation to West Bromwich Albion, will still be ‘yes’ even if they lose to Portsmouth and fail to go up to the Barclays Premier League. Baggies fans might find such a disappointing combination a little harder to swallow. While recoiling at suggestions of being an idealist, Mowbray has his sights on loftier goals than the top division or the top of an open-topped bus. ‘I want other people to look and think ¿aesthetically, I like watching West Brom¿,’ he says. ‘As a coach at Ipswich I would go and watch every Arsenal Champions League game.

I would get on the train, go to London and marvel at what they do. All they are doing is passing the ball 10 yards to each other but it is poetry. ‘Watching this machine move the ball around, so fluent and effortless, Freddie Ljungberg coming in off the left, Robert Pires drifting past people. Just beautiful to watch. They do not do anything but pass to team-mates in better positions. Simplicity is genius. This is what I want my players to do.’ A lack of a smile does not mean a lack of passion. Mowbray has been ‘Mogga’ to his friends since childhood but Bruce Rioch, the manager who made him Middlesbrough’s captain at 22 and introduced him to patterns of play, once called him Zeus. Rioch thought his spiky-haired, blond-highlighted, bronzed skipper returning from a summer holiday looked like a Greek god. He was obviously a fan.

He famously identified Mowbray as the man he would want at his side on a lunar rocket, a compliment which led to Boro fans entitling their fanzine Fly Me to the Moon. Middlesbrough supporters, for whom Mowbray achieved heroic status, used to joke that when Manchester United bought Gary Pallister in 1989 for a record British transfer fee of £2.3m, they got the wrong central defender. ‘I remember that. Was it a joke? I am still good friends with Pally. I speak to him quite regularly,’ says Mowbray. ‘He was a fantastic footballer. I could not match his pace and strength. He was a man-mountain, Bambi on ice initially and then a monster of a guy. As he was learning the game, I was his Steve Bruce of the Man U period ¿ a voice, an organiser, a motivator, getting the best out of his talents.’ Mowbray, the player, acquired a reputation as an uncompromising stopper who would take bullets for the cause. Yet, he had been a goal-scoring midfield player in his youth.

‘Your talent can get suppressed, I think. Because I was 6ft 2in I was put to the back. You are told to get your head on it and clear your lines. You are a defender. ‘Up until 15 and 16 I had been scoring plenty of goals. I was a linchpin in midfield, getting the ball and spraying it about, beating people, making things happen. The bigger picture prevailed. I took on the responsibility for the team,’ he recalls.

‘Who knows if that centre half ever given the licence could have operated in centre midfield, painting pictures, seeing things round the corner, flicking the ball with his boot, joining in a one-two? ‘In my mind I knew all the moves. I got patterned into destroying and heading the first ball, getting first contact in the box, heading goalkicks back into the opposition half.’ If Mowbray sounds like a frustrated playmaker, that’s because he is. ‘It is part of the reason I want my players to express themselves really. My centre halves at some time in their lives have probably been the best players on the pitch, at school or for their district. It is trying to bring that out, encouraging them to play and pass,’ he adds. There is a second irony here, though. West Bromwich Albion’s current weakness is in the area where he personally was strongest.

Like Arsenal, the Baggies have been labelled something of a soft touch, fragile away from home, conceding goals from set-pieces, perhaps defensively not the most resolute. Mowbray nods. ‘I am probably harsh on my central defenders because we do lose goals that teams do not have to work hard for. We are not good enough at getting first contact on balls coming into our box.’ Mowbray, the manager, at 44 young and aspirational, has in his short career established a reputation for sending out teams which entertain.

The destroyer has become the creator. Hibs were indisputably the most attractive side in Scotland during his two years there, winning three times at Ibrox and also at Celtic yet ¿ and this may be significant with tomorrow in mind ¿ losing two Cup semi-finals. It is not only who he is. It is also where he has been. He spent nine years as player and coach at Ipswich, a club steeped in attacking, passing football. There were also four years at Celtic, where all-out attack has always been the imperative ¿ even during the so-called ‘barren years’ with which his time there coincided. The Huddle, now universal in many sports, was his great legacy. ‘I don’t like to put a patent on it. But I take a great sense of pride in it. It was nothing to do with my wife, as has been wrongly reported. It came out of adversity.

The Celtic players needed to show real unity and togetherness. We needed to show the supporters we cared.’ Which was precisely why the manager initiated its first Albion manifestation after the draw at Charlton last month. That kind of attitude could take West Bromwich Albion to a Wembley final, 18 years after Mowbray last led a team out there. Colin Todd, who had just taken over from Rioch at Middlesbrough, insisted that Mowbray, sidelined during the week through injury, should don a blazer and lead out the team alongside Chelsea manager Bobby Campbell in the Zenith Data Systems Cup Final. He was smiling then.

Mowbray promises evolution, not revolution

17 June 2009

Provided by: The Irish Examiner

New Celtic boss Tony Mowbray has assured Hoops players he will not be taking a “big axe” to the Parkhead squad.

Mowbray met the media at Celtic Park this morning after being confirmed as Gordon Strachan’s successor and he outlined his plans for the future.

Celtic fans will hope to see some changes in the squad that lost the Clydesdale Bank Premier League title to Rangers last season and a host of players have already been linked with moving in and out of the club in recent weeks.

Mowbray, who claimed he was “comfortable” with the budget handed to him by chief executive Peter Lawwell, is tasked with bringing flair back to the Parkhead side which, according to many supporters, was missing under Strachan.

However, the former Celtic defender, who will be joined by his assistant Mark Venus and former Hoops team-mate Peter Grant as coach, warned there will be evolution rather than revolution in the east end of Glasgow.

“I’m not coming here with a big axe to swing and cut everything out,” Mowbray said.

“I don’t want to sit here and say we need a new player in this position or that position. That is disrespectful to the squad.

“There is a natural evolution of a football team over time.

“When I was at West Brom, within two and a half years, there was only two players left.

“Hopefully the supporters in time, hopefully a short period of time, will see the stamp of how I like the game to be played coming across.

“Obviously the team must continue to win and be successful within that.”

Mowbray added: “I’m very comfortable with budgets.

“This is not a football club who is going to spend way over its budget and put its financial future in jeopardy.

“But we must try to entertain. A lot of managers say you have to win and that’s all that people want but I think you must try to entertain and win as well.

“Hopefully, as we move, on Celtic supporters will see us win with a bit of style.”

Mowbray’s most immediate job will be to get his squad ready for the first of possibly two tricky Champions League qualifiers at the end of the July.

The former Hibernian boss, however, looked forward to a time when the Parkhead side would again be a team feared in Europe – and will use Champions League holders Barcelona as his inspiration.

“The team is what it is at the moment,” he said.

“Within six weeks, I am not going to change the whole philosophy of the playing style and the mindset of the footballers.

“A lot of the players have a lot of European experience and we will have to draw on that in six weeks time and try and set the team up to try and come through some qualifying games.

“I would like to build a team that can compete at all levels, to be feared and respected, not only in the Scottish game but in Europe.

“And that’s a process that you have got to build.

“There are some major powers in the world with some major resources but what I’ve got to try and do is to put together a team that can punch above its weight on the European stage.

“And those European nights at Celtic Park, when some of the bigger sides come to play, they’ve got to fear us a little.”

“There are elements within the game that say if you are not six foot four, as strong as an ox and can run like the wind, then you can’t be a footballer,” Mowbray continued.

