Thomas Burns (16 December 1956 – 15 May 2008) was a Scottish professional football player and manager. He is best known for his long association with Celtic, where he was a player, manager and coach.
Usually a midfielder, Burns played for Celtic from 1975 to 1989 and won six Scottish league championships, five Scottish Cups, and the Scottish League Cup once. He was also a Scotland international, winning eight caps between 1981 and 1988.
He finished playing with Kilmarnock, where he also began his managerial career. He returned to Celtic as manager in 1994, and won the Scottish Cup in 1995 – the first trophy the club had won in six years. After being sacked by Celtic in 1997 he managed Reading from 1998 to 1999. Burns returned to Celtic in 2000, and held positions including assistant manager, head of youth development and first team coach. He was also assistant manager of Scotland from 2002 to 2007.
Burns died of melanoma on 15 May 2008, aged 51.
Early life
Burns was born in the Calton area of Glasgow, where he was brought up with his two sisters. He was educated at St Mary's Roman Catholic School and at St Mungo's Academy.
Playing career
Celtic
Burns grew up supporting Celtic and began playing football with St.Mary's Boys Guild. He went on to play for Eastercraigs Boys Club and then Celtic Boys Club. After receiving offers to go to England to play professionally, he signed for Celtic in 1973, and was then farmed out to Maryhill Juniors in order to gain experience. and by the end of the 1976–77 (which ended with Celtic as champions) had become a regular in the team. His best personal output was in 1983–84 with 13 goals from 55 appearances in all competitions, although Celtic finished as runners-up to Aberdeen in both the League and the Scottish Cup, and lost the League Cup final to Rangers.
Burns was a vital part of the side managed by Billy McNeill which won the league and cup double in 1987–88, the club's centenary season, while the player himself stated that he was merely "a supporter who got lucky".
Celtic
Burns moved to become manager of Celtic (replacing Lou Macari) at the start of the 1994–95 season in acrimonious circumstances, as he was still under contract to Kilmarnock as both player and manager. Kilmarnock refused to release him from his contract and the Scottish Football Association subsequently fined Celtic £100,000 for 'tapping', or speaking to Burns without obtaining his current club's permission. Kilmarnock were also permitted to retain his playing registration, effectively ending his professional career as a player.
At Celtic, his team grew a reputation for playing attractive and attacking football and they won the Scottish Cup in 1995; but Celtic proved unable to break the domination of Old Firm rivals Rangers. Burns signed players like Pierre Van Hooijdonk, Paolo Di Canio and Jorge Cadete, and while the Celtic team lost just one game in the league during the 1995–96 season, they were unable to beat the Rangers team managed by Walter Smith. After losing a Scottish Cup semi-final to Falkirk in 1997, Burns was sacked from Celtic by chairman Fergus McCann
Burns remained in this position until 16 September 1999, when he was dismissed following a poor sequence of results, after Reading's failure to win promotion from Division Two the previous year. He left an impression on some of the club's personnel, including future club captain Graeme Murty and youth coach Brendan Rodgers who later also managed Celtic.
Celtic and Scotland
In 2000, Burns returned to Celtic as assistant manager during Kenny Dalglish's short-lived tenure as manager. That summer, Martin O'Neill took over as the club's manager and brought in his own coaching staff, but retained Burns and placed him in charge of youth development. Upon the arrival of Gordon Strachan as manager in 2005, Burns was appointed first team coach, a role he combined with his youth development post. He is credited with guiding several young players who became internationals, including Shaun Maloney Stephen McManus, Aiden McGeady and John Kennedy and for his input into the design of the club's Lennoxtown training centre which opened in 2007.
On 18 January 2007, Burns announced through the Celtic website that he was severing all ties with the Scottish national team to concentrate on his role at the club. It was reported by The Scotsman newspaper that Burns had found out that he was not a potential candidate for the job of national team coach, which had become available after Walter Smith moved to Rangers.
Personal life
Burns met his wife Rosemary Smith when they were both 17, and they married in 1980. The couple had four children. A devout Roman Catholic, Burns attended Mass and took Communion every morning. Burns said of his faith: "It does not embarrass me to discuss my Faith in public because I'm not doing so to impress anyone or to have people think of me as what would be called a goody-goody. I turn to God at every opportunity because I am not different from anybody else and because I accept that I am sufficiently frail to need His help and guidance more than most."
