Seeing Red: The Chic Charnley Story

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He said: "I'd have been afraid to earn the kind of money that's going about today. I'd have gone out on the batter and treated football like a job on the oil rigs.

When Billy McNeill went through his quadruple heart bypass in the mid-nineties I sent him a message, saying, ‘You could have had that operation years ago if you had signed me.’ I hope he saw the funny side. But the man who was sent off 17 times in a career that reads like an instruction manual on wayward behaviour believes the ailing Scottish game could do with a few more rascals. This was Chic, the lifelong Celtic fan on Scottish football’s grandest stage, conducting the orchestra and making it seem effortless. Perhaps the opposition helped to lift his game – he had much less success against the other half of the Old Firm – but in the last 50 years, how many Scots players would fit that bill? Half a dozen? Baxter, Johnstone, Dalglish, maybe Paul McStay or Charlie Nicholas at times. Unlike those, Charnley never won a Scotland cap; in fact he never came close. He never won the Premier League or a major cup. The trophy cabinet chez Charnley contains a winners medal from a Glasgow Cup final and some lower league badges but needs very little dusting. His CV boasts spells at Kirkintilloch Rob Roy, Tarff Rovers and rather bizarrely, a very brief loan spell at a then down at heel Bolton, but apart from a period with Hibs, none of them could be described as among Scotland’s bigger clubs.

MASSIMO CELLINO

Chic Charnley was born on 11 June, 1963 in Glasgow, United Kingdom, is a Scottish footballer. Discover Chic Charnley's Biography, Age, Height, Physical Stats, Dating/Affairs, Family and career updates. Learn How rich is He in this year and how He spends money? Also learn how He earned most of networth at the age of 60 years old? Popular As Charnley's also honest enough to admit if he was starting out in the game today, blessed with the natural ability he couldn't complement with a sense of discipline, he wouldn't have fitted in. I friend of mine is a bit of an artist and he painted the picture for me and it is now framed and proudly hanging on a wall at home. It’s a constant reminder of the night I played for Celtic. You could argue that Lionel doesn’t need to show his arse to anyone as he’s too busy slaloming round bemused defenders and generally being wonderful, but for all those skills, he clearly has the personality of a wooden toilet roll holder. It’s the same with Gareth Bale who attempts to make up for being as dull as a Monday Night Football match on Sky by tying his hair into a ridiculous ponytail. Ronaldo is slightly edgier thanks to those tantrums, but for balls-out, big-time personality allied to outrageous ability, they’re not a patch on Mr James ‘Chic’ Charnley.

There’s a photograph of me running away from Eric Cantona with a broad smile on my face that evening I’ve been asked countless times what I was laughing at. Who does he think he is?’ I said and the Celtic bench dissolved into laughter. It was a magic moment and I was so happy that a snapper had caught the image perfectly.To my mind, there’s no doubt that the raw genius possessed by Charnley should have been on display in the dark blue of Scotland. Instead of which he is perhaps being best known for chasing off a sword-wielding ned during a training session in a Glasgow park. The latter makes a great chapter in his autobiography, but given his undoubted talent I can’t help feeling that the book should have been filled with more stories of close encounters of the footballing kind. Despite the Celtic boss singing his praises to the press in the aftermath of the match, Charnley's dreams were ultimately shattered. What happened with Henrik was just part of football. He wishes he could change it but he’ll get over it.

The pace of the match did not surprise me, but I tried to get my players to slow it down and not play at the same speed as their opponents, but when they did that, they lost the ball and that was no good.” This is not unusual. If you follow one of the country’s smaller clubs, you’ll have your own legend like Chic. Think of Andy Ritchie strutting his way through his years at Morton; maybe Kevin McAllister at Falkirk, the pacey winger Henry Templeton at Ayr United or perhaps striker Ken Eadie in his Clydebank days. In my early years as a Jags fan, there was Denis McQuade, once described as Johan Cruyff without a compass. Denis could go on a 40-yard mazy run and trip over himself on the goal line as he tried to tap the ball home. Or he could unleash a 30-yard piledriver out of nowhere. Four decades later, he’s still revered around Firhill. Hibernian 1-2 Dundee United, May 2nd 1998, Easter Road". The Arab Archive. 2 May 1998 . Retrieved 30 June 2014.The good bit of the story was, my wife was in the hospital,” he added. “I went up for the 2.30pm visit with my hand bandaged, Margaret’s lying in bed and she said, ‘What happened to you?’ This was a humbling experience for Henrik Larsson, on a day that he would have been desperate to impress the Celtic supporters. History tells us that he then went on to become the greatest Celt of modern times but no one could have foresaw what was ahead of Larsson and Celtic on this dull, miserable day in Edinburgh. The first thing that happened was the devil dog ran away. I got cut on the hand and the scar remains to this day but eventually my two assailants joined the dog down the road." We made a couple of stops on the way to the game and we passed several Celtic supporters’ buses heading for Manchester. My mates were pointing at me and saying, ‘See that guy there? He’s playing for Celtic tonight.’ The fans nodded their heads and replied, ‘Aye, so he is!’