“But you watch (Andres) Iniesta, Xavi, (Lionel) Messi and great players like that.

“Without trying to write headlines, that is what inspires me.

“I need to be inspired as well and the supporters need inspiring.

“When I watch Spain, Barcelona and great technical teams and players, I try and recreate that where possible.

“I can’t make a Lionel Messi out of a player but what I am saying that the best football teams are a unit, a group of individual players who understand their role within the team.

“That is only achieved on the training ground and that’s what we hope to work towards.”

Mowbray revealed coach Neil Lennon, who was part of the Strachan regime but had been promised a role at the club by Lawwell, will initially help him with the first-team squad.

He said: “I think it is important to get off on the right foot with footballers, to try and find out what can make them tick.

“Within a dressing room with 30 players, some will do anything for you, some will be moody, some will sulk, so I need to get to know their personalities very quickly and Neil will be invaluable.

“As we move on, his role will evolve in what he does and where he goes.”

The Irish Examiner

Improve or leave Celtic – Mowbray

BBC: link
Celtic manager Tony Mowbray gave his players two months to show they are good enough to remain in his team after the Europa League defeat by Hamburg.“It is up to the players to prove they are worthy of staying at this club and playing in front of those fans,” he said after the 1-0 Group C loss. “I think the Celtic fans will be happy with the endeavour, the effort, the commitment and the desire. “We probably need to win our last three games, so let’s give it a go.” Celtic remain bottom of Group C, five points behind Hamburg and Hapoel Tel-Aviv, who hammered third-placed Rapid Vienna 5-1. Mowbray’s side have lost three and drawn one of their home European games this season and also slipped off the top of the Scottish Premier League last weekend. “We give them 10 out of 10 for effort but I have never questioned their effort,” he said of his players. “I can question their quality, as I did last Saturday against Motherwell, and as I do again. I saw our quality and I saw their quality. “Manchester United wins games because Rooney smashes it in and Berbatov creates space, Liverpool are finding it hard without Torres and Gerrard. “The best players win you football matches, quality is what counts.”

Celtic not out of Europe – Mowbray

Mowbray’s side were booed off the park after recording no wins in his last four games and only two wins in eight home games since taking over from Gordon Strachan in the summer. However, he said of the fans: “They will see the miss-controlled passes, as I see them. We will try and put it together bit by bit. “We will try to find the right players of the right quality to lift the team and we are working hard behind the scenes to find those players. “The players are honest, hard-working players and they are very harsh on themselves. “Players will get opportunities to remain at the club, but the quality needs to improve and I have to work hard to do that.”

Celtic boss urges squad to focus

By Brian McLauchlin
Celtic manager Tony Mowbray has told BBC Sport that there are elements outside the club that are having a destabilising effect on his team.

“At Celtic in particular there seems to be things in the background other than your team or training that try to upset what you are doing,” said Mowbray.

“They try to destabilise and because footballers are human beings it can destabilise things at times.

“What needs to stay strong is my relationship with the players.”

Following Sunday’s 4-1 win at St Johnstone, Mowbray revealed that he has urged his players pay no regard to media speculation.

“They need to trust me that we try to improve them every day and whatever they read or they see or they hear they must continue to stick together, and practise the right things,” added the Celtic boss.

“I preach good habits every day I like to think and they (the players) have to keep going.”

Mowbray explained that while the main aim at Celtic is the same as at all clubs, winning games, there is much more media focus on Parkhead than there ever was when he was in the English Premier League with West Bromwich Albion.

“The attention is hugely greater and that can have a destabilising effect on what you are trying to achieve,” he added.

“What you need is a pretty tight dressing room. At the moment there is a frustration, I suppose, that I have to go through a process to get things the way I want them.”

With Celtic trailing in the league race, pressure to win each week is even greater for Mowbray’s side.

When asked if he thought it was fair that there were no grey areas at Celtic, that it was either win or a disaster, he replied: “It appears so and yet in reality that can’t be the case for the dressing room, for the team and the players.

“I think again it’s the external mediums that dictate that. It can’t be allowed to knock us off our stride or the belief what we want to do.

“We need to be strong about the football club, show solidarity, despite everything trying to destabilise it, keep going.”

Celtic are seven points behind league leaders Rangers but Mowbray remains confident his side can bridge the gap. “We will get there, I believe that,” he said.

“I don’t mind not spending money. If we have to create money to spend money then so be it.

“Scottish football is financially not in a great state. The club though has managed its funds well over the years and still has to do so. “If I have to move one or two out, maybe one or two that you don’t necessarily want to move out, to create some funds then so be it.”

Story from BBC SPORT:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/sport1/hi/football/teams/c/celtic/8478810.stm

Published: 2010/01/25 12:50:57 GMT

Tony Mowbray leaves celtic

Newsroom Staff25 March 2010
Celtic Football Club announced today that football Manager Tony Mowbray is leaving the club.

Assistant Manager Mark Venus and first-team coach Peter Grant will also leave the club.

Celtic Chairman John Reid said: “On behalf of the Board and everyone at Celtic Football Club, I would like to offer Tony Mowbray my thanks and sincere best wishes for the future”.

“Tony is held in great affection by Celtic fans and it is obviously with great disappointment that we make today’s statement.

“During his period here, Tony has always acted with great dignity as he has done today”.

“We are all Celtic supporters, faithful through and through, Tony included. We are all disappointed at the way things have gone this season.

“However, as supporters, we will collectively build again to re-establish the club to its pre-eminent position with Scottish football.”

Celtic Chief Executive Peter Lawwell commented: “This is a very sad day for everyone at Celtic.

“Tony is a very fine man and someone who I know is passionate about the club he served so well as a player.

“Clearly, we have had a difficult season and results have not been as we would have hoped.

“Tony is equally disappointed at some of our results this season but working so closely with him I know that throughout his period as manager he has always given the club his total and absolute commitment.

“Tony will always maintain a strong affection for Celtic and I am sure he will always be highly thought of within the Celtic family.

“He is a man who demonstrates decency and integrity in everything he does.

“I have enjoyed an excellent relationship with him and I certainly wish Tony, Mark Venus and Peter Grant all the very best for the future.”

The club can confirm that Celtic coach and former captain Neil Lennon will take interim charge of the team.

(from football 365: link)

