John Boyle has trashed Pat Nevin’s claim that he was lined up for an executive role at Celtic while playing for Everton.
The former Scotland winger didn’t give away too much detail about the offer but Boyle recalled a vague conversation during a summer holiday in 1990.
At that time Boyle was building up Direct Holidays but admitted that he couldn’t afford to buy East Fife never mind Celtic where the board were rejecting the early approaches from Fergus McCann.
Nevin grew up a Celtic fan but now claims to be a Hibs supporter, when The Sun contacted Boyle about the claims made by the former Everton winger he couldn’t have been any more blunt.
Pat Nevin’s book is called ‘The Accidental Footballer’, but he’s suffering from some kind of accidental memory loss.
When I came back home the other night one of my kids mentioned the story to me, and I thought it was a wind-up. When I checked it out I was laughing my football socks off at the very idea.
I do remember us being together with our families on a yacht off Rhodes because we had mutual friends.
It’s entirely possible there was a vague conversation along the lines of him being a footballer and me being a businessman, and Celtic being in real financial difficulties at that time.
But it would have been something like, ‘Someone should buy Celtic’, no more than that. The idea it would have been me is just farcical. Apart from anything else, if that was in 1990 as he states, I simply wouldn’t have had the money to buy Celtic even if I’d been of a mind to.
In 1990 I couldn’t have afforded East Fife, never mind Celtic! I had a nodding acquaintance with Michael Kelly at that time, but I didn’t sell my business until much later.
The Sun contacted Nevin about the counter claim with the author standing by the claims in his book.
Boyle did bring Nevin in as player/CEO of Motherwell in 1998 but it ended with the club in administration and Boyle out of pocket by the best part of £10m.
Nevin was born on 6 September 1963 and played for Everton from 1988 to 1992 before going on to spend five seasons with Tranmere Rovers.