CRAIG BURLEY didn't grow up supporting Celtic or Rangers - but the former Scotland international still went on to earn a place in Hoops history.
Burley hails from Cumnock, which always carried its own insinuations after he signed for the club.
Yet it was a case of third-time lucky for Celtic, who had tried twice to sign him when Lou Macari and Tommy Burns were at the helm.
Burley recalls how Macari had even tried to take him to Stoke City and felt the sharp end of the then young Chelsea player's tongue as he felt he was the victim of a phone prank.
It was Dutchman Wim Jansen who finally got his man in the summer of 1997 as he forked out £2.5million to take Burley from Chelsea to Glasgow's east end.
Burley said: "I grew up in Cumnock but I can honestly say I had no allegiances either way. One of my grandad's was a Rangers fan and the other one was a Celtic supporter.
"I've no idea why that was. It is interesting as Celtic tried to sign me a couple of times before I eventually ended up at the club.
"Once when Lou Macari was the manager which was not a good time for Celtic. That went back to the time when Lou tried to sign me when he was the manager of Stoke City.
"He rang me at the house and I was a fledgling Chelsea player trying to make my way in the game and living in a tiny house in London that you could not swing a cat in with my wife and I had no kids at the time.
"Lou rings me and says 'Hey Craig, it's Lou Macari here, I am interested in you coming to Stoke City.'
"I replied 'Fuck off!' and put the phone down.
"I thought it was one of my mates at the wind-up but it rang again and it genuinely was Lou Macari so I had to apologise to him for speaking like that over the phone.
"To be fair, they wouldn't be winding you up about going to Stoke, would they?
"But that fell through for whatever reason. Lou then got the Celtic job and, although he never called me that time, I was in the papers again and some agents were talking to me about going there. It didn't work out for Lou at Celtic as we all know.
"Then the late, great Tommy Burns tried to take me to the club. I cannot say anything more about Tommy Burns than what has already been said.
"I bet all the players that played under him say he was a great guy to play for. They played great football under Tommy Burns.
"Celtic contacted Chelsea and they said they weren't selling so Tommy said if that ever changes let us know.
"Chelsea offered me a four-year deal and I couldn't agree on terms. I was going into the last year of my contract and Chelsea decided they were going to take the £2.5million from Celtic rather than let me run down my deal.
"I had a contract on the table from Chelsea which I wasn't even close to agreeing and they rang Celtic and asked to talk to Wim Jansen, who was the manager at the time.
"I found myself on a flight to Glasgow and about to sign for Celtic. It all filtered back to those earlier days when I had been on their radar. It all fell into place in 1997.
"I was down in Exeter pre-season training as Nigel Mansell had a place down there with a big golf complex. I got the call to say that Chelsea had accepted a bid from Celtic.
"Before I knew it I was on a plane, having a medical and signing for Celtic."
For a club like no other, Burley had signed up for a season like no other. Not since the 1960s had Celtic been under so much pressure to be successful.
The quest this time was not to be kings of Europe but rather a modest dethroning of Rangers in their own backyard as Walter Smith's side attempted to create history by winning the coveted 10 league titles in a row.
Burley insists that he has never felt a pressure cooker or goldfish bowl like it in his career.
Losing the first two league games of the campaign to Hibs and Dunfermline didn't aid the cause either.
He soon got to grips with the Scottish football landscape and fanatical support that begged him on a daily basis to win the title and not let Rangers eclipse the achievements of the legendary Celtic manager Jock Stein.
Burley said: "That 1997-98 season was unbelievable. I had never felt pressure like it in football, during that first season at Celtic.
"The pressure was amazing. It came from the day that I signed for Celtic. It was like a ton weight on my shoulders because I was coming up to sign for one of the biggest clubs in Europe.
"Paul McStay had just retired and Tommy Burns, Paolo di Canio, Pierre Van Hooijdonk and Jorge Cadete all left the club and Celtic were signing a Scottish guy who they saw as a wing-back because that is where I played for Scotland.
"The Celtic fans were perfectly entitled to ask 'what the hell are we signing?' There weren't 500 people waiting outside to say 'welcome to Celtic', none of that.
"The signing policy was slightly haphazard at the time. Everything always seemed to be done late and cobbled together at the last minute.