MOWBRAY OUT AT CELTIC, NEIL LENNON IN

Tony Mowbray’s troubled nine-month reign as Celtic boss is at an end after the club announced his departure on Thursday afternoon. The 46-year-old’s exit followed Wednesday night’s 4-0 Clydesdale Bank Premier League thrashing at St Mirren, which left the Hoops 10 points behind arch-rivals Rangers having played two games more. It is believed Mowbray met chief executive Peter Lawwell at Celtic’s Lennoxtown training ground on Thursday when the decision was taken to end his short tenure. Assistant manager Mark Venus and Peter Grant have also lost their jobs, with Neil Lennon appointed interim manager. Chairman John Reid said: “On behalf of the board and everyone at Celtic Football Club, I would like to offer Tony Mowbray my thanks and sincere best wishes for the future. “Tony is held in great affection by Celtic fans and it is obviously with great disappointment that we make today’s statement. “During his period here, Tony has always acted with great dignity as he has done today. “We are all Celtic supporters, faithful through and through, Tony included. “We are all disappointed at the way things have gone this season. “However, as supporters, we will collectively build again to re-establish the club to its pre-eminent position within Scottish football.” Chief executive Peter Lawwell added: “This is a very sad day for everyone at Celtic. “Tony is a very fine man and someone who I know is passionate about the club he served so well as a player. “Clearly, we have had a difficult season and results have not been as we would have hoped. “Tony is equally disappointed at some of our results this season but, working so closely with him, I know that throughout his period as manager he has always given the club his total and absolute commitment. “Tony will always maintain a strong affection for Celtic and I am sure he will always be highly thought of within the Celtic family. He is a man who demonstrates decency and integrity in everything he does. “I have enjoyed an excellent relationship with him and I certainly wish Tony, Mark Venus and Peter Grant all the very best for the future.” Wednesday’s defeat was the 13th of Mowbray’s reign after he succeeded Gordon Strachan in the summer. Mowbray joined from West Brom, who reportedly secured around £2million in compensation for his services. However, the former Hibernian manager was not Celtic’s first choice, with Owen Coyle turning the job down and Roberto Martinez also reportedly approached. Mowbray was charged with bringing an attractive brand of football to Parkhead, which fans felt was lacking towards the end of Strachan’s reign. The new manager suffered an early setback when Celtic lost the first leg of their Champions League third qualifying round match to Dinamo Moscow. They bounced back in the second leg to set up a play-off round tie with Arsenal but were thrashed 5-1 on aggregate. Things initially went well in the Clydesdale Bank Premier League but Celtic’s Europa League campaign never recovered from an early setback and they crashed out of the competition before the end of the group stage. Their SPL campaign began to unravel after they lost the first Old Firm derby of the season at Ibrox. They tossed away leads in a series of games as defensive frailty began to undermine their title bid, while they also crashed out of the Co-operative Insurance Cup at home to Hearts. By January, they were seven points adrift in the SPL and Mowbray set about dismantling the squad, bringing in eight new players during the transfer window. The shock arrival of Robbie Keane on loan from Tottenham was greeted by thousands of jubilant fans on transfer deadline day. But the Republic of Ireland international’s debut summed up Mowbray’s reign, Celtic losing at Kilmarnock for the first time in nine years. Keane’s goals almost single-handedly won Celtic games in both the SPL and Active Nation Scottish Cup but he could not prevent them slipping 10 points behind Rangers following last month’s third Old Firm derby of the season. Despite results, Mowbray repeatedly refused to deviate from his passing principles but last night witnessed the first admission that his football philosophy was perhaps not suited to the Scottish game. But he also could not resist a dig at Rangers in the process, telling BBC Scotland: “Rangers have been very consistent – they haven’t lost four goals in any game. “They set up differently – maybe that’s the way to go. “Maybe it isn’t a league for trying to force the game and be expansive – maybe it is a league for playing defensive, negative football and having quality up front to counter-attack.” Reacting to his departure, Mowbray said: “Naturally, I am very disappointed to be leaving Glasgow Celtic. “I am very proud to have not only managed but also played for a club with such great tradition and that has tremendous roots in football history. “I would like to offer my sincere thanks to all of the players and also to my staff who supported me so well. Finally, I would like to wish the club every success in the future.” League Managers’ Association chief executive Richard Bevan said: “It is disappointing that Celtic have parted company with Tony despite being in charge for less than a year, especially when taking into account that the club still have a great chance of silverware this season having reached the semi-finals of the Active Nation Scottish Cup. “I am positive that a manager of Tony’s calibre, with his success at WBA and Hibernian, and with an overall managerial win ratio of a soaring 45% in 297 matches in charge, will be back in management in the not too distant future.”

TONY MOWBRAY FACTFILE
1963: Born November 22, Saltburn, North Yorkshire.
1981: Signs for Middlesbrough as an apprentice.
1982: Makes debut in September in 1-1 draw at Newcastle at the age of 18. Goes on to win promotion to the top flight from Division Three.
1991: After making 419 appearances, scoring 30 goals and representing England at B level, he joins Celtic in November for £1million. Makes debut for the club in 2-1 home win over Aberdeen aged 27.
1995: Transfers to Ipswich in October for £300,000 having made 93 appearances and scored six goals for Celtic.
2000: Plays final game against Barnsley in the First Division play-off final at Wembley in May 2000 after scoring eight goals in 149 appearances. Appointed full-time coach after Ipswich’s promotion to the Premier League.
2003: Acts as caretaker manager for four games during the period in between the sacking of George Burley and appointment of Joe Royle. 2004: May – Appointed manager of Hibernian. July – Knocked out of Intertoto Cup by Vetra Vilnius of Lithuania in first competitive games.
2005: April 9 – Hibs beaten 2-1 by Dundee United in Scottish Cup semi-final.
April 30 – Hibs claim stunning 3-1 win at Celtic to dent Hoops’ Scottish Premier League title challenge. August – Guides team to 3-0 win at Rangers, which is the club’s first victory at Ibrox for 10 years.
May – Hibs finish third in the SPL table to claim UEFA Cup place. September – Hibs beaten 5-1 by Dnipro in UEFA Cup first round.
2006: May – Rules himself out of managerial vacancy at Ipswich after talks with chairman David Sheepshanks.
September – Signs a new 12-month rolling contract with Hibs to take effect the following summer.
October 11 – Hibs grant West Brom permission to interview Mowbray and he is appointed manager two days later.
2007: May 28 – West Brom lose Championship play-off final 1-0 to Derby after finishing fourth.
2008: April 5 – West Brom reach FA Cup semi-finals but are beaten 1-0 by Portsmouth at Wembley.
May 4 – West Brom win the Championship.
2009: May 17 – West Brom are relegated from the Premier League following 2-0 home defeat by Liverpool. They finish the season bottom of the table.
May 25 – Mowbray is linked with a return to Celtic after Gordon Strachan resigns as manager.
May 26 – West Brom say they “fully expect” Mowbray to honour the final two years of his contract.
May 28 – West Brom insist they have received no approach from Celtic and would not welcome one. They issue near-identical statements on June 1, 3 and 6 following renewed speculation.
June 8 – West Brom chairman Jeremy Peace confirms an official approach had been made for Mowbray but is determined to hold out for £2million compensation.
June 13 – West Brom announce they have given Celtic permission to talk to Mowbray after agreeing a compensation package.
June 16 – Mowbray is confirmed as the new manager of Celtic on a 12-month rolling contract.
July 9 – Mowbray makes Marc-Antoine Fortune his first signing in a £3.8million deal from Nancy.
July 29 – Mowbray loses first competitive game in charge as Celtic are beaten 1-0 at Parkhead by Dinamo Moscow in Champions League third qualifying round first leg. August 5 – Celtic win 2-0 in second leg against Dinamo to reach the play-off round.
August 26 – Arsenal thrash Celtic 5-1 on aggregate in play-off round.
September 17 – Celtic suffer late collapse to lose Europa League Group C opener in Hapoel Tel Aviv.
October 4 – Celtic concede twice in the opening 16 minutes to lose the first Old Firm derby of the season 2-1, Mowbray’s first SPL defeat in charge.
October 28 – Celtic suffer shock 1-0 League Cup home defeat to Hearts.
November 22 – Another late collapse sees Celtic lose 2-1 at Dundee United in the SPL.
December 2 – Celtic finally record their first Europa League victory of the season at the fifth attempt but a 2-0 win over Hapoel is not enough to prevent them being knocked out of the competition.
2010: January 3 – Celtic blow a 1-0 lead to draw 1-1 with Rangers in the second Old Firm derby of the season and stay seven points behind their arch-rivals.
January 20 – Mowbray describes as “nonsense” reports he has told midfielder Scott Brown he is not part of his long-term plans. January 27 – Celtic throw away yet another lead to lose 2-1 at home to Hibernian to leave them 10 points behind Rangers.
February 1 – Celtic complete sensational loan capture of Robbie Keane from Tottenham, the last of eight transfer-window signings. The window also see big names Gary Caldwell, Barry Robson and Scott McDonald leave the club.
February 2 – Keane’s debut ends in defeat as Celtic lose to Kilmarnock for the first time in nine years.
February 28 – Celtic lose third Old Firm derby of the season 1-0 to fall 13 points behind Rangers.
March 24 – Celtic are thrashed 4-0 at second-bottom St Mirren to stay 10 points behind Rangers having played two more games.
March 25 – Celtic confirm the departure of Mowbray, assistant manager Mark Venus and first-team coach Peter Grant.

