Not many can boast their experiences with Billy McNeill the way Danny McGrain can.
McGrain is able to boast five years alongside McNeill as a player. But the legendary Hoops right-back was still at the club when McNeill returned as manager in 1978. Granted, by the time McNeill came back for his second spell at Parkhead in 1987, McGrain was given a free transfer to Hamilton Accies.
But together, both McGrain and McNeill boasted 14 honours during their years together. Cesar, of course, had an astonishing total of 31 medals from his time at Parkhead overall.
Yet Cesar was never a name McGrain fancied using. The Quality Street Gang member told the Herald of the time McNeill first became boss, and how he shot his right-back down when he tried to get informal.
“I remember the first day he came in I was the captain. No one else would take it…Big Billy had been a player at the club recently and when he told us what we were doing I either said to him, ‘OK, big man’ or ‘OK Billy’. I think I said Billy. I never called him Cesar.
“He wanted me to call him ‘boss.’ I would have been quite comfortable calling him Billy. I felt I had earned the right. Not in public, maybe. But he gave me no inkling before then.
“And then he said, ‘I want you to call me boss.’ I then apologised for calling him Billy and he said, ‘that’s alright it was my fault.’ From then on he was ‘boss’. That was it, done and dusted. And we got on fine after that because we kept winning everything.”
An era of success
McGrain isn’t telling a lie when he boasts about his success with McNeill at the helm.
Celtic won the league title in Cesar’s first season in charge back in 1978-79. That would be the first of three league titles, and he also won a Scottish Cup and League Cup during his first stint in Glasgow with McGrain.
McNeill was also able to boast helping bring through young Celtic greats like Paul McStay and Charlie Nicholas. He also signed the likes of Davie Provan for the club, which helped pave the way to more success in the 80s.
Of course, McNeill’s finest hour as the club’s manager had to be the centenary year during his second spell. That was his first season back at Celtic, and he clinched a legendary league and cup double to help celebrate Celtic’s 100th year in existence. The iconic 2-1 win over Dundee United in the cup final that season remains a fan-favourite.
Cesar’s time at the club was simply brimmed with success and trophies, however. He has his stand-out achievements of course. The centenary year, captaining the Lisbon Lions, his first league title as manager in ’79. All of those help to form the legacy he left behind at Celtic.
Without McNeill, there is no modern-day Celtic in its current form. He built the history we’re so proud of to this day.
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