Billy McNeill | Tributes From The Former Players’ Association

By Sean Graham

When Billy McNeill joined Aberdeen from Clyde, no one could have guessed the impact that he would have left on the football club and the players in his one season at Pittodrie. Both Ally MacLeod and Billy laid the foundations for Sir Alex to guide to club to future success.

The purchases of Gordon Strachan and Steve Archibald as well as the promotion of youth, in players such as Alex McLeish, Neil Simpson and John McMaster along with seasoned pros like Joe Harper, made his Aberdeen team one of the most attractive sides to watch in the country and they only missed out on the title by two points to eventual winners Rangers and lost the Scottish Cup final to the same opponents.

The call then came from Celtic to manage the club, an offer too good to refuse for the leader of the Lisbon Lions, and Billy took his Celtic side to the title the following season. Cesar had two spells at Celtic as manager and one as a player and enjoyed amazing success on and off the field – in the club’s Centenary season in 1988, he lead the club to the League and Cup double, in a fantastic season for the club.

Billy had spells at Blantyre Vics when he started his playing career, managed Manchester City, Aston Villa and acted as a mentor for Jim Duffy at Hibs, as well as playing 29 times for his country.

He was the greatest ever Celt, captain supreme, a leader, an icon, a legend and a fantastic ambassador for the club. But above all, a real gentleman. In later years, he battled with dementia, a battle he recently lost.

It is perhaps fitting today, only a day after the funeral, that two of his former clubs meet at Pittodrie to remember a great man, a gentleman and an icon of the game.

Some of Billy’s former players and friends have paid tribute to him and send Liz and the family their love and best wishes.

Billy McNeill, gone but your memories with live on forever.

BOBBY CLARK

We only had Billy for a year as manager at Aberdeen between Ally MacLeod and Sir Alex. I was very happy when I heard he was coming to manage Aberdeen, although I was also a Clyde supporter and I was disappointing to see him leave my club! It was an exciting appointment for Aberdeen.

It was a great year and we came very close to winning the double. We lost the league to Rangers by a couple of points and then we lost to them 2-1 in the Scottish Cup final. We ended up with nothing but was so close to being a very good season.

There is always disappointment when you lose a manager you really like. He had done well but he chose to go to Celtic and both Billy and the club moved on. He did a very good job in his year at Aberdeen and then Sir Alex took it on from there and to a new level and Aberdeen never looked back.

I also have Billy to thank for kicking off my coaching career. He started the youth set-up and brought the likes of Neil Simpson, Neale Cooper. John Hewitt, Eric Black and Bryan Gunn to the club, and Lenny Taylor and I both helped with that. That was my first coaching job and was to open doors for me after I had stopped playing.

He truly was a Cesar of the Scottish game. I played with him on a number of occasions for the national team and he was a brilliant defender who was brilliant in the air. He was a good leader, a top player and, as a goalkeeper, he made my job easy. He was also a gentleman off the park and somebody that everybody looked up to.

MARTIN BUCHAN

Billy McNeill was one of the finest headers of the ball I ever saw. He was absolutely majestic in the air.

Every time I see the photograph of us shaking hands before the 1970 Scottish Cup final, I’m reminded of a Teachers v Pupils game, I look so small up against him!

I actually played alongside him for Scotland, against Wales at Hampden in May 1972. A decade later, he did me the great honour of asking me to play for him in 1983 when he was manager of Manchester City and my contract at United was up but it was not to be. City fans wrongly believed I had injured Colin Bell in a derby match and would not have been keen to see me wearing the light blue! But I’ve never forgotten that someone I admired so much as a player and a true sportsman actually wanted to sign me.

They don’t make ‘em like Billy McNeill any more.

JOHN McMASTER

Billy was different class! He came to Aberdeen at the right time in my life and my family’s life and helped my career.

