Reviews

CELTIC'S CULT HEROES – A MUST READ FOR TIMDOM

Celtic author and historian (and Keep The Faith contributor) David Potter has had another book published – and ‘Celtic's Cult Heroes' is essential reading material for Timdom.

Published by ‘Know The Score', ‘Celtic's Cult Heroes' “details the trials and tribulations of the most adored players ever to pull on a Celtic shirt. From the early years of Dan Doyle and Sandy McMahon, through pre-war greats such as Joe Cassidy and Peter Wilson, the incomparable Jock Stein and modern heroes Jimmy Johnstone, Henrik Larsson, Roy Aitken and Shunsuke Nakamura, ‘Celtic Cult Heroes' recalls their legendary deeds, how they brought glory to Celtic Park and contributed to making the Club the global force that it is.”

David Potter's book, ‘Celtic's Cult Heroes', has chapters detailing 20 Celtic Greats – Dan ‘Ned' Doyle, Sandy ‘The Duke' McMahon, Jimmy ‘The Bison' Quinn, Jim ‘Sunny Jim' Young, Joe ‘Trooper' Cassidy, Tommy ‘The Boy Wonder' McInally, Jimmy ‘The Golden Crust' McGrory, Peter ‘Peter The Great' Wilson, Bertie ‘Bertie' Thomson, Malcolm ‘Calum' MacDonald, Charlie ‘Cheeky Charlie' Tully, Jock ‘Big Jock' Stein, Pat ‘Paddy' Crerand, John ‘Yogi' Hughes, Jimmy ‘Jinky' Johnstone, Dixie ‘Dixie' Deans, Roy ‘The Bear' Aitken, Charlie ‘Champagne Charlie' Nicholas, Henrik ‘The King Of Kings' Larsson and Shunsuke ‘Naka' Nakamura.

‘Celtic's Cult Heroes' is also superbly illustrated with a total of 50 photographs, some black and white and some full colour.

David Potter exclusively explained his 13th book, ‘Celtic's Cult Heroes', to Keep The Faith: “I suppose you can say that I chose from our history 20 Celtic players with whom the Celtic support had a special affinity, and who were at one point at least quintessentially Celtic men. They are not necessarily the best players although the three best goalscorers – Jimmy Quinn, Jimmy McGrory and Henrik Larsson are all there.”

David continued: “Some of the ‘Cult Heroes' have disappointed - but they can all claim to have had the support talking about them. There is no insignificant player, but some of them are bad Bhoys like Dan Doyle and Sandy McMahon.”

David added: “Others like Peter Wilson, Malcolm MacDonald and Bertie Thomson are not well enough known and I felt that they deserved more recognition.”

The promotional literature for ‘Celtic's Cult Heroes' reads: “Celtic FC are a Club that is rich in Cult Heroes. The Legends assembled here are not necessarily the best players to appear in green and white, but the ones who developed the most affinity with the Bhoys' incredible support; who were deified and came to stand for something more than mere footballers.

There was for example Dan Doyle the man who failed to turn up for a Scottish Cup tie, yet remained a hero; the saintly goalscorer Jimmy McGrory; Tommy McInally, the rebel without a cause and the tragic Bertie Thomson.

Dixie Deans recovered from the trauma of a missed penalty in a shoot-out to score a Scottish Cup Final hat-trick less than three weeks later. ‘Champagne' Charlie Nicholas was adored for his glamour as much as his prolific goal-scoring ability. And in more recent times there has been the ultra professional goal machine Henrik Larsson and Shunsuke Nakamura who have done so much to make Celtic a worldwide institution.

‘Celtic's Cult Heroes' contains many anecdotes and asides, and is a must for every Celtic fan.

Following painstaking hours of research, ‘Celtic's Cult Heroes' is written from a fan's point of view – and in this case a fan who is addicted to the sight of green and white ribbons on silverware”.

CELTIC'S CULT HEROES

Author: David Potter

Publication Date: 18th February

RRP: £16.99

Hardback

Publishers: Know The Score Books Limited

OK, OK, this is a shameful exploitation of Celtic Cyberspace for commercial activities, but honest to Gord, David's book ‘Celtic's Cult Heroes' is like Naka, a Cracka.