The irony wasn’t lost on Chic Charnley as we chatted during the recent Northern Masters event in Newcastle.
In the early hours of the morning Ryan Giggs had played against Celtic for the umpteenth time in a pre-season friendly in Toronto- 16 years after Charnley had shared the Old Trafford turf in a testimonial for Mark Hughes.
“What a fantastic player Ryan is, what a career he’s had, it just shows you what happens if you aquit yourself properly!” Charnley replied before the obvious question.
The summer of 94 has been well covered elsewhere as Charnley went on holiday with his Partick Thistle team-mates, a decision that soon to be sacked Celtic boss Lou Macari took as turning down the chance to join Celtic.
How wrong could you be Luigi?
Charnley travelled to Old Trafford on a supporters bus before meeting up with the team and heading back up the road with a unique pair of souvenirs.
He explained: “My son Gary has got Giggs’ top, I got it at the end of the match then I went into their dressing room and got my own Celtic top back off him!
“My son has got both tops. Ryan was great, my top didn’t mean anything to him and he knew that it meant a lot to me and my son’s got them both.
“I played one game for Celtic and can die happy- hundreds of thousands of people would love to have played once and it’ll live with me forever.
“I enjoy everything about the club, catching up with the boys and playing at the Masters is always a pleasure.”
Charnley’s colourful career is well documented in his book Seeing Red which documents four spells with Partick Thistle inbetween picking up seventeen red cards.
A spell in charge of the Thistle youth team ended with the sacking of Gerry Collins in 2004 with Charnley regretting that decision.
He admitted: “Being honest I’m desperate to get back into football. There are a lot of people looking to get involved but I think that people are scared to touch me because of my reputation on the park.
“I was coaching at Thistle when Gerry Collins was in charge but I chucked it when he got the sack. I shouldn’t have done.
“That was down to principles which is best left as being somewhere in the town to do your shopping in.
“I was working with Gerry, when he got sacked I felt it was the right thing to go with them but I miss being involved in the game although I do some coaching in a business that a friend runs.”
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Filip Twardzik sinks Liverpool
A pure first class nutter.
But what might have been eh Chicky, Get In there Big man.
Sean in WesterRoss