Football clubs may be closing down their Social Media accounts this weekend but life goes on with one Celtic fan sharing a contact book from former player and scout John Higgins.
Once upon a time players were spotted with their School Team or Boys Club, there was no You Tube, Y-Scout or Data Bank that allowed anyone anywhere in the world to sift through data to unearth the next Kenny Dalglish or Graeme Souness.
Back in the sixties Higgins and others would watch as many matches as possible, building up contacts with trusted sources to discover the brightest talents as early as possible.
Phones were a rarity in the home with the address of a prospect gold dust as trusted scouts tried to convince parents that their club offered the best path to the top levels of the game.
In the mid-sixties Celtic got the massive boost of Jock Stein providing emerging talents the path to play at the highest level in Europe.
At Barrowfield they could see a group of local players that had conquered Europe, who were respected and feared in equal measure from Milan to Madrid and all points inbetween.
As Dalglish, Danny McGrain, Lou Macari and others were breaking through 132,000 officially watched Celtic beat Leeds United in the semi-final of the European Cup at Hampden, soon they would be stepping into the boots of those icons.
These days things are done a lot differently but the old school scouting provided Celtic with the Quality Street Gang to follow on from Kelly’s Kids who grew into the Lisbon Lions thanks to the genius of Stein.
— Thomas (@tkerr76) May 1, 2021
— Thomas (@tkerr76) May 1, 2021
— Thomas (@tkerr76) May 1, 2021
@Stephen4_2 a few more names you may recognise pic.twitter.com/voHh7zzvuf
— Thomas (@tkerr76) May 1, 2021
