TOMMY BURNS was a man who, despite his obvious affinity for Celtic, won the respect of the whole of Scottish football.
He spent more than 20 years with the Parkhead club over three separate spells, firstly as a player, then as manager, and most recently as a trusted member of Gordon Strachan's coaching staff.
The former Scotland internationalist was a football man
who possessed a deft "human touch", Rangers captain Barry Ferguson once said after benefiting from sage advice from Burns.
It was his personable nature which ensured Burns had admirers and many friends on both sides of the Old Firm, and throughout the Scottish game.
He was first diagnosed with cancer in 2006 and had surgery to remove part of a lymph gland in his groin after being diagnosed with melanoma – skin cancer.
He appeared to have beaten the disease and just a month after the operation Burns said: "Hopefully I'm getting there. This happens to a lot of people, so it's just a question of taking each day as it comes."
However, Celtic announced in March of this year that Burns was again being treated, and he could not win his final battle. In his final weeks he received treatment in both Glasgow and France but ultimately lost his fight for life.
Jackie McNamara senior, who was a former team-mate of Burns at Celtic in the 1970s, said he was deeply saddened by the news of Burns' passing.
The former Hibs captain said: "I knew Tommy when he was 14 or 15 when he started at Celtic. I played with him a lot in the reserves before he broke into the first team. He was a terrific player and a great person. He was a really warm, nice human being. His big loves were his family and Celtic – his extended family."
Rangers assistant manager Ally McCoist knew Burns for 25 years and described him recently as "an absolute gentleman".
"You would never hear anybody in football say a bad word about Tommy Burns," said McCoist. "To have been involved in football for so long, that's quite an accolade."
As a creative midfielder, Burns won eight caps for Scotland, seven of which came from 1981 to 1983. He had joined Celtic as 16-year-old in 1973 and made his first-team debut two years later.
For the next 14 years he was a first-team regular, notching up more than 350 league appearances before reaching the end of his Hoops career.
The switch to Rugby Park was a good one for Burns. Hugely popular with supporters, in 1992 he became the club's player-manager and promotion to the Premier League arrived in his first season.
He was named Celtic boss in 1994 and lasted three years in the Celtic hotseat, but could not depose Rangers as they completed their run of nine consecutive championships. His finest moment came at the end of his first campaign, when Celtic beat Airdrie in the Scottish Cup final.
In the following season, 1995-96, Burns' exciting team lost just one league match but were still pipped to the title by Rangers, and a year later the manager was dismissed by Fergus McCann.
Burns had spells on the coaching staff at Newcastle and as manager of Reading, but did not last long in England and returned to Celtic in 2000, shortly before Martin O'Neill's arrival.
O'Neill put Burns in charge of the Celtic youth set-up, and he helped bring through the likes of Shaun Maloney, Stephen McManus and Aiden McGeady.
The first cancer scare came at a time Burns was combining his Scotland and Celtic duties.
Ferguson, the captain of Rangers and Scotland, was quick to offer his support.
"I've known Tommy for years and I know what a great guy he is," Ferguson said.
Ferguson recalled how Burns, despite being a Celtic man, had been eager to help him out of a worrying trough in form.
"We were in the Scotland camp, and Tommy knew that I hadn't been enjoying the best of seasons," Ferguson said. "Tommy came to me and said, 'You're too good a player not to get through this spell'. You have to appreciate that kind of human touch."
The full article contains 713 words and appears in Edinburgh Evening News newspaper.
