Daily Record

Connelly: Jinky The Best Ever

27 October 2007

But I could never allow myself to get close to the players who were my boyhood heroes, particularly Jimmy Johnstone.I marvelled at his brilliance and one day when I finally plucked up the courage to talk to him I asked how he managed to keep his feet on the ground.

Jinky's reply was: "Listen son, football is simple. You can either dae it or you cannae dae it". There wasn't an arrogant bone in his body and he was as hard as nails.

He used to get me to go down to the gym with him, grab a medicine ball and tell me to bounce it off his stomach to build up the muscles. I could hardly do it at first in case I was hurting my hero but there was some chance of that.

Was there ever anyone better than wee Jimmy? I doubt it. I'll never forget his funeral because it was the first time I'd never set foot in Celtic Park since the day I stormed off the training pitch and never looked back 30 years earlier.

I could have gone to the official gathering of former players but that wasn't me. I didn't think I could bring myself to be as forward as that, even though we'd played in the same team together.

The most important thing for me was that I didn't duck out of paying my last respects, no matter how often I'd disappeared and let people down in the past. I had to attend the funeral of a man who'd done so much for Celtic.

I put all my doubts about going through to Glasgow and making a fool of myself because of the drink to one side and stood as an anonymous figure among the thousands of Celtic fans outside the ground to see the funeral cortege pass by.

There was no need for a disguise. I just stood there with my black tie on and a tear in my eye.

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