Andy Walker lived his boyhood dream… twice.
Walker is one of the few footballers who can proudly say that he had two spells at Celtic.
The first time around remains the happiest time of his playing career; the second stint leaves a lot to be desired.
The 57-year-old Sky Sports commentator was plucked from Motherwell in the summer of 1987 by family friend Billy McNeill for £350,000 just as Graeme Souness’s Ibrox revolution and big spending days at Rangers were going into overdrive.
It could all have been so different had Walker not knocked back interest from Jim McLean's Dundee United to hold out for a dream move to the Hoops.
The Tangerines snub angered then Well boss Tommy McLean.
"I had heard of Celtic's interest when Davie Hay was the manager,” Walker told The Celtic Way. “It was one of those things where a board member had spoken to my dad [Frank] as they were doing business together at the time. My dad was Billy McNeill's chartered accountant. Billy told him that Celtic might be coming in for me at the end of the season.
“My father didn't let on until the end of the season because he did not want my performances at Motherwell to be affected by it. I did not tell a single soul. Davie got the sack and big Billy got the job and I thought the move had fallen through.
"I had spoken to big Billy a couple of times when he was on the phone with my dad and he would sometimes ask to speak to me regarding Motherwell. He was a sort of family friend. When he took over at Celtic, he kept that interest alive.
"But Tommy actually made it more difficult for me to sign for Celtic. I got a call one day to go to Fir Park and I thought ‘this is it’. It wasn't.
"When I went to meet Tommy he told me that Dundee United had come in for me. His brother, Jim, was in charge at Tannadice. I was shocked by that turn of events. Tommy kept saying to me that United were a great club and that they had offered Motherwell a good price for my services.
“He advised me to sign for United and said that working with Jim would be good for me at this juncture of my career. I was brazen back then and I asked Tommy a question straight out. I remember distinctly saying to him ‘has any other club expressed an interest?’ The answer at the time was a resounding ‘no’.
"However my dad, being an experienced businessman, told me to go to Tannadice anyway and hear what United had to say. I arrived and spoke to Gordon Wallace and Jim McLean – via telephone as he was in California at the time – and we listened to what they had to say.
“When Tommy phoned me and asked me what happened, I told him I didn't fancy the move as it didn't feel right. He was angry at that. Two days later he asked me back into the club and told me something was happening and that's when I got my dream move to Celtic."
It was happy days indeed for Walker – or so he thought.
McNeill may have been a family friend but he showed no favouritism when he issued Walker with a chilling Celtic ultimatum that he can still remember to this day.
"What a rude awakening I got from Billy when I signed,” he recalls. “He said to me 'Andy, just so we are clear, if you do not perform and do the business for Celtic it is not a problem as we will still be friends… but I will get somebody in who will do it. You are here because I want you to be here and your job is to play well and score goals for Celtic and help the team'.
"Billy made it pretty clear from day one what he expected of me. We were under no illusion as to the task we faced trying to wrestle the title back off Graeme Souness's Rangers."
Walker made his competitive Celtic debut on August 8 at Cappielow Park, Greenock where he scored a brace against Morton in a 4-0 win.
It was Celtic's centenary season and Walker sensed something special was brewing and bubbling away underneath the surface.
With McNeill leading the charge from the dugout – alongside assistant Tommy Craig – Celtic were proving to be more than a match for title-holders Rangers.
A 1-0 win in August in the first Glasgow derby of the season courtesy of a goal from fellow new boy Billy Stark lit the blue touchpaper and sent out a real marker to the men from Govan.
Things got even better for Walker on the field with the arrival of another diehard Celtic fan in Frank McAvennie from West Ham United.
The duo struck up a wonderful partnership on the field and Walker revealed that while McAvennie lived up to his playboy image he was a ferocious competitor on the park and indeed the best striker he ever played alongside.
"When Macca came into the club it was brilliant,” Walker said. “The on-field chemistry we had was excellent. Mark McGhee was also brilliant for me in my first few months, he helped me settle right in.
“But Frank just took it up a notch and I tended to take my lead off him. We were a real partnership. If he went long, I'd go short and if he went left, I'd go right. It was as simple and effective as that. I would do the opposite of what Frank did and it worked really well.
"Frank was really first class. All that rubbish about him missing training and always being late was nonsense. I never missed a day's training and Frank missed one in all my time at Celtic. There is a great myth about him and the playboy lifestyle.. Yeah, he was a bit of a playboy but when he was on the training pitch he gave it his all. He was the best striker I ever played alongside in my whole career.
"Even now I always have a great laugh with Frank whenever I attend Celtic functions. I have never met a man that is prouder than he is at being Celtic's second top goalscorer in the centenary season [Walker was top scorer]. He is so proud of that... actually he really hates when I bring that up!"
That campaign, the centenary team became synonymous with scoring last-minute winners. None more so than in the Scottish Cup semi-final against Hearts, when Celtic trailed 1-0 with one minute left on the clock.
McGhee scrambled an unlikely equaliser and Walker was feeling pleased that the Hoops had forced a replay.
A replay? Not on skipper Roy Aitken's watch, as Walker found out.
"The Scottish Cup semi-final against Hearts summed up that never-say-die attitude and team spirit,” he said. “When Dingus [Mark McGhee] equalised with a minute to go I learned a valuable lesson on never giving up.
“I remember thinking ‘great we have got a replay here’. All of sudden, I heard big Roy Aitken screaming at the players that we could get a winner.”
It was then that Walker stepped up to hammer a winner high into the net in injury time to put Celtic into the Scottish Cup final. They duly won that too, courtesy of a brace from McAvennie and in the winner coming, naturally, in the last minute.
Walker believes that the wonderful backing from the Celtic fans was largely responsible for a lot of what transpired in that miraculous campaign.
