THEY didn't have Twitter in Tom Boyd's day but players could still throw a tantrum when things didn't go their way.
Back to the almost sepia-tinted era of the early 1990s when footballers in a bad mood spoke to the actual media rather going on social media, even this most consummate of professionals stepped out of line, as Anthony Stokes did on Sunday.
To be fair to Boyd, this was during the brief time Lou Macari was manager and Celtic were in a right old a mess. Quite a few people at that time found it tricky to control their temper.
It happens, although back then Boyd was a regular in the team, a Scotland international and Celtic vice-captain. Stokes, on the other hand, looks surplus to requirements and while you would expect the former captain, club legend and someone not know for getting in trouble to come down hard on the Irishman, he actually believes the striker should be given another chance.
"I don’t see any reason why Stokes would go," said Boyd. "He’s been a great player for Celtic. He was obviously frustrated at the weekend for getting stick for just going up there and taking his wages and that certainly isn’t the case.
"He’s a very committed player for this football club and he’s apologised for what he’s done. It will be dealt with. It just shows that he has a passion for the football club. You are paid as a football player. You want to have an impact.
"I was the same towards the end of my career. I sat here and wanted to play football but obviously the manager thought I was rank rotten so he wouldn’t put me on the park. That’s unlike Anthony who’s decent and is going to be available.
"He’s doing the right things. I think he says he’s doing extra training sessions. That’s all you can do.
"The perfect example of that – for so many players like Callum McGregor who’s come in recently – is Leigh Griffiths in terms of the length of time he had to wait for a start.
"Look at him now in terms of the goal-scoring form he’s in and the work-rate he’s shown.
"There will be opportunities. People are frustrated that they are going to places - whether it’s Inverness or any other – because they want to play.
"Everybody wants to play football but obviously the manager picks what he thinks is his strongest team on the day."
So what did Boyd do to annoy Macari who came into the club in the 1993/94 season and didn't last long once Fergus McCann took charge?
"I felt tactically the manager wasn’t playing the way we could have done," Boyd explained. "I was wrong in doing that and realised it fairly quickly. I just knew when I said it that I was going down an avenue that I shouldn’t have gone down and that stopped.
"It was a game at Motherwell and at the time I was an attacking full back.I could see where he was coming from in terms of the situation we were in.
“We weren’t really that good and he wanted to shore things up as he was more of a defensive manager.
“It went against my natural instincts of the way I played at that time. He was OK with it when we spoke but I knew within myself if was the wrong thing to do."
Tom Boyd helped launch the Clover and Dove Ball an event organised jointly between Celtic FC Foundation and St Andrew’s Hospice. It will be held on Saturday, February 13, 2016 at the Glasgow City Hotel
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