When he came to Aberdeen, I heard that John Clark said to him, “That boy McMaster is a decent player, have a look at him”. John Clark had come to Aberdeen with big Billy and they were watching reserve games and the like. Very clever people, they looked at the players coming through the youths and reserves at the time, a bit like Fergie did later, very similar.

Billy had a winning mentality and he built a good team, we just fell short at the last hurdle with Rangers being magnificent that season – but we hardly lost a game. He played me on a regular basis and put his arm around me and I responded by putting in performances. I had the tools but I’d never had someone like that who believed in me. Billy McNeill played a big part in my career and it took off in his time at Aberdeen.

Both Billy and John had learned from the master in Jock Stein, two Lisbon Lions coached me at Aberdeen, how many people can say that? I only had Billy and John for a year but they made a huge impression on my life. It makes a big difference when someone believes in you.

Billy brought a team of all stars to Pittodrie for my testimonial at a time when the English clubs were banned – Billy got round the ban by saying, “It’s an all-star select, not an English side!” That was the kind of man he was!

I have a lot to thank him for, he was such a great guy and will be sadly missed.

WILLIE GARNER

I played quite a bit under Ally, but it was when Billy arrived that I felt I kicked on, mainly because he had an interest in how I played centre-half, and worked with me on all aspects of that position.

We almost had a fantastic season under Billy and we should have won the double, and that was down to Billy’s training, confidence, coaching and man management. When he came into a room, even if you weren’t looking in the direction of the door, you knew he was in the room, with that big chest sticking out.

He fell out with me, he encouraged me, he blasted me and he put his arm around my shoulder. A great man. He saw enough in me to take me to Celtic with him, and although that chapter of my career didn’t go to plan, I was so grateful that he gave me a chance, when I wasn’t involved at Pittodrie.

ALEX McLEISH

Big Billy gave me my debut 19 days short of my 19th birthday on January 2nd 1978. I was called into the festive squad for experience but a couple of first team players were ruled out. We trained on New Year’s Day and Billy was waiting in the foyer. I said, “Happy new year Boss” to which he replied, “Happy new year yourself Big Man, you’re playing tomorrow!”

We won 1-0 with a goal from Ian Fleming in front of a 20 odd thousand crowd at Pittodrie against big rivals, Dundee United. I made a solid debut alongside great players. He reinstated the experienced players for the next game and I was back to the reserves but his man management was brilliant as he explained he wanted to blood me in a controlled way. Looking back, it was great planning.

He constantly gave me little streetwise tips, a few ideas about attacking the ball aerially, as he was a master of that! Tackling and distribution skills were on the agenda.

Billy had a great season with the Dons, giving the club a shot in the arm in motivation and ambition.

I’m very privileged to have worked and learned under Billy McNeill, to get to know his fantastic family and also to have been not only a player under him, but a personal friend.

JOE HARPER

Billy brought professionalism to Scottish football, a real professional who loved the game but appreciated his opponents. He would hit you hard, but he would hit you fairly!

I have always said there are only three gentlemen that I have met in football. Craig Brown is one of them. Then you have Bobby Clark. Billy is the other one.
Any time I had any battles with Billy on the pitch, he was always an utter professional. He did not give you a lot of stick or try and go over the top of the ball. He tackled you in a fair way.

If you won the game, afterwards he would always come and shake your hand and say well done. He was a winner, hated losing, and would sometimes be angry, but he would always shake your hand. There are other players who I could mention, who would want to start a fight instead!

His nickname Caesar was apt because I must admit as a younger player standing next to him, I used to be frightened of Billy. He always had that imposing look about him, he had that big barrel chest that he used to stick out. But I got to know him and the family very well, and you soon realised what a lovely man he was.

As a player he was very, very good. You don’t get as many Scotland caps or get to captain Celtic for years and years and win European Cups unless you can play a bit!

