What to do with the Number 7?
Jimmy Johnstone will be remembered on his birthday this Friday night on BBC Alba with a documentary of his life, and it seems like the ideal time to delve into the history of the number 7 shirt at Celtic.
Henrik Larsson celebrated his birthday just five days ago, another legend to don the number 7 jersey. And our greatest ever Celt. as voted by his adoring support, would have been 72 this Friday will have his life long story and battle with Motor Neurone Disease documented at 9:30pm on September 30th, which is also his birthday.
Some were lucky enough to witness and remember Jinky’s greatness, others had a transient moment with him over the years until he passed away and will no doubt hold onto it for life.
But what has happened to the jersey since?
Perhaps if there were to be one jersey that may have been retired over the course of Celtic’s history it may have been 7, or perhaps even Cesar’s no. 5.
Beyond this, great players such as King Kenny Dalglish, whom could easily be ranked alongside Johnstone as one of Scotland’s best ever players, Davie Provan best remembered for his free-kick in the 85 Scottish Cup Final v Dundee United and the late great Johnny Doyle, infamously sent off the night ten-men won the league and who heartbreakingly became the first Celtic player since Prince Johnny Thomson to die whilst still at the club in a playing capacity.
Provan himself went on to later say that he was “one of the people who genuinely would have played for Celtic for nothing”. If only we’d seen more of him. What all of these players had in common was that they were not only great players, but were players who had a great rapport with the support and loved playing for Celtic.
Henrik Larsson, was of course, a scoring phenomenon with a very good and often under-referenced assist record as well, with 27 goals and seven assists in 47 European games for Celtic, showing his world-class pedigree. He also memorably in his post-Celtic days set up both goals to bring a struggling Barcelona team back from the dead in the 2006 Champions League final.
The negative cliché about his career from the English and European media’s standpoint is that he stayed in Scotland “for too long”. But we are Celtic supporters, we know why he stayed. He loved us, and we loved him.
What we have had since Larsson however, is an extremely unhealthy obsession with the shirt. Whilst back in the days of Johnstone and co. the shirt was inextricably linked to the right side of midfield, incoming players in the noughties seemed intent on making a statement of intent with the shirt. It has had some honourable men don it in the interim period such as Scott McDonald or “Skippy” and Maciej Zurawski, the latter being prone to going off the boil and then coming back all guns blazing giving his best display with a quadruple in the 8-1 game against Dunfermline in 2006 at East End Park. Incredibly, even Lennon got one that day.
The jersey’s immediate successor after Larsson was Celtic’s only ever World Cup winner, Juninho, who despite this accolade has generally been agreed to have been a rather sizeable flop. In the same year Henri Camara had wanted the number seven jersey, he was originally refused it and given the number 27. But more importantly, he allegedly claimed he could replace Henrik Larsson. Oh what a fool!
In recent years, players taking the number 7 jersey has been met with almost resignation. Despite the fact that he did not wear the jersey, his fellow Swede John Guidetti claimed that he hoped to emulate Henrik Larsson. He went to have a decent scoring spell for the Hoops, but ultimately his character seems to have been questioned by the Celtic faithful, perhaps too arrogant for his own good.
The arrival of Nadir Ciftci was greeted with a mixture of worry at his disciplinary record and bewilderment, and so far that hasn’t changed much. The highlight of his Celtic career perhaps being named as captain for a friendly against Inter Milan. The once great number and jersey combo has been seen on the field for a grand total of 31 minutes in competitive football this season, and not a single minute of domestic action. A grand fall for a once iconic jersey.
However, are we best to forget about the giants and heroes who donned the famous number 7 of our great football club when a new number seven comes along, or is it a good catalyst, something which can test what our newest addition is made of? I’ll leave that up to you to decide.