Celtic v Manchester United: Legendary entertainment guarenteed

Henrik's 50th

With ticket sales approaching 50,000 and the weather favourable the Celtic v Manchester United Legends Challenge match in aid of Oxfam’s East African Famine Appeal is shaping up as a very special occasion.

The match is certainly for a very good cause and I think that it displays the spirit of our football club. We were set up as a charitable organisation and it’s nice to see the charity work of the club continuing

When I heard that John Kennedy was giving his share of the money to Oxfam, I thought that gesture alone should hopefully bring as large a crowd as possible – an amazing gesture from what seems like an amazing guy.

With John’s career cruelly taken away from him, I think it’s only right that we get to show what we, as fans, think of him and his gesture. I know it’s easy to make the following statement given that we will never know, but I really did think he would have been good enough to be a mainstay of our team for a long time – perhaps even turn into club captain.

I remember watching Kennedy make his debut. At 16 years old, it was obvious that he was further ahead of other guys round about his age and he never looked out of place in the first team.

If I remember correctly, John was the youngest Celtic débutante since Roy Aitken.

For the match itself, it is intended as a fun evening and I suspect it will be mainly attended by parents who want to take their kids along to Parkhead – including mine. My Dad will be going with me but I am 28 so don’t know if that still counts as an old fashioned parent and child type entry?

For Celtic, we have Martin O’Neill up to manage our legends side and with the word legend being used for pretty much anyone who has ever carried out a good deed in their lives, Martin is a man who truly can be called a Celtic legend. Yes, he never stayed for as long as guys like Paul McStay but the achievements are what what makes him a legend.

A reminder of the things that did for our club? Three League titles, six domestic cup finals with 4 wins and of course the 2003 UEFA cup final. Add in keeping Celtic in Europe beyond Christmas for the first time is 23 years, not to mention knocking Barcelona out of the UEFA cup the year after taking the team to the Seville final.

On the pitch, so far, we know that we will have Lubo Moravcik, who can forget his two goals in the 5-1 game v Rangers shortly after he signed for us or when he trapped a bouncing ball with his backside? There are so many Lubo moments that it would be impossible to write about them all but hopefully, we see a few special Lubo moments on the night.

We also have most of our current management team due to play for us, Neil Lennon, Alan Thompson and of course big Johan Mjallby – with the amount that Neil Lennon has put up with over the years as a player and manager for us, I am surprised that he hasn’t cracked up and gone somewhere else a long long time ago – I doubt I’d be as strong a character as him under the circumstances.

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Roy Keane

Given that this is a charitable occasion, I fully suspect that all players/celebrities and whoever is playing on the night will be given a good reception but Roy Keane is one who I am expecting to be particularly well received by the supporters.

I would guess that he will play all of the match for the United side as he can hardly be deemed a Celtic legend but with a trophy cabinet that must be about the same size as my living room, he has achieved a lot more than what most could ever dream of.

That cabinet must have some pretty strong shelves too as it holds nine league titles (eight with United and one from Celtic), four F.A cup and Community Shield winners medals, one Scottish League Cup winners medal, a UEFA Champions League winners medal and the Intercontinental Cup (world club championship) winners medal not to mention numerous individual awards, such as man-of-the-match awards and player-of-the-year awards etc.

As usual with these type of charity matches, there are numerous celebrities rumoured to be playing. One of which is Paolo Nutini who is a hoops fan and Richard Ashcroft (singer from The Verve who I’d guess must be turning out for United).

I’m hoping we can maybe get a wee song from Richard instead of a game of football but maybe that’s too much to ask? With the players on show I’m expecting lots of goals, almost all of Celtic’s confirmed players are attack minded.

In addition to the players that I have mentioned above for Celtic, United will field Teddy Sherringham, Ole Gunnar Soljskaer and Dwight Yorke-between them they played 434 times and scored 169 goals.

A few other well known people that are due to appear on the night are Patrick Kielty the comedian and TV presenter. Ricky Hatton, former world champion boxer, Nigel Benn who is in the same bracket as Hatton, Angus Deayton another TV presenter.

The last few well known names that I have been able to find that have lent their names to the match is Wayne Rooney, as of yet, I don’t know if he will be making an appearance on the pitch. Rod Stewart, Sharleen Spiteri and Eddie Jordan are all expected to be there and my personal favourite, Billy Connolly.

Finally, to go back to the start of the piece when I was saying about this being for charity, most of us will have saw the plight of the famine hit East African countries and I think you’d struggle not to be moved by what those poor folk are going through so even a small contribution from me while I get to see some of our former stars play football is a good thing – we all gain out of it.

Hopefully, we can get the ground full because lets face it there are few football arenas better than Parkhead when they are at full capacity.

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