I was lucky to have been brought up in the same period as him and to play against him because you want to compete and test yourself against the best. That is why winning the Scottish Cup in 1970 was so special, because Celtic had won the European Cup three years earlier and reached the final again in 1970, a few weeks after our victory. In 1972 and 1974, they reached the semi-final stage of the competition. They were one of the top sides in Europe and around that time we beat them in the Scottish Cup, we won the Drybrough Cup final against them at Pittodrie and we won a few league games against them. All those victories are very satisfying, even all these years later.

One of my most memorable games against Billy was in the 1974 League Cup final against Hibs. Although we lost 6-3, I did my job that day and scored a hat-trick. As we walked off the field, Billy came over to commiserate with me. Little did he know I would be remembered for what happened in that final and Dixie Dean’s hat-trick is hardly mentioned!

I was very friendly with Billy and many a time we would have a drink after a game. Then when he came here as manager, everyone took to him very quickly. His coaching, along with John Clark, was magnificent. Everything was done with the ball and they were always talking and encouraging. Before a game, they would always come up and whisper in your ear. It made you feel important. Everyone thought that they were the best player in the team because they had done this to you!

They were both such good professionals. They had a lot of fun but if you stepped out of line or were out of order you were hammered, although in a nice way. It was a very happy club, a very happy time.

I know he always regretted leaving Aberdeen. He lived in Stonehaven when he stayed up here and he loved it. The family also really liked living up here and stayed for a while after he went back down.

He loved the people of Aberdeen, he loved the football club, but he felt he could not turn down the Celtic job. It was his club. The pull to get him down there was just too much. If he had said no, he might never have been offered the job again, so he had to go there and try and prove himself.

It’s a shame because I’m sure we would have won leagues and cups and even done well in Europe with Billy in charge because he – and Ally MacLeod before him – were doing all these wonderful things and bringing through young players like Neale Cooper, Neil Simpson, John Hewitt, Eric Black and all these guys. I am sure he would have taken Aberdeen forward.

He also made some key signings. Stevie Archibald and Gordon Strachan, you can’t bring two better players to a club like Aberdeen when you look at what both players went on to do. I still speak to Stevie quite often, he is thought of as a god at Barcelona.

And Gordon was such an important figure for Aberdeen when they had the success they did. Everything went through Gordon in the middle of the park and he orchestrated everything, right, left, down the middle. He scored some good goals as well. Those are two players he had seen at a young age but he recognised that they were good players and would fit into the Aberdeen team very well.

WILLIE MILLER

My memories are of working under him as a player. Billy had an aura about him and instantly commanded respect. That wasn’t just down to his playing career. It was how he handled himself, how he spoke and communicated as well as the knowledge he had of the game.
That year he was here was a very progressive one for me and the club. We didn’t win anything but we got very close finishing second to Rangers in the league and in the Scottish Cup final.
We only had Billy for just under a year but he left a legacy at the club and brought some top players that went on to have great Aberdeen careers and, on top of that, he helped develop some of our youngsters as well.
There was a bit of disappointment when Billy left. If we are being honest, we all knew Billy would only be at Aberdeen until the Celtic job came up. We didn’t think he would be there long-term but it still happened a bit sooner than we hoped.

GORDON STRACHAN

I got to know him really well over our short time together at Aberdeen as when I first got there, we stayed in the same guest house. We all were in the same circles with the same mutual friends. We always stuck together.

He signed me a couple of days after we got beat 6-1 – Dundee versus Queen of the South. Billy decided to take a chance on me and took me to Aberdeen. When I first joined, I was absolutely useless and felt like I was letting him down. I was seriously useless. I was one of those guys who got booed whenever his number came up! Billy was very strong in the way he supported me.

Here’s the thing about Billy. He left Aberdeen for Celtic and the first time we played against them at home, we beat them 4-1. But guess who then turned up at my door at six o’clock that night? It was Billy and his wife Liz with a gift for my son Gavin who had just been born. That sticks in my memory more than anything else. Here was a guy who’d just been beaten 4-1, turning up at my house to deliver a present.

