Has Artur Boruc secured his position as the number one keeper for the Bhoys? If so, how long will it be for? Will he go down as one of the all time great keepers?
Well in the last forty or so years Celtic have become accustomed to No.1's staying for a long period of time at the club. Apart for the early 90's, when we were all over the place, some of the keepers were of the short term variety.
When the late Ronnie Simpson came in as cover for Francis Haffey in '64 it was a six year stay that achieved celebrity status. Ronnie had previously played for Newcastle and was successful in two Cup Finals for them! He not only took Haffey's place but also his understudy John Fallon, who had been there since '59 and stayed until 1972. Fallon played in two World ‘Club' Cup Finals for the Bhoys as RS injured early in the ‘67 Final.
The man from Keadue Rovers came on the scene in 1978. Pat ‘Pakie' Bonner was Jock Stein's last signing for ‘The Hoops'. He would stay until after the Cup Final victory in 1995 making a massive 642 appearances for the club as well as amassing 80 caps for the Republic of Ireland. Bonner's understudy for the early few years was the Englishman Peter Latchford, who played 270 games for the club between '77 and '85.
Latchford recalled one game with Rangers with great relish, "I remember my first game. I was on loan from West Brom and I'd just played in the Cup Final victory over Airdrie. I was hoping Celtic were going to sign me permanently and I was hovering around Big Jock. He turned to me and said ‘make sure you're back up for Tuesday. We've a local Cup match to play, just for Glasgow teams'. My first match against Rangers was the Glasgow Cup Final. 85,000 crowd. 2-2. they couldn't believe it when I told them about it in England."
Other understudies of the big man from Donegal were Alan McKnight (mare) who spent 3 years at Celtic Park before moving to West Ham. Another Englishman was Ian Andrews. Andrews only stayed a season and moved on to Leicester City.
Then we had the dodgy time when we had names you couldn't forget or even remember. One name was Carl Muggleston who came on for just six months in 1994 and played only 13 times for the club. One of the Marshalls then showed up. There is a saying "he wouldn't save stamps" this certainly applied for some of these 90's keepers. Gordon Marshall, Stewart Kerr followed by Dimitri Kharine, who incidentally was the first signing by the Barnes/ Dalglish regime. Two keepers who slipped the net (sorry) were Alan Rough and Shay Given. Both these keepers went on to honour their countries with distinction. I remember speaking to Shay recently and he was sorry not to have made it at Celtic. Good old Lou Macari!
Yet another one from south of the Border (England) took the reigns, when Jonathon Gould signed in 1997. He would stay for 6 years. He was one of two signings made by then boss, Wim Jansen. The other signing wasn't too bad either!! A Trinidadian came on loan for a short period, also around this time. He was Tony Warner he played just 3 games one was a famous little 5-1 thrashing of the ‘Huns' when ‘Lubo' and ‘Henrik' came to the fore.
With both Magnus and Rab, now gone to pastures greener. It's a hard task for the second Marshall in ten years to arrest the rise and rise of King Artur at the top table. If I have forgotten anyone in the last forty years they left a lasting impression on me. A few more that come to mind were Evan Williams, Ally Hunter and Denis Conaghan and less we forget that ‘famous' Spaniard Javier Broto who signed from Livingston and stayed for about 12 months before setting his homeland alight with his mercurial skills. Last we heard of him was that he was the boss at Hawke Bay United in New Zealand.
Nowadays it is the safe hands of Artur the number one Pole for the Bhoys and his able assistant David Marshall. Hail Hail.