It’s the strange weekend where there’s been no Celtic for a week, and there is no Celtic for another week. This gives us time to draw breath a little, but it also gives way to footballing boredom, especially when you have no real interest in international football unless it’s a major tournament.
We decided with some spare time to look into a match that will live in Celtic infamy.
The final result; Clyde 2-1 Celtic.
A match which will be remembered as Roy Keane’s disastrous debut and just a little bit of the story on the day.
Celtic lined up with their brand new Chinese defender Du Wei, who had been getting rave reviews playing for the reserve league but had seen no first-team football up until this point.
It was a little strange that Du Wei would get his start in front of Adam Virgo who was looking to make waves with Bobo Balde out on international duty.
Virgo famously said he was promised a started by manager Gordon Strachan but on the day of the game, he was put on the bench, much to his dismay.
Gordon Strachan was already pressured into playing Roy Keane; the midfielder was fresh off being sacked by Manchester United, and it was a signing forced upon the manager by major shareholder Dermott Desmond. Roy Keane has made note that Gordon Strachan didn’t want him and it made the Irishman want to sign for Celtic more.
Of course, Keane coming in with Premiership credentials, even in the twilight of his career meant the manager was under pressure to play him. Roy started against Clyde, but this wasn’t the biggest story to come out of the game.
As we mentioned previously, Du Wei came out of nowhere to start his first match for Celtic. The naive supporters will tell you the Celtic manager picks the team; ultimately they should because the team which takes to the field decides the manager’s fate.
However, we already know now Roy Keane wasn’t exactly wanted by the manager, but here he was starting against Clyde.
We also know Adam Virgo was promised a start at centre back but suddenly plans changed.
Speaking back in 2013, Virgo made a claim Gordon Strachan was told to play Du Wei as the Clyde game would be getting shown in China and this would be great for Celtic’s bottom line.
“We played Clyde in the Cup and I was promised again that I would start.” Virgo was clear.
“The manager played a Chinese boy instead as he was told the game would be live on Chinese television, so the club would get more money.”
On that day we would see a display from the Chinese defender that was so bad, his plane ticket back to China was booked before the final whistle.
Du Wei was hooked at halftime with Celtic down 2-0 to Clyde in the Scottish Cup. Goals from Bryson and Malone put Celtic on the brink of a shock cup exit.
Celtic rallied in the second half, but a late goal from Zurawski was not enough to keep the bhoys in the competition.
Virgo played well in the second half and showed why he should have started in the first place.
To think Celtic, even back in 2006, lost out on winning the Scottish Cup because of decisions at boardroom level is pretty frightening.
Celtic have denied Virgo’s candour from back in 2013, but the sequence of events seem to back up the former Celtic flop’s claims.
Roy Keane and Du Wei; two men who were on the pitch who probably shouldn’t have been in the first place.
Keane looked like a player who hadn’t played in months, and Du Wei looked like he’d never seen a ball.
On that day, on that occasion, did Celtic put profit before play? You decide.
Starting XI vs Clyde 2006
Neil Lennon
Shaun Maloney
Stephen Pearson
John Hartson
Paul Telfer
Roy Keane
Shunsuke Nakamura
Artur Boruc
Wei Du
Ross Wallace
Stephen McManus
Subs
Adam Virgo
David Marshall
Paul Lawson
Aiden McGeady
Maciej Zurawski
That sort of thing could never happen now……..or could it?
Or course it has. Did anyone see Celtic Vs Aek Athens at Paradise. Aek bossed Celtic around, then scored their away goal and waited for the Celtic onslaught, that never happened. Same in Athens. The Champions league, Celtic yer having a laugh. If Aek go on to do well or win it (sic) The papers won’t say that was because Celtic were pish and Aek were much better over both legs. The Hoops were shocking, Aek were pish and won. As Celtic thought they would just stroll into the Champions league draw.
Their decision to play Du Wei against Clyde was definately made to increase revenue to be gained from the Chinese TV audience,it was however a calculated decision,which should have held minimal risk.
One look at that talented line up which included Naka,big bad john,Lenny,the holy goalie,wee shaun,Keane and other players more than capable of babysitting Du Wei to victory over Clyde in the cup tie.
I’m sure any Celtic fan would have felt confident of victory that day,but football isn’t played by team sheets or by reputations,just ask the Inter Mlan players that glorious night in Lisbon,when 11 lions shocked the Italians and the world that night.
An excellent post. We could have omitted Du Wei from the line up , played with ten men and still had enough to beat Clyde . It still doesn’t excuse including a player in the side for non footballing reasons , of course.
If that was the case then Stachan should have done a Stein and told them he picks the team! I would hope that BR would do so in similar circumstances with the full backing of the support.