"I wasn't fit because the English season started later than the Scottish one back in those days. I remember training on a Thursday and we were playing Parma on the Saturday in a friendly and this is how much pressure I felt: I was sitting there saying 'please don't play me, please don't play me...'
"I'm serious because I knew I wasn't fit and I couldn't get that old adage of first impressions last out of my mind.
"I thought over 40,000 at Celtic Park, unfit new signing, that will be horrendous. I thought it was going to be a nightmare.
"Wim played me and I don't know how I managed it but I actually played really well and that settled me down a bit.
"But the pressure, oh my God, it was relentless and it ratcheted up as the season went on.
"You cannot say that there was no effect on those players regarding pressure as the campaign wore on. It was tangible.
"We lost the first two games of the season as well which didn't help. I always tell people about that season and how the achievement of winning the title was incredible.
"I am not a great historian but I went into Celtic Park on daily basis and I would speak to guys like John Clark who was the kit man at the time and I would see the Lisbon Lions coming to the games on a Saturday and they'd be around after the match.
"There have been some really important seasons and some really important league wins and some big cup wins and special European nights for Celtic but it all just culminated in that one season.
"We needed a manager, a goalkeeper, a centre-back, a midfielder and a striker - we badly needed players.
"When you looked across at Rangers and you saw what they had at their disposal you thought 'bloody hell'. It was frightening.
"Some people, who don't know Scottish football or are a bit blase about it, say winning a league title with Celtic isn't a big deal, so what? Everybody that goes to Celtic wins the league title pretty much or most players do.
"People say that sort of thing and I will reply that they have no idea.
"This wasn't Celtic when Rangers had imploded and they were cantering to league titles. Honestly, people have no idea what that 1997--98 season was like.
"We would go into that park on a daily basis with microphones being rammed in our faces because you had a bad result on a Saturday and were getting questioned on it.
"The Celtic supporters were waiting for you outside in the car park because of the importance of the season.
"I remember once I was wearing a blue tie and the Celtic fans told me to take it off. Grown men were coming up to you almost pleading and begging you to please stop 10-in-a-row. They didn't care about anything else.
"Honestly, it was that level of intensity just going to and from your place of work every day.
"I have never known anything like it in my life. People who are aware of that era do realise but 99 per cent of the people don't know what it was like.
"It's an insult to say that 1997-98 league title was just another Scottish title because it wasn't.
"You can't just say that statement as a matter of fact and use it as a throwaway line. People have no idea what it meant to Celtic that year."
Things soon started falling into place for Celtic though and they captured silverware in glorious style during a one-sided 3-0 Coca-Cola League cup victory over Dundee United in November.
Burley scored the third as Celtic won in a canter at the home of rivals Rangers and the players believed that they can push Govan men all the way for the crown.
Having lost on away goals to Liverpool in the UEFA cup, Burley admitted that Celtic knew they were heading in the right direction under Jansen.
The signing of Champions League winner Paul Lambert and Danish defender Marc Rieper sowed the sees for a dressing room beginning to gel.
Burley concedes that the Celtic side of 1997-98 possessed a dressing room full of big characters - and there was no shortage of fun too.
Burley said: "There was a realisation before the League Cup final against Dundee United that we had a real chance of winning that trophy.
"We were not guaranteed to do anything but we all felt that we could do it.
"Don't forget we had that horrendous start, we picked ourselves up, dusted ourselves down and strung a great run of results together and then Paul Lambert signed.
"We should have beaten Liverpool over two legs in the UEFA Cup. That was a definite case of should've, would've, could've.
"It was a wonderful Steve McManaman goal that put us out after we drew 2-2 at Celtic Park and 0-0 at Anfield and we lose on the away goals rule.
"I have spoken to Macca as he is a colleague of mine at ESPN and he rates that goal as the best of his career. This is a guy who scored a scissors-kick volley in the Champions League for Real Madrid.
"He waltzed past the nicest guy in football, Morten Wieghorst, who should have scythed him down but didn't.
"Macca always asks where I was and I tell him I was towing the caravan with a fridge-freezer on my back!