Celtic end Mowbray’s sorry reign; Popular defender failed to measure up in nine months at Parkhead helm

26 March 2010

Provided by: The Daily Telegraph

THE emotional bond between Tony Mowbray and Celtic was emphasised in the club’s official farewells to the departing manager yesterday, but granite-hard financial calculations will be brought to bear on the next appointment.

Celtic are 10 points adrift of Rangers in the Scottish Premier League and Mowbray was sacked after Wednesday’s humiliating 4-0 defeat by struggling St Mirren.

The Parkhead board – and the principal shareholder, Dermot Desmond – are acutely aware that attendances have fallen to levels not seen since the club’s darkest days in 1994, when Celtic came within minutes of bankruptcy.

Last weekend’s home victory over St Johnstone was watched by only 30,000, meaning that more than 20,000 season ticket holders are not bothering to turn up. There is also the cost of acquiring Mowbray and his management team of Mark Venus and Peter Grant and the expense of paying them off after only nine months. Mowbray was not, of course, Celtic’s first choice last summer.

Owen Coyle turned them down and the possibility of pairing Henrik Larsson with Mark McGhee was stillborn. Former Hoops idol Larsson will undoubtedly be in Desmond’s thoughts again. Larsson has now entered management with Swedish club Landskrona but if he is to return to the east end of Glasgow it would have to be in tandem with an experienced figure.

The trouble for Celtic is that an established name with pedigree – and the essential ability to construct an obdurate but attractive team – will not come cheap.

Like Larsson, Norwich City’s Paul Lambert has a prior connection with Celtic, and has been working his way through the managerial ranks.

Lambert’s spell with Borussia Dortmund, with whom he won a Champions League medal, adds gravitas to his CV, but he is short of the wow factor.

Given that Celtic need someone who could handle the singular pressures of life at an Old Firm club and who is also something of a showman, Giovanni Trapattoni should not be ruled out, especially given Desmond’s eye for marketing opportunities in Ireland.

One pressure that has been removed from Celtic is the need for urgent action. The Scottish title race is lost but they are favourites for the Active Nation Scottish Cup, by dint of Rangers losing to Dundee United on Wednesday.

Neil Lennon is now in charge for an indefinite period, but an upsurge in form and commitment under the former Parkhead captain would almost certainly keep him in place until the end of the season. In those circumstances, too, the combination of Lennon with a proven coach of the stature of Trapattoni would present a potent mixture.

In the meantime, while many Celtic fans are sorry for Mowbray on a personal basis, they are relieved to be done with the manager’s habitual vapourings, of which his response to the defeat by St Mirren was typical.

In a barely disguised dig at Rangers, Mowbray said of the SPL: “Maybe it is a league for playing defensive football and negative football and yet have the quality up front to counterattack, particularly away from home.”

Given that Rangers have scored more, conceded fewer and have a goal difference better than twice as good as Celtic’s, that utterance indicated that Mowbray was not only about to part from his employers, but had already detached himself from reality.

The Daily Telegraph

Celtic on lookout as Mowbray reign ends

26 March 2010

Provided by: The Irish Examiner

TONY MOWBRAY’S troubled nine-month reign as Celtic boss was at an end yesterday after the club announced his departure.

Ex-skipper Paul Lambert has been installed as the bookmakers’ favourite but stated recently he has no desire to return to the east end of Glasgow.

Mowbray’s exit followed Wednesday’s 4-0 SPL thrashing at St Mirren, which left the Hoops 10 points behind arch-rivals Rangers having played two games more.

It is believed 46-year-old Mowbray met chief executive Peter Lawwell at Celtic’s Lennoxtown training ground yesterday morning when the decision was taken to end his short tenure.

Assistant manager Mark Venus and Peter Grant have also lost their jobs, with Neil Lennon appointed interim manager.

Chairman John Reid said: “On behalf of the board and everyone at Celtic Football Club, I would like to offer Tony Mowbray my thanks and sincere best wishes for the future.

“Tony is held in great affection by Celtic fans and it is obviously with great disappointment that we make today’s statement.

“During his period here, Tony has always acted with great dignity as he has done today.

“We are all Celtic supporters, faithful through and through, Tony included.

“We are all disappointed at the way things have gone this season.

“However, as supporters, we will collectively build again to reestablish the club to its pre-eminent position within Scottish football.”

Wednesday night’s defeat was the 13th of Mowbray’s reign after he succeeded Gordon Strachan in the summer. Mowbray joined from West Brom, who reportedly secured around £2m in compensation for his services.

However, the former Hibernian manager was not Celtic’s first choice, with Owen Coyle turning the job down and Roberto Martinez also reportedly approached.

Mowbray was charged with bringing an attractive brand of football to Parkhead, which fans felt was lacking towards the end of Strachan’s reign.

Reacting to his departure, Mowbray said: “Naturally, I am very disappointed to be leaving Celtic.

“I am very proud to have not only managed but also played for a club with such great tradition and that has tremendous roots in football history.

“I would like to offer my sincere thanks to all of the players and also to my staff who supported me so well. Finally, I would like to wish the club every success in the future.”

Former Celtic winger Davie Provan fears the club could struggle to find a top-class manager to replace Mowbray who would meet the high expectations of the supporters.

Provan pointed out that previous targets Owen Coyle and Roberto Martinez also turned down the job before Mowbray was installed in the hotseat last summer.

He said: “It’s no surprise that Celtic have taken the action they have. Now it’s just a matter of where they go from here.

“I think it’s fair to say it’s a job, at the moment, that does not hold the type of appeal that it had when Martin O’Neill came to Glasgow.

“As recently as the summer, you need to remember that both Owen Coyle and Roberto Martinez were approached to come to Celtic and neither wanted to take up the challenge.

“It’s going to be pretty difficult for Celtic to identify a top-class manager to fill Tony Mowbray’s position.

“I think it’s going to be a difficult appointment for Celtic in terms of getting the right type of manager, given the expectations of the Celtic support.”

Asked what Lennon’s immediate task is, Provan added: “Just to bring a bit of feelgood factor back to the club.

“I don’t think Neil would be a serious candidate for the job in the long term, although I would hope he could become part of the coaching staff.

“Celtic have time on their side but they don’t want to leave it for too long.”

The Irish Examiner

Celtic: This was a reign bedeviled by ill fortune right from very start

Published Date: 26 March 2010

By Andrew Smith

THERE have been many – too many – points throughout this desperate season for Celtic when hunches have hardened that Tony Mowbray wasn’t destined to enjoy a happy managerial union with the club.

But not until Andy Dorman slammed in a third goal for St Mirren five minutes from the end of Mowbray’s nightmarish final encounter on Wednesday night was the need for immediate divorce crystalised.

