Tony Fitzpatrick is adamant that Steve Clarke has proven already that he has the mental strength to succeed as Celtic manager.
A life-long supporter of the Glasgow side, Clarke was once pursued to sign for them after impressing during a spell with St Mirren. Fitzpatrick had been captain of the Paisley side when the defender burst on to the scene in 1982 and was well aware of what the move would mean to him.
St Mirren proved unwilling to do a deal with a domestic rival and Clarke was instead left to overcome his disappointment and instead transfer to Chelsea. The Scot moved to London in 1987 for a fee of £422,000 - winning the FA Cup, League Cup and European Cup Winners' Cup during an 11-year spell.
It is that strength of character as much as his coaching credentials which could allow Clarke to succeed as manager of the Scottish champions. The former West Bromwich Albion head coach became the favourite for the role after Roy Keane ruled himself out of contention.
"Stevie is a Celtic fan," said Fitzpatrick. "I remember when Davie Hay was in charge of Celtic, they came in for him but St Mirren - who were challenging for Europe around that time - would not sell to another Scottish club.
"Stevie had been desperate to go to Celtic but it's a mark of the man that he never threw the toys out of the pram. He dealt with it brilliantly and it shows his mental toughness that he was able to put that disappointment behind him and do so well at Stamford Bridge. That's exactly the type of thing you need if you are going to be a successful Celtic manager."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article