"But it showed that Celtic was on the right road. Marc Rieper, Henrik Larsson and I all scored in the League Cup final and we won 3-0 easily.
"Thankfully there wasn't VAR back then as I was just the four yards offside when I headed home. It was all over as a contest long before then though.
"Morten was brilliant that day too. The big Dane was a Rolls-Royce, people don't realise how good he was for Celtic. He was under-appreciated.
"His compatriot Marc Rieper was a brilliant character in that dressing room. In one sense it was just luck but in another sense, it was talent, ability, balls and desire.
"When Marc came in he was a bit like myself, he is just a man that cuts to the chase and doesn't indulge in bullshit and gets to the point. I loved that about him. He was superb at that.
"If you throw a dressing room together and they don't get on it's a problem but eventually that dressing room was one of the best I was ever in during all my career as a footballer.
"When I left Chelsea, on the day I went in to collect my boots and all my stuff, I had a tear in my eye because I had been at Stamford Bridge for nearly 10 years and it was a great place to be.
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"I never thought I would walk out of there and find something as good or better - but I did. I couldn't believe it. I just thought 'this is brilliant'. What a dressing room. It was so much fun to be in.
"To give you an example: Matrc Rieper and Alan Stubbs would give Jonathan Gould pelters for not coming for cross balls. You should have heard the abuse they would dish out to him. It was unbelievable.
"If the ball came in the box and Rieper, Stubbs or Tom Boyd headed it out, whilst we were attacking and we could be playing in front of 60,000 or whatever, I could still hear the trio shouting at Gouldy. They'd be calling him all sorts.
"Rieper used to destroy him. You'd hear the shouts of 'Gouldy, you're useless, come off your fucking line...'
"But that season Gould had was sensational. We knew Celtic weren't signing Peter Schmeichel but he was excellent and he helped us win that title. There is no doubt about that.
"He will tell you himself that he won't come for crosses. There was the old joke that if they put the winning lottery ticket on the edge of the six-yard box Gouldy still wouldn't come for it!
"David Hannah got his own back on Rieper though as he once called him out for his lack of passing ability.
"Stubbsy could pass the ball brilliantly but Riper couldn't. David Hannah got his own back on the big guy once after he called him our for a lack of passing ability.
"Rieper was sponsored by Reebok so he wore their boots. David said to him one day in front of all the lads: 'Is that new boots, Marc? What are they, Reebok stand-finders?!'
"The dressing room just collapsed in uproar as the guys would rip each other to bits. It was just so much fun to be at Celtic at that time."
Then came the defining moment of the season when Celtic played Rangers in the New Year derby of 1998.
Lose and Celtic could almost certainly kiss goodbye to their title ambitions as they would have slipped seven points behind in the race for the flag.
If they won then the gap was down to just a solitary point and it was game on in the battle for the championship.
It is most commonly referred to as the Lambert and Burley match as both midfielders were on target in a stunning 2-0 win for the hosts. The marker was laid down.
Burley remembers the joyous scenes inside Celtic Park like it was yesterday.
He also recollects how team-mate Jackie McNamara set up his opening goal with a world-class pass that he reckons even Lionel Messi or Andres Iniesta would have been proud of.
However, it was Lambert who stole the show with a howitzer for the clincher that almost brought the Paradise roof off.
Burley said: "When you talk about the pressure it all pales into insignificance when you consider the New Year game against Rangers in 1998. That was just another level of intensity.
"We could have gone seven points behind and the league could have been done and dusted then as we would have been looking for Rangers to lose three times before the end of the season and we would have to have gone unbeaten for the rest of the campaign.
"We just knew what was at stake... everything really. Half-time came along and it was the same old story as Andy Goram was pulling off saves right, left and centre and it was 0-0.
"We decided to get Enrico Annoni to do a man-marking job on Brian Laudrup which he did really well. We dominated the game.
"I just remember the noise as I still see it on YouTube every now and again and it is incredible. I have never heard an atmosphere or noise like it in my life.
"I'll watch it for Paul Lambert's goal and the atmosphere after that. Not only is it a spectacular goal but it is the realisation that the game is won. It has everything that moment. It is ticking every box.
"The one thing I will say is that when I scored if Messi, Ronaldo, Iniesta had played that pass which Jackie McNamara played they would still be talking about it to this day.