The circumstances surrounding the 4-0 whipping la

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id bare the fact that Mowbray’s methods weren’t working, and weren’t going to work. No Old Firm manager can survive his club’s heaviest league defeat outside of derbies for three decades. Not when this comes against relegation-threatened, typically winless and goalless, opponents. Not when the result leaves them potentially 16 points behind their bitterest rivals. Not when the players Mowbray sent out appeared to chuck it, and seemed latterly to be chucked on willy-nilly as he fielded six attackers in a 3-1-6 formation. Not when he as good as conceded afterwards his philosophy of football, “trying to force the game and be expansive”, wasn’t the way to go in the Scottish league.

And not when the personnel Mowbray initially selected, and the 4-2-3-1 system he set it out in, had an element of experimentation at a juncture in the season when he simply had to see out wins to allow him to make it to the summer. He would see that experimentation as a courageous adherence to the bigger picture; others would describe it as making life unnecessarily difficult for himself. Indeed, therein lies one of the central issues. In taking responsibility for leaving his young central defence of 19-year-old Josh Thompson and 23-year-old Darren O’Dea exposed by his Light Brigade-style charge, Mowbray defended the “positive” attempts to retrieve a lost cause by saying you could be “a brave coach, or a negative coach”.

For him, there are no inbetweens, even if you can also be a sensible coach, playing the percentage game, when the predicament demands. He would see this as an affront to his footballing sensibilities that amounted to a fixation with playing an attractive, attacking passing game. He was stubborn about how he felt he could deliver success and how he felt he should be able to conduct himself in the media; in each instance appealing to a higher set of principles – as a thoroughly good man does in all aspects of his life.

But in this grubby world of Scottish football, you need to get your hands dirty, need to indulge others in their games and not simply set your face against them. In press rooms as much as football fields up and down the country, Mowbray said what he thought and fielded teams he thought a collection of good players … instead of giving primary consideration to how his thinking would play out. As a result, he was spun – one of his favourite words – and baited remorselessly in newsprint and had to watch as results regularly threatened to spin out of control.

That said, what most destroyed his hopes of achieving his footballing nirvana wasn’t any flaw in his psyche, his professional approach, his demeanour, or whatever else will be claimed in the coming days. It was something altogether less tangible, and entirely uncontrollable: it was fate. No more and no less. There will be some who will home in on his transfer dealings, or outgoings, in pinpointing where it all went wrong. But his complete overhaul of the team was remedial work long overdue. Mowbray inherited a league- losing team from Gordon Strachan, his side winning only nine of the last 22 matches across 90 minutes – a run that included, incidentally, a cup defeat at St Mirren Park – and had the domestic third-string Co-operative Insurance Cup as their only booty. As a result, with the semi-finals of the Scottish Cup to come for a now Neil Lennon-led Celtic, there is still the possibility this season might prove more productive than the previous campaign to Mowbray’s arrival in the only gauge that counts: silverware.

Of course, in terms of league points, it seems certain to be a whole heap worse, which fatally undermined the case for Mowbray continuing in his post. But it should be recognised the 46-year-old’s downfall was his inability to arrest a decline long before set in motion, not be the architect of such. In some ways what damns him is that, in recruiting such as Robbie Keane, Morten Rasmussen, Landry Nguemo, Ki Seung Yung, Jos Hooiveld, Thomas Rogne and allowing Scott McDonald, Chris Killen, Paul Hartley, Barry Robson, Gary Caldwell and Stephen McManus to go elsewhere he appeared to attract better quality than he inherited. It damns him because he hasn’t be able to gel his group into an effective unit.

That is where luck, or Mowbray’s lack of it, comes in; the feeling it was simply pre-ordained it wouldn’t happen for him as the club’s 16th manager. He was never able to field what he would consider his strongest XI and, for the past two months of the season his three preferred central defenders – Hooiveld, Rogne, and Glenn Loovens – have hardly featured because of injury. The equivalent for Rangers would have been doing without David Weir, Madjid Bougherra and Danny Wilson at the same time for a quarter of the campaign.

Mowbray’s teams have produced marginally better football than the sterile fare served up by the Celtic sides of last season, dominated opponents more often, and yet contrived to lose more league games, dribbling away points with alarming regularity. That has not always been their own doing, it should be noted. Celtic have suffered poor refereeing calls, most pointedly in the three derby games. Ultimately, though, even that simply strengthened the belief that Mowbray’s management of Celtic was utterly bedeviled.

Supporters do not tolerate hard-luck stories. And after nine months, 13 defeats, nine draws and a modest 23 wins, Mowbray had no future with Celtic because the club’s followers couldn’t countenance one. They had given up on his vision they initially, cautiously, welcomed, and turned on him venomously at St Mirren Park. It was an unfortunate farewell for a man the Celtic faithful had always held in warm regard over the “honesty, integrity, humility and respect” he had shown in dealing with personal tragedy and immersing himself in all things Celtic when a player at the club in the early 1990s.

But humanity and decency don’t sell season tickets. And the evaporation of the last vestiges of support he had made him a commercial liability.

Football boards don’t continue to buy into long-term projects when they are headed by men who are box-office flops. By remaining in charge, Mowbray’s very presence would have permeated a feel-bad factor just as season ticket renewal forms begin to flap through letterboxes. That wouldn’t do for the Parkhead powerbrokers but, in doing the right thing by themselves, the best interests of Mowbray were also served.

It had become unpleasant to see the thrawn and agitated figure he had become. It wasn’t him. Living apart from his England-based wife and three children – the youngest, at under a year, he has hardly spent any time with – was the sacrifice he was willing to make to guide a club whose “tremendous … football history” he last night evoked in a statement. Despite the best intentions, Mowbray must carry the regret he could not add to that history.

Page 1 of 1

Last Updated: 25 March 2010 10:46 PM
Source: The Scotsman
Location: Edinburgh

Mowbray turned the gun on himself; Roddy Forsyth

26 March 2010

Provided by: The Daily Telegraph

RODDY FORSYTH AS A man born on the day of John F Kennedy’s assassination, it was perhaps no wonder that Tony Mowbray had an obsessive fear of snipers. At every Celtic press briefing he approached questions as though they were street corners during the battle for Stalingrad, craning his imagination to try to discern what ambush might lurk on the blindside.

There is a culture within Celtic which nourishes itself on the belief that the media is a force permanently arrayed against it, but no manager in recent memory bought into the mythology as willingly or completely as the 46 year-old from Saltburn. He did not, of course, read a newspaper – another of his mantras – but he was always well informed about any criticism that appeared in print, via the peculiar Parkhead conduit that channels a corrosive flow of bile into the manager’s ear.

The irony is that a reservoir of goodwill existed towards Mowbray because of the tragedy that afflicted him during his playing days at Celtic, when his first wife, Bernadette, died of cancer. The book he coauthored about that passage of his life Kissed By An Angel although written by a journalist, guaranteed him a widespread consideration that was present, even until the end of his managerial career at the club arrived yesterday.

Questions about what pressure he might feel as a manager, or how he should respond to setbacks on the field, were couched in the implicit understanding – and sometimes with the straightforward acknowledgement – that he had been forced to accommodate a perspective that put mere football results in their proper place. Yet even with this safety zone around him, he was profoundly suspicious of what he liked to call “the west of Scotland media, with their black and white view of the game”. Had his players been as comprehensively defensive on the pitch as Mowbray was in press conferences, Celtic would now be at or around the top of the Scottish Premier League table. This personal trait, needless to say, would not have mattered – in fact, it would have been greeted with approval by many of the club’s supporters – had there been clear signs of progress in his reconstruction of the team inherited by Gordon Strachan.

