FORMER Celtic midfielder Pat Crerand has been delighted to see so many players from the Parkhead club representing Scotland in their Russia 2018 qualifiers this year.
Gordon Strachan has handed starts to no fewer than six of Brendan Rodgers’s charges - Stuart Armstrong, Scott Brown, James Forrest, Craig Gordon, Leigh Griffiths and Kieran Tierney – in the Group F games against Slovenia, Lithuania and Malta and his selection has been justified by three victories.
But Crerand, who won 16 caps for his country between 1961 and 1965, recalled how exactly the opposite was true when he represented the national team and Rangers, who had the likes of Jim Baxter, Ralph Brand, Eric Caldow, Alex Scott, Bobby Shearer and Davie Wilson in their side, had the most representatives.
“In my time the Scotland team had lots of Rangers players in it,” he said. “Back in those days nobody really moved clubs. There wasn’t this great urge to go down to England. Rangers had a great team at that point.
“When they played in Europe all of the Celtic players would go along to Ibrox to watch them. It was difficult even in those days. But we would go and see them play all the same.
“I watched Eintracht Frankfurt knock Rangers out of the European Cup in the semi-final in 1960 (the West Germans won 6-3 on the night and 12-4 on aggregate). They were an unbelievable team. But Real Madrid side were on another level. I was at that famous final at Hampden when they beat Eintracht 7-3.”
However, Crerand recalls how both Celtic and Rangers fans would refuse to attend Scotland matches if players from their city rivals dominated the starting line-up.
“The Scotland support now is just fantastic,” he said. “They have got rid of that Celtic and Rangers syndrome that existed when I was a player. In those days Celtic fans wouldn’t go and watch Scotland if Rangers players were in the side and Rangers fans wouldn’t go if Celtic players got in. Nowadays they don’t have that. It is nice to see.”
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