"It is a world-class pass. I spoke to Richard Gough years ago and he said I snuck in behind him but I stepped into Jackie McNamara and he played the outside of the boot reverse pass and it is just amazing technique.
"It was an unbelievable reverse pass and is the vision required to execute that in a game of that magnitude and intensity.
"Andy Gray nailed it in the commentary when he said the goal was all down to McNamara because not only did he see the pass but I don't have to take a touch. I just let the ball run across my body and I have picked my corner as the pace was on the pass. It was the perfect pass.
"We stood up and were counted that day as that's what had to be done."
Burley insists that the calmest man of all was Wim Jansen. It was the Dutchman who played an enormous part in ensuring that Celtic shattered Rangers title dreams.
Burley revealed that four days before the showdown with St Johnstone on the last day of the campaign he had sent the players home as they were too agitated at training after they had blown the chance to win the title 24 hours before by drawing 1-1 with Dunfermline at East End Park.
Burley recalls how Wim Jansen's laid-back management style in the chaos of the season that mattered so much to everybody connected with the club worked to perfection.
However, he concedes that the week-long wait to finally wrap up the championship was torture.
Burley said: "Wim Jansen was the epitome of calmness that season. Before the game, he'd go around the players individually and say a few words.
"I was a box-to-box goalscoring midfielder and he would say to me 'too many runs into the box last week...'
"Then he would walk off. I would be thinking why didn't he say that to me on Monday?
"But what he was doing was planting seeds in every player's head that he had noticed something about their game from the week before that they could improve on.
"He was saying to the players to just pick and choose their moments and do things better.
"The day after we'd blown the chance to win the title at East End Park against Dunfermline when we drew 1-1 the boys came into training. You could have cut the atmosphere with a knife.
"Everybody remembers the name Craig Faulconbridge for that looping header and I can still see the ball going into the net. I will never forget that moment.
"During training, nobody was blaming anybody but the session was abysmal mainly because we had another week of torture to go through.
"The players started kicking lumps out of each other and there were tackles flying everywhere because we were so frustrated. Wim stopped the session.
"Bearing in mind this is four days before the match against St Johnstone that will decide the destiny of 10-in-a-row or not. It was tense.
"Wim said: 'Enough, everybody home, no training today, let's come back tomorrow, focused.'
"He sensed it. The biggest week in 10 years and grown men got sent home from training. He sent us up the road because somebody was going to get halved in two because we were all anxious."
Celtic would win the title and prevent Rangers from achieving the Holy Grail.
Burley admits that team-mate Tosh McKinlay had predicted that it was fated for Celtic to win the league in front of their own supporters.
He would end the season with 15 goals and a trophy haul of the league, League Cup and the Scottish Football Writers Association player of the year award.
Yet it was unlikely striker Harald Brattbakk who became the hero and etched himself into Celtic's history books as he scored the clinching goal against Saints after Henrik Larsson had given the hosts an early lead.
"I remember Tosh McKinlay [after the Dunfermline game] saying that it was meant to be because we were going to win the title at Celtic Park," Burley said. "Tosh was right as we ended up doing that and running about the stadium with the silly hats and t-shirts.
"I wouldn't change it now but that is after the event.
"Can you imagine what would have happened after manoeuvring ourselves into that position and making such a horrendous start and receiving so much criticism and after all those years of hurt for the supporters if we'd thrown it away on the last day?
"I can still see the video footage of the supporters and the camera is panning around the stadium at 1-0 and they are beside themselves. At 1-0, every ball into the box was causing the Celtic supporters to have heart failure.
"Every Celtic supporter there that day was in so much pain just waiting for the final whistle. It was incredible.
"My only regret and it is slight is that the Celtic end stand was not completed behind the goal and it was the temporary one that was in place. If Celtic Park had been like it is now back then the place would have totally erupted."
Burley would never reach the same dizzy heights with Celtic. Wim Jansen sensationally quit hours after the title triumph and Slovakian Dr Jo Venglos took charge of the side for the 1998-99 season.
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Rangers swept all before them by winning the domestic treble under new Dutch boss Dick Advocaat as they recruited a host of his fellow compatriots as players.