In one respect, Mowbray deserves a ration of sympathy. A manager supervising a period of transition needs a degree of luck in order to impose his new order quickly. Mowbray made his moves in January, dismantling the old defensive guard of Gary Caldwell and Stephen McManus, but their replacements – Thomas Rogne and Jos Hooiveld – have hardly been seen because of injury, while Glenn Loovens has also appeared only intermittently over the last couple of months.

Mowbray refused to make a particular issue of the disruption, on the grounds that all managers have to endure injuries and suspensions and that, with greater resources at his disposal than any club in Scotland apart from Rangers, he would be seen as ungracious to complain. Likewise, he distanced himself from the attack on refereeing standards in this season’s Old Firm games fed to the BBC by an anonymous club source last month.

Such attitudes bespoke a respect for fair play on Mowbray’s part and, while there was also a reserve to the man which some construed as arrogance, those closest to him insist that shyness was the dominant factor. However, the bear pit of the Old Firm rivalry affords managers no such allowances.

Mowbray was never able to make a cogent case for his work in progress – and, in fact, had utterly no interest in doing so. Every nuance was puréed into a bland set of utterances, week after week, to the effect that the team was no better and no worse than it had been at the start of the season – yet he also insisted that critics could not see the beauty of Celtic’s performances because of their fixation with results.

Conspiracy theories filled the void felt by Americans after the death of JFK. Mowbray nourished a raft of his own about the media, but it was not they who supervised the debacle in Paisley on Wednesday night. In the end, as they say in other circumstances, he turned the gun on himself.

The Daily Telegraph

‘The Celtic players never had good vibes from Mowbray’; Former players and colleagues give their thoughts on the sacking yesterday of the manager after a disappointing first season

26 March 2010

Provided by: The Times

Tommy Gemmell, the Lisbon Lion, believes the Celtic players received “bad vibes” from Tony Mowbray.

Gemmell, who managed the Dundee team that beat Celtic 5-1 in 1980, says Mowbray’s lack of action from the dugout could have sealed his fate.

“There seemed to be little verve or enthusiasm from the manager on the touchline. Certainly, he wasn’t the most animated boss I’ve ever seen. You couldn’t compare him with Martin O’Neill, for a start.

“Sometimes you need good vibes from your manager. You need to see his involvement from the dugout. The Celtic players rarely got that from Mowbray. His head went down after St Mirren’s second goal the other night. Yet there was still a third of the game still to play. Something could have been salvaged and the players would have looked at their manager for some inspiration.

“We got it from Jock Stein, that’s for sure. I recall a game where we were well in front and Bertie Auld, Bobby Murdoch and myself were knocking the ball about and seeing out the 90 minutes.

“Big Jock was in the dugout on the opposite side of the pitch. But, even with his bad limp, he got up, walked round behind the goal and came down the touchline on the Jungle side of the ground to berate the three of us.

“The points were in the bag, but he still wanted more and he told us in no uncertain terms. I couldn’t see Mowbray doing that.”

Ironically, the last time Celtic lost by a four-goal margin before the flop at St Mirren — outwith Rangers games — was back in 1980 against Dundee, managed by Gemmell.

“I recall that game well,” he said. “We won 5-1 after Celtic had opened the scoring through Roy Aitken.

“It’s amazing to think it has taken another Scottish club 30 years to emulate that feat. Celtic shouldn’t lose four goals in a game and, of course, that happened earlier in the season in the 4-4 draw with Aberdeen. That is most unlike my old club. “Mowbray was a centre-half in his playing days and you would expect him to have some sort of expertise in that role and what is expected of his central defenders. That hasn’t been the case.

“There hasn’t been a settled doubleact in the middle of the rearguard and he has chopped and changed the backfour throughout the campaign. “I believe there has been something like 15 players utilised in the back four since the start of the season. That’s unsettling, for sure.

“Celtic have now been beaten in 13 games under Mowbray and, in fact, have lost seven SPL matches, one more than Motherwell and Dundee United. That’s unacceptable.”

Gemmell also believes Mowbray got off to a bad start when he realised he wasn’t first choice as Gordon Strachan’s successor. He added: “Celtic apparently went for Roberto Martínez before he left Swansea for Wigan. And they were also linked with Owen Coyle before he quit Burnley for Bolton.

“So, Mowbray would have realised he was third-choice for the post. That should never have been the case.

“Everything should have been done and dusted before he was unveiled as manager — Martínez and Coyle should never have been mentioned.”

Peter Rafferty, president of the Affiliation of Celtic Supporters’ Clubs, believes Tony Mowbray’s fate was sealed when he finally lost the backing of the fans after Wednesday night’s 4-0 defeat at St Mirren.

Rafferty believes there was only one possible outcome. “I don’t suppose it has come as any great surprise unfortunately because of the way the results have been going,” he said.

“It’s been a very topsy-turvy season for us so far. The [St Mirren] result was just one result too many for the fans. The manner in which we were defeated didn’t go down well at all.”

Mowbray’s predecessor, Gordon Strachan, believes the scrutiny Old Firm managers are under is greater than ever. Recalling Walter Smith’s return to Rangers three years ago, he said: “After about six months, he said the big difference was night and day. He said, ‘The whole thing, the media thing is absolutely brutal.’ Now we’ve got internet chat rooms; everything can start rumours that you have to deal with, which we never had before and he said it’s changed completely.”

The European Cup-winning captain and former manager, Billy McNeill, said: “If you’re getting some decent results then the Celtic fans will be there in their hordes. But if you don’t, you pay the penalty.”

Referring to the St Mirren defeat, the former Celtic striker, Frank Mc-Avennie, said: “I’ve never seen it so bad. I was one of those who wanted Tony Mowbray but it really hasn’t worked out. He brought in players who just were not good enough for Celtic and I didn’t buy all that talk of building for the future.

“He didn’t move his family up to Glasgow. I think he realised after a short period that he was in it for the short haul and that the job was too big for him.”

Paul Hartley, who left Celtic for Bristol City as Mowbray arrived in the summer after 2½ years at the club, said: “The St Mirren game was the final straw. It’s hard to find any positives. He got rid of too many players too quickly. The backbone of the side had been a lot of the Scottish lads but now there is no leadership on the park. The team looked desperate against St Mirren. Rangers haven’t bought a player in 18 months and yet they could be 16 points clear if they win the games in hand.”

Richard Bevan, the League Managers Association chief executive, said: “It is disappointing that Celtic have parted company with Tony despite being in charge for less than a year, especially when taking into account that the club still have a great chance of silverware having reached the semi-finals of the Active Nation Scottish Cup.

“I am positive that a manager of Tony’s calibre, with his success at West Brom and Hibernian, and with an overall managerial win ratio of a soaring 45 per cent in 297 matches in charge, will be back in management in the not too distant future.”

The former Celtic winger, Davie Provan, said he fears the club could struggle to find a top-class manager to replace Mowbray who would meet the high expectations of the supporters. “It’s no surprise that Celtic have taken the action they have,” he said. “Now it’s just a matter of where they go from here. I think it’s fair to say it’s a job, at the moment, that does not hold the type of appeal that it had when Martin O’Neill came to Glasgow.