Illness and death
On 29 March 2006, Celtic confirmed Burns had begun treatment for melanoma skin cancer. On 10 March 2008, Celtic announced that he was facing another skin cancer scare, and would be undergoing further treatment for the disease. On 15 May 2008, Burns died at home. Celtic chief executive Peter Lawwell said "If you define a Celtic man, it would certainly be Tommy Burns. He was a wonderful human being." On 16 May, Rangers manager Walter Smith and McCoist arrived at Celtic Park to lay a wreath in memory of Burns, and then spent half an hour in the stadium, speaking with Celtic officials, then another half-hour outside speaking to fans. Smith and McCoist also served as pallbearers at Burns's funeral.
Stadium memorial
In 2010, a bronze relief memorial plaque for Burns was unveiled at the main stand of Celtic Park, depicting his trademark 'clasped hands' goal celebration as a player, lifting the Scottish Cup as manager and working as a youth coach, also referencing his local church.
Tommy Burns supper
The Heriot Watt and Edinburgh University Celtic Supporters Club (HWEUCSC), holds an annual charity dinner, the 'Tommy Burns Supper', a parody of the traditional (Robert) Burns supper. The event was first held in 1987 and, becoming increasingly popular, was attended regularly by Burns as well as celebrities from sports and entertainment. HWEUCSC retired the Supper after Burns died, but it was revived in 2017 and held at Celtic Park, in collaboration with the club. It has since become an annual fixture once again, returning to its original home in Teviot Row House.
Career statistics
Club
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center"
|+ Appearances and goals by club, season and competition
|-
!rowspan="2"|Club
!rowspan="2"|Division
!rowspan="2"|Season
!colspan="2"|League
!colspan="2"|Cup
!colspan="2"|League Cup
!colspan="2"|Other
|Scottish Division One
|1974–75
|1||0||0||0|||0||0||0||0||1||0
|-
|rowspan="15"|Scottish Premier Division
|1975–76
|5||0||0||0|||0||0||0||0||5||0
|-
|1976–77
|19||1||3||0||6||0||1
|Scottish Second Division
|1989–90
|22||3||2||0||0||0||0||0||24||3
|-
|rowspan="3"|Scottish First Division
|1990–91
|37||8||2||1||2||0||4
Managerial
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center"
|-
!rowspan=2! width=80|Team
!rowspan=2! width=50|Nat
!rowspan=2! width=120|From
!rowspan=2! width=120|To
!colspan=5|Record
|-
!width=40|G
!width=40|W
!width=40|D
!width=40|L
!width=50|Win %
|-
|align=left| Kilmarnock
|
|align=left|July 1994
|align=left|May 1997
|-
|align=left| Scotland B
|
|align=left|October 1995
|align=left|April 1998
|-
|align=left| Reading
|
|align=left|March 1998
|align=left|September 1999
|-
!colspan=4|Total
|}
;Notes
Honours
Player
Celtic
- Scottish Premier Division (6): 1976–77, 1978–79, 1980–81, 1981–82, 1985–86, 1987–88
- Scottish Cup (5):1976–77, 1979–80, 1984–85, 1987–88, 1988–89
- Scottish League Cup: 1982–83
Kilmarnock
- Scottish Second Division: Runners-up (promoted) 1989–90
- Scottish First Division: Runners-up (promoted) 1992–93
Manager
Kilmarnock
- Scottish First Division: Runners-up (promoted) 1992–93
- Ayrshire Cup: 1993–94
Celtic
- Scottish Cup: 1994–95
- Scottish Premier Division: Runners-up 1995–96, 1996–97
- Scottish League Cup: Runners-up 1994–95
Assistant manager
Celtic
- Scottish Premier League: 2005–06, 2006–07, 2007–08
- Scottish Cup: 2006–07
- Scottish League Cup: 2005–06
Individual
- Kilmarnock Hall of Fame
See also
- List of footballers in Scotland by number of league appearances (500+)
References
External links
- Scotland career profile at www.londonhearts.com
- Final tribute to be held for Celtic legend Tommy Burns
- Tommy's life had a triumvirate of values
- The Celtic Wiki - Tommy Burns