Striker Tony Cascarino has to rank among the worst signings in Celtic history.

The former Millwall man was signed by the recently appointed Bhoys boss Liam Brady for £1.1 million from Aston Villa in July 1991 (Brady was formerly his agent). At 6' 2" Cascarino was brought to add pressence to the Hoops forward line but his record of 12 goals in 50 games for the Midlanders was far from impressive.

He made his Celtic debut in a 4-3 victory at Dundee United on August 10th but failed to find the net during a goal fest of a game. Indeed the Celtic support had to wait until October 5th before they saw the London-born Republic of Ireland internationl score (who ended up not being Irish at all!). That goal came in a game at Hearts and as part of an amazing sequence of events. In a six minute spell the striker came on as sub, scored and was sent off!

He would score the equaliser in a 1-1 draw at Ibrox on November 2nd which saved him from memory being rated our worst ever buy. However, his time at Parkhead would be mercifully brief with the forward complaining Celtic played too much football for his liking! After 30 appearances and a pathetic total of four goals Cascarino departed Celtic in February 1992 in a great piece of business for the Celts which saw Tom Boyd head the other way.

In his autobiography, he had a chapter on his time at Celtic and was scathing, complaining of the divided nature of football in Glasgow and his frustration. However, on various other occasions he has spoken very well of Celtic, so it hard to know how he really felt, but likely overall a very difficult time. He fell out with Liam Brady (the then manager) before he left, however his career has been one that only a maverick satirical author could write about. His time at Celtic can be best summed up by the following quote by himself:

"If I am honest, I don’t think I realised how big the club was. I joined them from Aston Villa, then a pretty big club in England, and I felt as if my career was taking a step backwards. At the time Celtic wallowed in the shadow of Rangers. We were a poor side, barely making an indent into Rangers’ supremacy in the league. It was, perhaps, the biggest regret of my career that I was unsuccessful there. I was proud to play for them but, on reflection, I should have stayed and endeavoured to develop. But I wasn’t a strong enough personality to be able to cope with the religious bigotry off the field. " (Tony Cascarino, 2003)



Pictures

• Player Pictures

Links

• Tony Cascarino on Celtic Fans - "Celtic Fans are a special breed... " (The Times)