“As recently as the summer, you need to remember that both Owen Coyle and Roberto Martínez were approached to come to Celtic and neither wanted to take up the challenge.

It’s going to be pretty difficult for Celtic to identify a top-class manager to fill Tony Mowbray’s position.

“I think it’s going to be a difficult appointment for Celtic in terms of getting the right type of manager, given the expectations of the Celtic support.”

Asked what Lennon’s immediate task is, Provan added: “Just to bring a bit of feelgood factor back to the club. I don’t think Neil would be a serious candidate for the job in the long term.” Bertie Auld, the Lisbon Lion, believes Mowbray’s unwavering determination to stick to his footballing principles ultimately proved to be his downfall at Celtic. But Auld insists Mowbray’s own footballing philosophy did not fit with the huge demand for results at Celtic, just as it failed to keep West Brom in the English Premier League.

“It looked as though it was on the cards, with the performances in the last few weeks and the inconsistency,” Auld said. “Everybody knew he was under pressure. I thought he would have done a great job there but he wouldn’t change his ways. Everybody loves philosophy but the players dictate the philosophy and the most important thing in his job was the results. “I thought he did a marvellous job at Hibs and West Brom but his philosophy also knocked him down at West Brom as well when they got relegated last year.”

Auld disagreed with the views of Provan, insisting the Celtic job was still an attractive one. “We have lost an awful lot of things that my boss [Jock Stein] achieved at the club and brought to the club.
But the most important thing that we haven’t lost is the passion of the supporters,” he said. “We still have that tremendous crowd of people and they will never, ever change.”

And Auld believes Mowbray appeared to have lost that enthusiasm in recent weeks. “Was it the right time for him to go? Does anyone really know that? I just felt the boy, himself, wasn’t enjoying it, he didn’t look like he was getting any enjoyment from it,” he said.

“To me, football is the type of game where you must get up in the morning and look at yourself in the mirror and know that there’s going to be a challenge.

And he didn’t look as though he was enjoying it.”

Craig Brown, the Motherwell manager, felt the departure of Mowbray after just nine months was harsh. But the veteran boss concedes that the gulf between Rangers and Celtic meant his exit was inevitable.

“It’s very disappointing to see any colleague lose his job, particularly a really good guy, a gentleman,” he said. “I think it was a bit harsh but it was becoming inevitable because of the distance between the old rivals, Rangers and Celtic. I think maybe they have to try to redress the balance and do something, and unfortunately usually the manager is the casualty.”

Speaking shortly before Mowbray’s departure was confirmed, Frank Mc-Garvey, who starred for both St Mirren and Celtic, said: “The bottom line is that if the manager doesn’t win games then he doesn’t stay in a job.

“I had given him the benefit of doubt but that went in January against Kilmarnock when Scott Brown came on for Lee Naylor at left-back when Celtic needed a goal. Then we saw Aiden McGeady ending up playing left-back against St Mirren.

“I think he lost the dressing room and, when you do that, it’s only a matter of time.”

One of the worst seasons

Celtic are in the middle of their worst season for 19 years. The 4-0 defeat by St Mirren was their seventh league defeat of the season and 13th of the campaign in all competitions, with two months of the season left. Under Mowbray, Celtic played 45 times, won 23, drawn 9 and lost 13.

The last time Celtic lost 13 times or more in one season was in 1990-91. In Billy McNeill’s last season in charge, they lost 12 times in the Premier League and finished third behind Rangers and Aberdeen after picking up just 41 points from 36 games.

They also lost the League Cup final to Rangers and crashed out of the Scottish Cup in the semi-finals to Motherwell. Celtic didn’t even qualify for Europe because they finished fifth in the previous season.

The Times

Mowbray cut too deeply, too soon

28 March 2010

Provided by: Sunday Herald

IT was on September 1, 2009, that Tony Mowbray first developed his dangerous obsession with the January sales. That was the day the summer transfer window closed. It was also the day the Celtic manager declared himself dissatisfied with his squad. Mowbray’s stance was apparent as the scent of revolution hung in the air.

If the Celtic players didn’t know he was preparing to wield the axe, his outpourings over the next few months would enlighten them. Mowbray denies publicly stating that he wanted 10 new signings, but as results fluctuated, he talked constantly of “adding quality”. It was obvious the revolution would be bloody.

Christmas came and went. In December, Celtic played four league games and won three. The only defeat came against Hearts at Tynecastle but Celtic had played with 10 men for 59 minutes and should have won. Mowbray now had a settled side and his philosophy was slowly connecting.

Rangers were up next in the first game of 2010 but Celtic’s dominance only yielded a 1-1 draw. Regardless, it was deemed as progress and Mowbray had a choice to make on personnel. Stick or twist. His decision ultimately cost him his job.

Gary Caldwell will be remembered for myriad reasons at Celtic Park. He won every domestic honour during his three-and-a-half years and was Mowbray’s captain for the majority of his reign. He was also a member of the now infamous “January Seven”.

With the SPL title in the balance, Mowbray sanctioned wholesale changes. The departures of fringe men Willo Flood and Chris Killen didn’t register, but Caldwell, Barry Robson, Scott McDonald, Danny Fox and Stephen McManus were all regarded as regulars. They were replaced but the heart had been ripped out of a team.

“The transfer window was the turning point for Tony,” Caldwell told the Sunday Herald. “To let go of so many first-team players in such a short space of time was always going to be a risk. We’re not talking about squad players. Of the seven who left Celtic, four or five would have always been in the side.

“Myself, Danny Fox, Barry Robson and Scott McDonald all featured in that draw with Rangers. Big Mick [McManus] was on the bench. We dominated Rangers. It was as one-sided a derby as I’ve ever seen, but within weeks we had all left the club.

“To lose almost half a team in one transfer window is always going to give you a problem. Tony probably thought he was getting quality players in but how often does a new team click straight away?

“In time, all of these new players might gel, but there was a title to win. When Tony made the changes, Rangers were ahead and you don’t get time to gel a team together at Celtic. Old Firm football doesn’t work that way.”

Caldwell feels an awkwardness in performing an autopsy on Mowbray’s doomed reign. He played under him at Hibernian and Celtic, and holds him in the highest regard, despite the events of this season. “Tony will manage in the Premier League again, I’m certain of that,” he said.

Now at Wigan Athletic, Caldwell is satisfied with life, but deep down still harbours regrets over his departure from Celtic and the manner in which he was ushered out of the door as soon as Wigan made an acceptable bid.

Upon leaving Celtic, Caldwell openly questioned whether Mowbray wanted to sell him as his strained contract talks with the club’s hierarchy reached a stalemate. Misguided reports labelled him a money-grabber, but Caldwell, Scotland’s current Player of the Year and the regular captain, only requested parity with those of a similar status within the Celtic squad.

“Whether all that coming and going in January was completely Tony’s decision, only he will know the answer,” Caldwell said. “I don’t know what goes on behind the scenes. But he’s the manager and the responsibility [for the transfers] lies with him.

“To make so many changes was a huge gamble but as a manager he is accountable for those decisions. Was it 100% his decision to let all of us go? I don’t know. Tony is the only man who really knows that. Ultimately, he has to live or die by his decisions and I think it cost him in the end. He wanted to take the club to a new level, but it didn’t work out for him.

“I’m disappointed for Tony more than anything else. I like him as a man. I played under him this season so a part of me feels that I let him down. Ultimately, players have to take responsibility for results as much as the manager.”

