COMPARING players and teams from different eras is always an imprecise science but good fun nevertheless, an ongoing game of Top Trumps where there are no right answers but merely endless material for debate. Kelvin Wilson played in a Celtic team that beat Barcelona on their way to the last 16 of the Champions League.
So was that a greater achievement than the current side who are looking to win a treble and also go the whole domestic campaign undefeated? The defender smiles then puffs out his cheeks as if he had just been asked to select his favourite chocolate bar. Naturally, after some contemplation, he plumped for his own era.
“I would probably take what we did,” he said. “I’m happy with that. I don’t regret anything. It’s amazing what the guys are doing now but I’m proud of what we achieved in the team when I was here.
Read more: Kieran Tierney keeping his feet firmly on the floor
“The night we beat Barca was amazing. I was given a DVD recently and during the game the camera went onto them as they came onto the pitch and lining up, you could see Cesc Fabregas talking and looking around. So if players like that, who have that sort of arena every week and play in World Cups, so for them to be impressed by Celtic Park was amazing.
“This one is a good side but we were a good side as well. I’m not in that Celtic changing room now but we had a good togetherness. We all got on off the pitch as well. That seems to be the same in this team as well. And they are performing really well on it.
“People say that the league is weaker now but to go that many games unbeaten is impressive, whether it is weak or strong.
“You don’t always get credit outside of Scotland. Even when I speak to team mates down south they say ‘you should be winning every week because it’s Celtic’.
“But that’s not the case. It’s much harder than people in England think and you have to have that mindset that will let you win every week. Especially when you play against a lot of the lower clubs, because it is their cup final. When I was at Celtic, I sometimes realised that winning 2-1 or 3-1 was not enough. For a lot of the fans, and the players, you had to win convincingly and sometimes that’s tough to do.”
Read more: Kieran Tierney keeping his feet firmly on the floor
It was doing well in Europe that catapulted Neil Lennon, Wilson’s manager during his two and a half years at Celtic, into the wider limelight to get the recognition he deserved. Wilson thinks Brendan Rodgers may have to do likewise, although a promising first Champions League campaign did deliver two draws with Manchester City, and a point away to Borussia Moenchengladbach.
“I think people outside of Scotland will say, ‘what can they do at European level?’ added the defender. “And because they have a manager that wants to progress they will try to do that. He’s managed at a massive club like Liverpool in the Champions League, and knows that sort of level what’s required. I think his Celtic team have more than enough to progress.”
Celtic have just two league matches left this season and Wilson hopes his former team-mate and good friend Kris Commons will get the chance of a farewell before he departs the club after six years in the summer.
“It would be nice for him. He’s been at Celtic long enough. And he loves Celtic as well. It would be nice for him to get a nice send off in front of the fans. It’s not that he would weaken the team, but if Celtic have a momentum going with the players they are using, I can understand that for Brendan Rodgers. But it would be nice for Kris to get one last game at least.
“He was like the pin up boy, him and Gary Hooper, when I played. Kris was the main man but time stands still for no-one. I would not say Celtic have bettered the team, but obviously Kris has got older and young lads have come in and made their point.”
- Kelvin Wilson was speaking at a William Hill media event. William Hill is the proud sponsor of the Scottish Cup.
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