Then came the ill-fated reign of John Barnes, who lasted just eight months in the Parkhead hotseat, but Burley had departed the scene in December 1999 after Celtic had accepted a £3million bid from Jim Smith's Derby County.
He was glad to escape Glasgow at a turbulent time for the club on and off the park. However, Burley insists to this day that both Dr Jo Venglos and Barnes were collateral damage in a club that was not functioning and coming spectacularly off the rails at boardroom level.
He reckons that had Celtic backed Jansen in the same way that they did Martin O'Neill when he came in after Barnes was sacked then things may well have been different.
"It was difficult when Dr Jo Venglos came in after Wim Jansen left," he added. "There was a big swathe of players that had gone to the World Cup from different countries and had come back with little rest and only a couple of weeks of pre-season training.
"That was very disruptive for Dr Jo. Celtic didn't really sign anybody either. I think it was folly to think that the same group could replicate the previous season's success.
"Rangers had brought in Dick Advocaat and the Dutch contingent of players and were going in the opposite direction, stagnating and trading on the glory of stopping 10-in-a-row.
"It was no surprise when the cracks appeared a couple of months into the new season under Dr Jo. It is disappointing in a way looking back that we didn't get the opportunity to take that further. That was not Dr Jo or John Barnes' fault.
"Both those managers came into Celtic at a politically difficult time for the club.
"I was kind of happy to leave Celtic when a deal was agreed with Derby in the end. A club doesn't sell you. It's the people that come and go at clubs that move you on.
"People change at football clubs - chief executives, managers, coaches, players - but the one thing that doesn't is the supporters.
"It is not the club that sells you, it is the individuals at that time. People have often asked me if I was bitter about the way it ended with Celtic? I am not.
"I was quite happy to go back to England as I had done my two-and-a-half years at Celtic. It is not a surprise that transfers happen in football.
"Celtic paid £2.5million for me and got £3million from Derby when Ieft so it wasn't all bad."
One thing is for sure you can never dampen Burley's enthusiasm for Celtic. As he says himself, he felt never find a club that could replace Chelsea in his heart.
He did with Celtic. He found a football home. He found a sense of belonging. He created a career memory for life in the process.
Burley said: "Celtic is a great club. I loved the club and I loved my time there.
"I know Celtic have a fancy new training ground at Lennoxtown but I wouldn't change anything as I loved going into Celtic Park every day and walking down to Barrowfield.
"I loved going into Celtic Park and getting changed in the home dressing room and seeing the staff that worked there.
"I think all the players felt the same way. It gave you that great feeling that Celtic Park was your home. It wasn't just somewhere where you visited to play a game.
"We trained there, we had lunch there, we were treated for injuries there and we did everything at Celtic Park.
"We'd go to Barrowfield and club legend Danny McGrain was fetching the balls from our wayward shots at goal.
"Danny McGrain. One of the greatest players this country has ever produced and he is running behind the goals to get stray footballs.
"Danny just loved being around the place and wanted to be a part of it. If you give me the choice between training at Lennoxtown or doing what we did at Celtic Park and Barrowfield, I would still opt for the latter.
"It just gives you a better understanding of the club and the people that work behind the scenes. It was fantastic and it brought everybody closer together.
"I left Chelsea with a hole in my heart in terms of leaving a magnificent club and I stumbled into a really wonderful place and a brilliant dressing room with a fantastic team and I created memories for life.
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"I wish I could bottle that love, spirit and happiness that I felt at Celtic Park back then.
"I remember rugby coach Sir Ian McGeechan rousing and emotional speech before the second test of the British and Irish Lions tour of South Africa in 1997.
"He famously said to the players in 30 years time you'll be walking down the street and there will be no need for any words when you bump into one of your teammates, there will just be a look and you'll know how special some days in your lives are.
"Whenever I meet Celtic players from that title-winning team there is always just a look.
"It is a look to say that, in Celtic's biggest season in years, 'we did it'."
Burley might not be a Lisbon Lion or a British and Irish Lion. However, he played in a Celtic team that roared when it mattered most.
Wherever he goes, as McGeechan famously said, he'll always get that look from Celtic supporters. It is a look of total respect and eternal gratitude for stopping the 10.
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