Andy Burnham became the Prime Minister yesterday after Keir Starmer’s resignation. The former Mayor of Greater Manchester ascended to the top office promising change for all. Despite being a well-known Everton supporter, Andy was also brought up as a Celtic fan.
Speaking to FourFourTwo magazine, Burnham admitted that he was in a limited group of people that believed in the Celtic-Everton connection.
FourFourTwo: You were brought up as a proud Everton and Celtic supporter?
AB: I’m a lone campaigner for Everton and Celtic being the true and original partnership. My upbringing was, ‘This is the clubs you support! When I see this cult and love-in with the other lot (Liverpool) and ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’ I struggle with that.
“There’s a photo of Pat Van Den Hauwe with a Celtic ski hat, that was my hat, I gave it to him as he went to collect the cup. I used to have the split Everton and Celtic ski-hat and I had a full Celtic hat as well. For me, it was always Everton and Celtic and links were going back with players like Bobby Collins.
Celtic Park.
Celtic Park.
“John Collins also played for both clubs. There were at least as many Rangers/Liverpool supporters hats as Celtic/Liverpool. I remember going to a friendly at Celtic Park with Everton, that was a great day.”
Everton are rumoured to be interested in signing Celtic defender Alistair Johnston. The Canadian Internationalist will have plenty admirers after an impressive World Cup. Celtic need to rebuff any attempts to take AJ to the Premier League; however, it may be difficult to reject any sizeable offers if the player has ambitions to move on.
Best of luck to Andy in No.10, hopefully he is able to steady the ship and bring about the real change that he has spoken about.
Lubo98
Born just as Celtic were stopping the Ten, Lubo98 follows Celtic home and away and helps run his local Celtic Supporters Club. He goes to all the games and is a Law Graduate. Has a particular fondness for Tom Rogic among the current Celts and both Lubo and Henrik form his earliest Celtic memories.