Mackay: We're spreading the football gospel according to Tommy Burns

Last updated : 16 June 2009 By Mikbhoy

Mogga - The new boss and one of Tommy's star pupils
Tommy Burns was mentor to Mowbray, Hughes and Mackay and it shows - all have already earned plaudits for the manner in which their sides try to play the game and Malky says that it's all down to the footballing philosophy preached to them by Tommy Burns.

"Tommy was a visionary and someone who had a profound influence on myself as a young player." said Malky Mackay. "There is a mindset in football that if you are a centre-half then you should probably set up your teams as being defence minded. We learned from an early age and Tommy stamped something very impressive on the likes of myself, Tony and John in those early days."

"We were all inquisitive individuals as players and we wanted to find out all we could about football and Tommy was only too keen to teach us." he said. "I guess there are striking similarities to the way Tony, John and my own sides line up because we all want to play attractive football. It is no coincidence to say we have all adopted the Tommy approach to football because I know it left such a huge impression on us."

"It is fair to say all three of us were greatly influenced by what he taught us in those early days." said the Watford boss. "People rave about Barcelona and Real Madrid matches because they are usually full of goals, passion, excitement and free-flowing football. Celtic supporters still talk to me about Tommy's Celtic team that lost one league match all season yet still couldn't win the title. Tommy was an out-and-out football man and if there were two boys playing on a park across the road from his house he would run out and watch them playing. That was the kind of guy he was and he just loved the game."

"Tommy was from the old school of football management and wanted his players to become better players but also better people. He tried to model us as human beings and give us high standards on and off the field. When we wore the Celtic badge we were representatives of the club at all times and those standards spilled over into our private lives too. He was a big family man and he made a long lasting impression on you. If he was alive to see the likes of Tony, John and myself take over the reins at our new clubs this week he would afford himself a wry smile. Nobody would be more thrilled about that than Tommy."

Burns had travelled to Amsterdam to study the methods and systems used by European Champions Ajax and he wasted no time in implementing what he had learned from the Dutch masters. "Tommy came in after Lou Macari was sacked and he brought a totally different structure to training." said Mackay. "It was fantastic and we were learning an awful lot in that period. It's something I try to use myself. He went over to Ajax to study their training methods. He was a real innovator and he wanted to change how things had gone on at training before he came in."

"Ajax had just won the Champions League in 1995 with the likes of Patrick Kluivert, Edgar Davids, the de Boer twins and Frank Rijkaard and Tommy was determined to learn from the best." said Malky. "He brought all their training ideas and methods over here and he showed tremendous foresight in doing that and bringing it over to Celtic Park. Coaches going over to Europe wasn't the done thing 15 years ago so it really was a revolutionary thing to do. On the training ground we got exercises we had never practised before and Tommy told us the Ajax school of training was the best in the world and he wanted to bring those passing drills to Celtic."

"Ajax were the founders of Total Football." said the Watford boss. "And Tommy was trying to instill that kind of thing at Barrowfield. He insisted it would make us all better footballers and even the defenders such as Tony, John and myself became more accomplished players because we were schooled in that kind of training."