When you consider I hadn’t played well for him it just tells you about the kind of guy you’re talking about here, the kind of family you’re talking about.

NEIL SIMPSON

I joined in December 1977 and Billy was the manager then. Although I wasn’t involved with the reserves as such as I was one of the ground staff boys, he was always saying, “How are you getting on?”

I remember we played a game at Longside and I managed to score two goals that day and he said, “I heard you played well yesterday.” It was just those wee things that made you feel special with him being the manager of the club at the time.

It wasn’t until he left for Celtic that I was maybe playing for the reserves and then every time I met him when we were playing Celtic he would say “All the best, big Neily.” Even when I was finished playing and he had stopped management, every time I bumped into him he always asked how you were doing and how your family was.

He was a really special guy and I had a lot of time for him. You speak about presence; he was a big unit of a guy who could really hold a room. Alex Ferguson could hold a room and Jock Stein’s another one and Billy McNeill comes into that category. A great man and he’ll be missed.

That season he was here, we were part of the staff who would go down to games. They got to the semi-final and then the final against Rangers. I remember them beating Rangers at Pittodrie 4-0 the first week I was at the club. There was a real special buzz here.

At that time, the reserves and the first team were virtually training in the same area. There were a lot of times where you were all mixed in and he’d get involved. He loved his time in Aberdeen and enjoyed staying in Stonehaven. He loved the environment up here.

I know people who have said he wished he’d stayed at Aberdeen just a few more years. What might have happened? He signed Steve Archibald and Gordon Strachan, so he had a good eye for a player.

BILLY STARK

I had made my mind up I was leaving Aberdeen and I had told manager Ian Porterfield. I had spoken to a few clubs and then big Billy got the Celtic job and wanted me, so it was a no brainer. I was his first signing and it worked out well for me.

Billy had to recruit as Celtic had just lost Brian McClair, Alan McInally, Mo Johnston, Murdo MacLeod, the heart of the team, so to replace them and win the League and Cup double, he was only the manager that could have done that.
He recruited well, signing Andy Walker, Chris Morris, Joe Miller and Frank McAvennie as well as myself.

Mick McCarthy had already been signed by Davie Hay before he was sacked and Mark McGhee was reborn after being in and out the previous year and when you add those to big Roy, Tommy, Paul McStay and big Packie, we had a nucleus of a good side. It was all about us gelling.

Souness was spending millions at Rangers and they had won the league the year before and then again in the years after we won it, but you have to remember that Aberdeen had a strong team too with the players that they had, never mind Rangers bringing in all these formidable players from England. So to finish above them and a top Aberdeen side that was some achievement.

The Old Firm games are always crucial and we managed to win three and draw one that season and we managed the same level of consistency against Aberdeen, Dundee United and Hearts, as they were all strong teams.

Billy was a big personality who was always bubbly and always looked as if he was right up on top of the world, even when he had a set-back. He gave his players great confidence and had faith in his players. He was a man with personality and charisma and who commanded the respect of his players when he walked into any room, you knew he was a winner from all that he had achieved at Celtic previously.

I think that people forget that as a manager, Billy, who was Mr Celtic, served his apprenticeship with Clyde before then moving to Aberdeen to do a great job at Pittodrie before moving to Celtic. He wouldn’t have left the Dons for any other club, it was just timing. You can’t pick and choose when to manage a club like Celtic, especially with him having so much success there before.

It is really sad that a man of that stature had to go through what he did in his final years. It’s just a sad, sad loss.

SIR ALEX FERGUSON

I, like everyone in Scotland, was deeply saddened to hear of the passing of Billy McNeill.

He was a giant in Scottish football, a man with an incredible presence and I’ll always cherish the fact that we entered professional football at the same time. We played against each other on many occasions and, as anyone who played against him will testify, he was the fairest of players.

He was also a truly good man and will be a loss to everyone who knew him. Farewell Cesar.