Even through the bleaker times in our history Celtic have almost always been able to come up with strikers to lift the gloom.
Back in the early eighties George McCluskey, Frank McGarvey, Charlie Nicholas and Brian McClair topped the scoring charts in successive seasons with Andy Peyton, Gerry Creaney and Pierre van Hooijdonk providing colour and excitement even if silverware was elusive.
Martin O’Neill provided the goals of Henrik Larsson, Chris Sutton and John Hartson with Scott McDonald and Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink doing likewise for Gordon Strachan.
When Tony Mowbray took up the baton a replacement for Vennegoor of Hesselink was needed while McDonald was clearly not his cup of tea.
Taking up the vacancy was Marc-Antoine Fortune. His £3.8m signing from Nancy has only been beaten by Olivier Ntcham but from early on the Frenchman seemed a very un-Celtic like signing.
The striker had scored five goals in half a season on loan as West Brom had been relegated the previous season but seemed to be the man that Mowbray was putting his faith in.
Mowbray’s faith in the £3.8m signing seemed misplaced when Arsenal easily won 2-0 at Celtic Park in a Champions League qualifier with Fortune leading the line although two goals against St Johnstone in his fifth appearance hinted at improvement.
It was to be December before he next found the net, scoring in successive games against Motherwell and Rapid Vienna before being denied a perfectly good goal against Rangers (IL) by referee Steve Conroy.
January saw the arrival of Robbie Keane and Morten Rasmussen, March brought a 4-0 loss at St Mirren with Mowbray sent gardening the morning after.
Strangely caretaker boss Neil Lennon seemed impressed by Fortune who survived the Ross County debacle and scored in a morale boosting win over Rangers (IL) as the caretaker staked his claim for the job.
Fortune started the following season in the side despite the signings of Gary Hooper and Daryl Murphy.
The end came in a disastrous 4-0 defeat away to Utrecht in the UEFA Cup, the next morning he was sold back to West Brom who had won promotion back to the Premier League in Mowbray’s absence.
Two goals in 27 appearances suggested that getting most of the transfer fee back was a wise move as the Frenchman’s career continued to wind down via stop off’s at Doncaster, Wigan and Coventry with his 10 SPL goals at Celtic the highest tally of his career.
Now into his second season at Southend the 36 year old is still getting a game in League One but will never appear on any list of great Celtic strikers, or signings.