"The Celtic supporters that season put a yard in your every stride,” he said. “The backdrop of the centenary season and the backing of the fans chanting Happy Birthday, Celtic every week was just phenomenal.
"[In the semi-final] the fans in the stadium just pulled us forward and I scored the winning goal. It was from a mistake by Henry Smith and I was in the right place at the right time.
“We then won the Scottish Cup final against Dundee United with another last-minute goal by Macca. Some things are written in the stars, fated, scripted… call it what you like. It was somehow meant to be for that Celtic team in their centenary year.
“It was Billy McNeill who nailed it when talking about the centenary season when he said the immortal words There is something of a fairytale about this club. How prophetic was that?"
If 1987-88 was the peak then the following season was definitely the trough. Celtic went into a downward spiral that lasted the best part of a decade.
Rangers would lord it over their city rivals and equal the Hoops’ coveted haul of nine league titles in a row. A single Scottish Cup triumph – sealed 1-0 over Rangers by a Joe Miller strike – in the same year would be the sum total of Celtic's trophy haul until 1995.
He attributes that to the fact that the club believed – wrongly – that striker Mo Johnston was set for a sensational return to the club… until he stunned the football world by signing for Rangers.
"Celtic won the Scottish Cup in 1989 because we thought that Mo was coming back to sign for us,” he said. “We got a big lift from that. I sat beside Mo when we played St Mirren in the last game of the season and I was so excited at the thought of him rejoining the club.
“All he could talk about that day at St Mirren was how he couldn't wait to kick a ball again for Celtic and pull on the Hoops and he was desperate to get started.
"Within a few weeks he had signed for Rangers. It was a genuine 'wow' moment."
Walker would follow McAvennie out the door in 1991 during the disastrous reign of Liam Brady, who forced him to train and play with the under-18s after he turned down moves to Falkirk and Motherwell.
"I still give Frank a row to this day for leaving Celtic,” Walker said. “I do it with my tongue in cheek and for selfish reasons.
"The question I always ask Frank is ‘Why did you go?’ and I still give him a hard time for that to this day.
"It was really lean times for Celtic and their only highlight was winning the Scottish Cup against Rangers in 1989. You can't airbrush that period from history even though you wish you can. That's why it was good for me to get out in 1991 when I did.
“Liam did not fancy me in the slightest and that is absolutely fine. He was warm to me initially but that all changed. There was an offer for me to go to Falkirk and Motherwell but I didn't want to go to either club, I wanted to go down south.
“Liam then made life difficult for me as he would make a substitute for the under-18s on a Monday night at the likes of Stenhousemuir and then put me on in injury time. He acted like an absolute dick – I knew then that it was time to move on."
Walker was then handed the chance of a lifetime when he got a second bite at the Celtic cherry in 1994. He grabbed it with both hands due to a grave family situation involving his father and illness.
The Fergus McCann era was still in its infancy but the Canadian tried to renege on the deal after Lou Macari, who had signed Walker, was sacked and Tommy Burns came in to replace him.
Walker recalls how a cold-hearted McCann refused to acknowledge him after arranging a meeting at Parkhead and keeping him waiting outside his office for two hours. The club he had rejoined appeared to be in a worse state than the one he had left in 1991.
"Unbelievably, I get the chance to come back to Celtic in 1994 during the early stages of the Fergus McCann era,” Walker said. “Bolton boss Bruce Rioch offered me a two-year deal on good money but I wanted a three-year deal.
“I was happy with the offer but my daughter was just starting school and I thought after three years she would be a bit more settled. Bruce said it wouldn't be a problem but I had to go through the process and knock the initial deal back. Celtic then came back in for me and it was a gift.
"I had no intention of leaving Bolton and then Lou phoned and asked me to come back to Celtic. I thought ‘I need to do this’ for my dad and for the sake of my family. I signed and then went on holiday to Spain.
"Lou got sacked and then Fergus questioned the validity of the deal. He was trying to renege on it. I had to go to a tribunal and he was very wary of it all.
“I turned up at Parkhead for a meeting with Fergus and he kept me waiting for two hours. When he finally called me into his office I held out my hand and said ‘Fergus, nice to meet you’ and he replied ‘Who are you?’
“I then said to him ‘I am your new £2million striker! It was all very cold. Bolton wanted that figure and Celtic had offered £200,000. There was a huge discrepancy in the value. Fergus didn't want the signing to go through but I wasn’t signing for Fergus, I was signing for Celtic.
“I had left in 1991 and came back three years later to find them in a stranger place. They were already on a downward spiral as the Brady experiment hadn't worked.
Lou Macari then came in after doing some good things with Stoke City but he had a terrible relationship with Fergus. He signed me and then the next day he was sacked! That was the last straw for Fergus."
After Macari in the hotseat came Walker’s centenary-season team-mates Tommy Burns and Billy Stark. Under Burns, the Hoops would play scintillating and popular football and win the 1995 Scottish Cup – but no more. The pair were dismissed by McCann in 1997, just over a year after Walker himself had departed for Sheffield United.
“Tommy knew what he wanted,” Walker recalls. “He signed some cracking players and got the team playing a wonderful style of football but within a couple of years he was also gone as he mounted a challenge but could not topple Rangers.
“These things take time and Tommy deserved more time but it tells you all you need to know about football management – it is a brutal, cut-throat and unforgiving environment.”
McCann may well have been ‘the man’ during his second tenure at Celtic yet, as cold as he was to Andy Walker, the fact that he turned out for boyhood idols not once but twice still warms the cockles of his heart to this day.
“I would still come back the second time around,” he said. “I find it a privilege to have played alongside the players that I did. Some of them are my favourite Celtic players and I played alongside them.
“Whenever I see them we always have a great chat. We are a band of brothers. It never leaves you.”
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