McGhee: We carry on in Tommy's honour
by Brian Etherson, 16 May 2008
As Scottish football mourns the passing of Tommy Burns, Motherwell manager and former colleague of the Celtic coach, Mark McGhee, has told setantasports.com of how he felt when the news filtered through that Tommy had passed away on Thursday morning.
“I’d been trying to prime myself, I’d been kept informed as to how ill he was and we all suspected there would be an outcome soon, but no matter how hard you prepare reality is different,” McGhee told setantasports.com.
“I think like everyone else you feel a numbness, you really feel helpless when thinking of Rosemary and the children and Tommy himself.
“It really is an awful shame, an awful shame, a big, big loss for everyone who knew him.”
So many players have walked through the hallowed doors of ‘paradise’ and donned The Hoops and embraced the support of the Celtic faithful, but there are very few who achieve legendary status within the club and according to the Motherwell boss Burns was, and is, Mr Celtic.
McGhee said: “Absolutely, you know there are one or two people who you can only associate regardless of maybe where they have been for short times or otherwise.
“Celtic, like Rangers, is a club where when you go to these clubs you do meet people. Manchester United is another one, so every club’s got them, but Tommy epitomised the Celtic fan who went on to play for and, even more importantly I think, manage the club that he supported and that is a huge achievement - a huge amount of respect obviously to a guy who managed to do that.
“Tommy was just always himself, there were no pretences about Tommy, he never compromised his own integrity, his own beliefs and he never compromised his attitude towards either football or people.
“He was a bloke who came from a humble background, never forgot where he came from, never forgot the people where he came from and I think that as much as anything gives him that connection with the punters because they knew that Tommy, his modesty and all of that just made him a really nice man to know.
“The impression he left on Scottish football was huge. He was involved as a player and as a manager both with Celtic and with Scotland.
“He touched everyone as a player, everyone has seen the type of football he produced as a manager and everyone has seen the type of man he was when dealing with people, whether it be people in the press, whether it be players of whether it be fans.”
When Phil O’Donnell passed away last December clubs, players and managers called upon The SPL to postpone games as a mark of respect, however this time, Mark McGhee reckons the best thing to do is carry on to honour his former team-mate.
“We learned with the death of Phil O’Donnell that it was possible for people to do that, it was possible to go on, to enjoy playing, to enjoy the team winning, to enjoy the team when people scored goals and not feel in any way that it was disrespectful.
“It is the same for any teams who play at the weekend, whether it be ourselves or Rangers or be the other matches that are played on Saturday or the other matches that are on in the coming weeks.
“There is no disrespect to Tommy by people going out and celebrating a goal and trying hard to enjoy the game and there is no disrespect for supporters in going and supporting their team.
“Tommy was a football man, he spent his whole life, he dedicated his whole life to football and therefore I think he would think it is important enough for people to go on and enjoy playing football.”