Mowbray has been accused of many failings, but Caldwell feels his main problem was a reluctance to adapt his “expansive” style to the unforgiving environs of the SPL.

“He was looking for a balance and never got it right,” he said. “He wanted to play a certain way, but at Celtic you are always judged on results. Nothing else matters. The pressure and demands are unique.

“Tony ultimately found it difficult to adapt to that level of expectation. He had a set philosophy and wanted to stick to it at all times. That philosophy never got him results and it cost him his job.”

Caldwell contacted interim manager Neil Lennon on Friday morning and expects his former team-mate to tell some home truths to Celtic’s highly-paid, underachieving players. Long-term, Caldwell sees no reason why Lennon can’t get the job permanently.

“Lenny won’t mess about,” he said. “He will go into that dressing-room and rattle a few cages. That was his style as a player and he’ll be the same as a manager. As a coach, he is brilliant at motivating. He lets you know what is at stake.

“This is a great opportunity for him. He served his coaching apprenticeship under Gordon Strachan and now he’s the man in charge. If he does well, what’s to stop him getting the job full-time?”

Sunday Herald

Mowbray, the ‘miserable sod’ whose life was truly kissed by an angel

By Alan Fraser
Last updated at 9:20 PM on 03rd April 2008

Daily Mail

Later, as the photographer skilfully steers him into a ‘fancy’ pose, Mowbray adds: ‘You are not going to get a smile. I am a miserable sod. At least, that’s the way I am perceived.’
Enlarge Tony Mowbray

I don¿t do fancy: Tony Mowbray likes his teams to play with a certain style

There are at least two serious sides to Tony Mowbray, born perhaps out of working-class hardship in the North East and the tragedy that scarred his life.

Mowbray greatly values his precious time with his loving wife Amber and young children Lucas and Max, yet he freely acknowledges the effect on him of the death from breast cancer of his first wife 13 years ago. Bernadette, from Glasgow, was only 26 when she died in his arms on New Year’s Day.

The couple had been married only eight months, a painful period documented movingly in his celebrated cathartic book, Kissed By An Angel.

The wedding ceremony took place on April 3, 1994 and, even in the midst of preparations for Saturday’s FA Cup semi-final against Portsmouth, Mowbray took time out privately to mark the anniversary yesterday. Of all days, Bernadette would have been 39 on Saturday.

‘Please, please, don’t make this out as if I want to win the Cup for Bernadette. That would not be the case and it would be so disrespectful to Amber and the kids,’ he says.

‘Going through an experience like that undoubtedly impacted on my thinking and my way of life. It has given me a certain perspective. I don’t get too uptight with my team. I don’t throw teacups, for example.’

‘As a manager now, defeat can still spoil my weekend. But I have learned to try to look at the bigger picture. Are we moving in the right direction? Is the team playing the way we want them to? Are we entertaining? Over the longer term will we win more games? I don’t get too stuck on a bad result.’

Mowbray feels the answer to the above questions, in relation to West Bromwich Albion, will still be ‘yes’ even if they lose to Portsmouth and fail to go up to the Barclays Premier League. Baggies fans might find such a disappointing combination a little harder to swallow.

While recoiling at suggestions of being an idealist, Mowbray has his sights on loftier goals than the top division or the top of an open-topped bus.

‘I want other people to look and think ¿aesthetically, I like watching West Brom¿,’ he says.

‘As a coach at Ipswich I would go and watch every Arsenal Champions League game. I would get on the train, go to London and marvel at what they do. All they are doing is passing the ball 10 yards to each other but it is poetry.

‘Watching this machine move the ball around, so fluent and effortless, Freddie Ljungberg coming in off the left, Robert Pires drifting past people. Just beautiful to watch. They do not do anything but pass to team-mates in better positions. Simplicity is genius. This is what I want my players to do.’

A lack of a smile does not mean a lack of passion. Mowbray has been ‘Mogga’ to his friends since childhood but Bruce Rioch, the manager who made him Middlesbrough’s captain at 22 and introduced him to patterns of play, once called him Zeus.

Rioch thought his spiky-haired, blond-highlighted, bronzed skipper returning from a summer holiday looked like a Greek god.

He was obviously a fan. He famously identified Mowbray as the man he would want at his side on a lunar rocket, a compliment which led to Boro fans entitling their fanzine Fly Me to the Moon.

Middlesbrough supporters, for whom Mowbray achieved heroic status, used to joke that when Manchester United bought Gary Pallister in 1989 for a record British transfer fee of £2.3m, they got the wrong central defender.

‘I remember that. Was it a joke? I am still good friends with Pally. I speak to him quite regularly,’ says Mowbray.

‘He was a fantastic footballer. I could not match his pace and strength. He was a man-mountain, Bambi on ice initially and then a monster of a guy. As he was learning the game, I was his Steve Bruce of the Man U period ¿ a voice, an organiser, a motivator, getting the best out of his talents.’

Mowbray, the player, acquired a reputation as an uncompromising stopper who would take bullets for the cause. Yet, he had been a goal-scoring midfield player in his youth.

‘Your talent can get suppressed, I think. Because I was 6ft 2in I was put to the back. You are told to get your head on it and clear your lines. You are a defender.

‘Up until 15 and 16 I had been scoring plenty of goals. I was a linchpin in midfield, getting the ball and spraying it about, beating people, making things happen. The bigger picture prevailed. I took on the responsibility for the team,’ he recalls.

‘In my mind I knew all the moves. I got patterned into destroying and heading the first ball, getting first contact in the box, heading goalkicks back into the opposition half.’

If Mowbray sounds like a frustrated playmaker, that’s because he is. ‘It is part of the reason I want my players to express themselves really. My centre halves at some time in their lives have probably been the best players on the pitch, at school or for their district. It is trying to bring that out, encouraging them to play and pass,’ he adds.

There is a second irony here, though. West Bromwich Albion’s current weakness is in the area where he personally was strongest. Like Arsenal, the Baggies have been labelled something of a soft touch, fragile away from home, conceding goals from set-pieces, perhaps defensively not the most resolute.

Mowbray nods. ‘I am probably harsh on my central defenders because we do lose goals that teams do not have to work hard for. We are not good enough at getting first contact on balls coming into our box.’

Mowbray, the manager, at 44 young and aspirational, has in his short career established a reputation for sending out teams which entertain. The destroyer has become the creator.

Hibs were indisputably the most attractive side in Scotland during his two years there, winning three times at Ibrox and also at Celtic yet ¿ and this may be significant with tomorrow in mind ¿ losing two Cup semi-finals.

It is not only who he is. It is also where he has been. He spent nine years as player and coach at Ipswich, a club steeped in attacking, passing football.

There were also four years at Celtic, where all-out attack has always been the imperative ¿ even during the so-called ‘barren years’ with which his time there coincided.

The Huddle, now universal in many sports, was his great legacy. ‘I don’t like to put a patent on it. But I take a great sense of pride in it. It was nothing to do with my wife, as has been wrongly reported. It came out of adversity. The Celtic players needed to show real unity and togetherness. We needed to show the supporters we cared.’

Which was precisely why the manager initiated its first Albion manifestation after the draw at Charlton last month.

That kind of attitude could take West Bromwich Albion to a Wembley final, 18 years after Mowbray last led a team out there.

Colin Todd, who had just taken over from Rioch at Middlesbrough, insisted that Mowbray, sidelined during the week through injury, should don a blazer and lead out the team alongside Chelsea manager Bobby Campbell in the Zenith Data Systems Cup Final.

He was smiling then.

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