Charlie Nicholas has claimed that one of Billy McNeill’s coaches was responsible for press leaks 30 years ago.
Back in 1990 Nicholas returned to his first club at a barren time with pressure mounting on McNeill to recapture past glories against the might of Dave Murray’s empire which we later discovered was being propped up by Bank of Scotland.
At that time newspaper reporters and broadcasters had virtually unlimited access to football clubs with the home phone numbers of players and managers available for out of hours stories.
Leaks and moles have been part of the football business for years. Going into the New Year Derby in 1990 Celtic were in desperate need of a victory- on the morning of the match The Sun correctly predicted that Mike Galloway would be making his first appearance as a striker for Celtic.
McNeill was furious at that leak, Celtic lost the match and although Nicholas joined the club six months later it was a typical incident of the times.
Picking up on his column in his Express column the Daily Record quotes Nicholas:
Lennon also can’t blame the 2-0 defeat on the mole who leaked his line-up on the eve of the clash. When I was at Celtic the second time around, we had a mole.
The manager, Billy McNeill, would ask guys like me, Paul McStay and Andy Walker who we had been talking to and how this information was getting out.
I didn’t find out who the mole was until after I left Celtic. I won’t name him, but it was one of Billy’s coaches.
Tommy Craig was McNeill’s assistant manager during his second stint at the club with no sign of a first team or goalkeeping coach. Bobby Lennox and Benny Rooney were in charge of the reserve and youth sides.
After leaving Celtic in 1995 Nicholas quickly moved into the world of the media with STV, Sky Sports, Evening Times and others with the Express currently paying for a weekly column.