Tommy Burns - 1956 - 2008

Scottish football lost one of its most loyal servants with the passing of Tommy Burns on Thursday morning (May 14).

The former Celtic and Scotland midfielder lost his battle with cancer at the age of 51, that after seemingly beating the disease following treatment in 2006. Burns was capped eight times by Scotland, but it is for his role in the engine room of a successful Celtic side that his playing days will be best remembered.

Burns played over 350 times for Celtic between 1975 and 1989, having joined the club as a 16-year-old in 1973. He bid an emotional farewell to the club as a player when he joined Kilmarnock, where he would later enjoy a spell as manager before going on to take charge at Reading and fulfil a coaching role at Newcastle United. He was also a key member of the Scotland national team’s coaching set-up under the stewardship of both Berti Vogts and Walter Smith.

Yet again it was with Celtic that Burns enjoyed his most memorable spell in management. Moving from Kilmarnock in 1994 (where he had guided the club to promotion to the SPL) Burns won the Scottish Cup in his first season in the Parkhead hot-seat, but was unfortunate enough to have joined the club at a time when Rangers dominated the Scottish league scene. Even the 1995-96 efforts of his Celtic side, in which they lost just one Scottish Premier League game, could not oust their Glaswegian rivals as champions as the Ibrox club marched on towards matching’s Celtic’s own record of nine title wins in a row.

Burns was replaced by Wim Jansen in 1997 after three years in charge of the Hoops, but returned to the club in 2000 where Martin O’Neill appointed him as his youth team coach. Current Celtic stars like Stephen McManus and Aiden McGeady owe much to the development and coaching skills of Burns, as does Aston Villa’s Shaun Maloney who also blossomed under the tutelage of Burns. The talented coach combined his domestic duties with those within the national team set-up, but effectively gave up his international coaching career when he was overlooked for the top job when Smith left the SFA to rejoin Rangers.

As a player Burns’ eight cap total may appear relatively meagre but it must be remembered that he played in an era when the Scotland squad was blessed with some of the finest football talent on the planet. With Graeme Souness an almost immovable driving force in central midfield and men like John Wark, Archie Gemmill and Paul McStay to call on it was always going to be difficult to hold down a regular slot during that period. Yet his talents as a player where considerable, and he helped Celtic to six league titles, three Scottish Cups and a League Cup triumph. He contributed 52 goals from his midfield enforcer’s role, and is rightly revered as a legend by the Parkhead following.

Burns is survived by his wife of 28 years Rosemary, and four children.

By Stephen Orford

15 May 2008