There was little sign of charity, goodwill or well-wishing from Celtic fans as they read this morning of Walter Smith’s pain as 10-in-a-row gets ever closer.
During the nineties Celtic almost went into liquidation as Smith enjoyed a £100m overdraft from Gavin Masterton of the Bank of Scotland to crush the competition from the east end of Glasgow. For good measure Dave Murray was given a £900m overdraft to prop up his profile as a dashing young success story.
Smith’s bid for 10-in-a-row, bolstered by Lorenzo Amoruso, Marco Negri, Stale Stensaas, Jonas Thern, Sergio Porino, Tony Vidmar alongside Paul Gascoigne, Brian Laudrup and the nine-in-a-row legends crumbled as Wim Jansen outsmarted Smith in the same way as countless European coaches did in UEFA competitions.
I will leave Walter Smith, Oldco & soon to be Deadco to Fergus McCann he summed them up best… pic.twitter.com/Kqj5D7OE77
— Celtic Collectibles (@CollectCelticFC) January 10, 2017
After deserting Scotland on the brink of qualification to Euro 2008 Smith returned to Ibrox where non payment of income tax and national insurance was the way to deal with Gordon Strachan’s Celtic.
Smith walked out on Ibrox for a second time shortly after Craig Whyte dug out a pound coin with the institution suffering administration and liquidation within 13 months of his departure.
The best thing about Walter Smith…the man says it like it is…a spades a spade pic.twitter.com/KzPmZHtppc
— Grant (@GrantColl) January 10, 2017
After wishing Charles Green’s new club every success the former Everton boss took up a non-executive directorship just before supporters coughed up 70 pence per share with Smith later serving as chairman of Sevco before walking away once more.
Having expressed his fears over Celtic winning 10-in-a-row the natural conclusion is that Smith will invest some of the millions he has taken out of Ibrox or perhaps return to front line management.
Walter Smith…..spend, spend, spend.. in his best Viv Nicholson accent.
Going to get messy and firmly believe King won’t be walking 1/4— Bert Lombardi (@lombardi_bert) January 10, 2017
or even this headline from April 2016
Former Rangers boss Walter Smith urges Ibrox board to spend, every time he opens his mouth “MONEY”— Jinky’s oars (@jinkyssoars) January 10, 2017
It’s not like Walter Smith to demand a club spends money. Suppose @ScottishFA, #SPFL & SMSM don’t discourage this attitude.
— Stephen (@PenguinBhoy) January 10, 2017
Reading Walter Smith is akin to the audience in Bullseye yelling ‘Gamble, Gamble’. For speedboat read oblivion. Again.
— Grant McCabe (@twobobhack) January 10, 2017
That Walter Smith article in record today is just lunatic stuff. The man clearly not learned anything from the past 10 years.
— Craig McCaffery (@alkorta81) January 10, 2017
If I were Walter Smith and wanted to stop Celtic from doing 10 in a row – I’d probably be begging ppl to invest in Aberdeen. Safer bet, no?
— CeltsAreHere (@CeltsAreHere) January 10, 2017
@videocelts not so much messages as questions journos won’t ask….like how does it feel to walk out on your country?
— mik67 (@mmckinv) January 10, 2017
@videocelts or how much did you gain from encouraging supporters to enrich Green et al? Do you ever think about the £ impact on the support
— mik67 (@mmckinv) January 10, 2017