Fergus McCann has admitted to making ‘people mistakes’ during his eventful five year tenure at Celtic.
The former Croy-raised millionaire made few friends within the football community as he set about putting Celtic on a sound business footing after finally overthrowing the family dynasties that had taken the club to the brink of bankruptcy.
Pierre van Hooijdonk, Jorge Cadete and Paolo di Canio have been ‘slow’ to join in the praise flowing McCann’s way with Luigi Macari, Tommy Burns and Wim Jansen all axed from the managers job during McCann’s time at Celtic.
On the twentieth anniversary of his takeover McCann was asked if he had any regrets about his time in charge and while making a brief confession quickly moved on to look at the bigger picture.
“It’s always easy to be clever with hindsight,” he admitted. “I made mistakes for sure, some of them people mistakes but there’s no point in dwelling on them now.
“Aside from getting all the essential new capital in place, the best thing overall was getting the best people. I mean the quality and value of the board I had – and the club now has, the executive management and operating people.
“Of course, getting the best players we could afford was critical and that has been maintained, but the club also has 500 dedicated employees as well.
“Last but not least, raising an army of 50,000-plus season ticket holders, and now having 28,000 shareholders, these are the key people that make Celtic what it is.”
Whether those people regrets were over hiring or firing them remains unknown.
Yes,Joe.
Fergus was single-minded.What we have
now,was down to him sticking to his plans.
No over-inflated player budgets etc.
However,I did feel sorry for TB (rip) who
wanted 2 players to stop 9.
Hiring Jock Brown was a big mistake.
Poking his nose into transfer business,was
not his remit.
The treatment of Wim Jansen,mainly by Brown,and him subsequently leaving,was
a big blow to all Celtic fans.
I would imagine the above,was the reason
some Celtic fans booed him.Today,the
Scottish MSM,are having a field day,re
booing.
With hindsight,in the grand scheme of
things( Monti will disagree) Fergus is a
TRUE CLUB LEGEND.
I’m on record ( many times) stating my views on the Bunnet.
First of all…I treasure a signed letter I have from him,disagreeing with my opinons on how he handled certain things…but stating my right to air them.
So…Did he save our Club….??..Of course he did….
Should he be honoured in some way for this…?…..Yes he should.
Did he make mistakes and not admit to them or apologise for them…?…Yes he did.
I was there the day he was booed…I didn’t boo…but I didn’t applaud either….cos at that time I didn’t like the guy…or the way he operated.
But as he says..Hindsight is a wonderful thing….and looking back now…despite his shortcomings….
It’s absolutely right to say…He brought our Club back from the abyss…and made it what it is today…We owe him BIG time.
So…Hail hail to the Bunnet…And I never thought I’d say that.
While David Murray was busy playing to the gallery and buying the adulation of the Rangers masses by spending money he didn’t have on players he couldn’t afford just to feed his own ego, wee Fergus was looking further down the road making tough unpopular decisions because they were in the best interests of Celtic F.C.
Rangers F.C. are now extinct and Celtic F.C. are stronger than they have ever been so in the grand scheme of things I would say the ‘people mistakes’ Fergus McCann made pale in significance to the monumental and fatal mistakes made by David Murray.
God bless the goneanddoneit
Most football fans are fickle and short sighted.We demand success on the field whatever the cost.McCann, thank goodness,did not have all his brains in his feet nor was he a glory hunter like his counterpart at Ibrox,a self centered braggart who drove his Club to ruin and disgrace. Sure it was painful and to some he was a hated man.Celtic fans are no different than anyone else, they have their opinions.Just thank goodness that Fergus McCann was his own man and a Celtic man too.