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Lou Macari Faces His Son's Suicide; Celtic Park
Topic Started: Oct 19 2008, 01:21 AM (3,110 Views)
Homer
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Lou Macari faces his son's suicide

EVERY time Lou Macari returns to Celtic Park he goes over old ground in his mind. It was the club he always wanted to manage, but never really got the chance to, even when given the position. It used to be his biggest regret.

Wednesday, April 28, 1999. Macari’s 19-year-old son, Jonathan, was found hanging from a tree in the Trentham area of Stoke-on-Trent. Jonathan had signed for Nottingham Forest in his youth, but was released by the club at his own choosing. His decision to take his own life followed less than a year later. Before he was even told the news, Macari sensed what it would be when the police contacted him. His best hope was this his son had been arrested for “knocking someone on the jaw”, but instead it was his worst fears that were realised.

“From that moment to almost a month later, everything more or less went blank,” says Macari, now. “I went home to where my wife and two other sons had gathered. I can remember us all being sat there looking at each other for hours. There’s nothing to say. It’s numbing. You ask yourself what could you have done? Where could you have been? Why didn’t you do something?

When it came to his recently released autobiography, the loss of his youngest son was always going to be central to the story. The telling of it is dominated by how much Macari blames himself. “I looked after some terrific kids at the clubs I’ve been at and if they were unhappy I’d always find out why. When I lost my own lad it occurred to me that I hadn’t done the same with him,” says Macari. “I didn’t sit down and guide him in the way I should have done. I made a big mistake both in not being there for him and not being tough enough on him.”

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When his family read the first draft of his book, where Macari attempts to answer the mystery of why it happened, they questioned his conclusions. “They didn’t like me saying my son got too much money, but I maintain he did. He got £5,000 just for signing a contract at Forest and a loyalty bonus of £7,500 after 12 months. Money in a young man’s pocket is a recipe for disaster and we had that disaster. Only when you go through something like that do you understand the hell of it.” When Macari looks at football now, it is from this painful perspective. For all the game has given him, it contributed to taking Jonathan away.

Macari, above right, was taken on by Celtic at 18 under Jock Stein’s charge and made his debut three years later in August, 1970. In January 1973, having refused a contract offer, Stein told Macari he was getting in a car and heading south. He only knew it was Liverpool once he got there. The next day he signed for Manchester United. First he had rejected Stein, then Bill Shankly. He should have got a medal for bravery.

Even when he left them, though, Celtic still felt like his club. In October 1993, he was never going to turn down the offer to go back as manager. Even though he knew he should have. He had managed Swindon, West Ham, Birmingham and was doing well enough at Stoke to have been offered a new five-year contract.

“Every time I go back to Celtic, and the last time was the Aalborg Champions League game, I get a sense of what might have been. When you see 60,000 people there it hits you how different it was to when I was there. We had barely 15,000 at games. I knew there was very little opportunity to do anything, but you go because you won’t get another chance. It’s the one job that I took for the wrong reasons.”

And that was before he even met Fergus McCann. Macari’s contention is that McCann wanted him out as soon as his consortium formally assumed control. It culminated with his sacking in mid-June 1994, apparently for going to the World Cup without permission. Macari recalls taking his seat at a match next to Walter Smith, then in his first stint as Rangers manager, and informing him of the news. Smith’s initial reaction was to ask if it was a joke. Macari would still describe it as one. He later went to court in Edinburgh for £400,000 compensation and lost more than half that amount. The football argument was with Macari, but he lost the legal one. Even now, however, he is still trying to make his case.

“He hurt me,” he says. “Celtic was the biggest job of all for me, but it never got off the ground. It was a job I was never even given an opportunity to get near succeeding at. The conversations I had with Fergus McCann drove me crazy. The lack of support was quite incredible. It was grief all the way. I know Fergus tries to paint a completely different picture, but I worked my socks off at Celtic. I’m sure after I left he did grasp that the way he treated me was outrageous. If I could see him again, I’d leave him in no doubt that I was disgusted by him. I’d have called him a liar to his face. I wasn’t his man because the old board picked me and he wasn’t having that. He’d got rid of the old board’s lawyers and accountants. I was the last man standing. I wasn’t going to stand there screaming in public about how terrible he had been, I thought then it would be a waste of time, but looking back now I should have done it.”

As for Tuesday’s encounter, he has split loyalties. Celtic and United were his only two clubs as a player, and his simple wish is that both can progress. Only he already doubts that will happen. “The two games could be a lot tighter than people think. Anyone is kidding themselves on, though, if they think the standard of player has improved at Celtic. Aiden McGeady would just have been a squad player 20 or 30 years ago.”

Occasionally, people tell him that returning to the game would be what his son would have wanted, but Macari doubts that. These same people assured him that time would heal everything and they were wrong about that. As much as the subject of McCann and his aborted time in charge of Celtic can still rile him, there is a limit to the recriminations. Something inside Macari went missing nine years ago and he never expects to find it again.
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7seven7
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Dirk Kuyt
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Poor guy.
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Billy Raf
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Andriy Voronin
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Thats s great article that Homer, nice one :greatpost:
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gorbalsbhoy
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Dong Fangzhou
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maybe you should stick to just pasting articles from other places onto the forums , it could work out better for you instead of you ranting and raving like a lunatic
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Scholes
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gorbalsbhoy
Oct 19 2008, 11:29 AM
maybe you should stick to just pasting articles from other places onto the forums , it could work out better for you instead of you ranting and raving like a lunatic

Maybe you could contribute with a relevant post on a serious and sensitive thread.
Scholes
 

Seriously, Frank Lampard is an absolute legend of the game. He needs to be recognised in some way eg. Frank Lampard OBE, Sir Frank Lampard or some kind of lifetime achievement award.

AntMcfc
 
Greatest ownage machine: Scholes. Absolute animal when he was a regular poster, I always knew I was in the right when he was backing me up, and I couldn't wait to read a topic that he was posting in because I knew he'd be tearing someone apart
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gorbalsbhoy
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PaulPinpointSCHOLES
Oct 19 2008, 12:55 PM
Maybe you could contribute with a relevant post on a serious and sensitive thread.

i think its pretty relevant as it keeps homer from talking nonsense , in a way it was a back handed compliment to him
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Scholes
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gorbalsbhoy
Oct 19 2008, 02:04 PM
i think its pretty relevant as it keeps homer from talking nonsense , in a way it was a back handed compliment to him

Doubt Homer will take much note :D
Scholes
 

Seriously, Frank Lampard is an absolute legend of the game. He needs to be recognised in some way eg. Frank Lampard OBE, Sir Frank Lampard or some kind of lifetime achievement award.

AntMcfc
 
Greatest ownage machine: Scholes. Absolute animal when he was a regular poster, I always knew I was in the right when he was backing me up, and I couldn't wait to read a topic that he was posting in because I knew he'd be tearing someone apart
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gorbalsbhoy
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Dong Fangzhou
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i hoping 1 of him will
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Scholes
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gorbalsbhoy
Oct 19 2008, 02:15 PM
i hoping 1 of him will

Have you ever seen the film 'Psycho'?
Scholes
 

Seriously, Frank Lampard is an absolute legend of the game. He needs to be recognised in some way eg. Frank Lampard OBE, Sir Frank Lampard or some kind of lifetime achievement award.

AntMcfc
 
Greatest ownage machine: Scholes. Absolute animal when he was a regular poster, I always knew I was in the right when he was backing me up, and I couldn't wait to read a topic that he was posting in because I knew he'd be tearing someone apart
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gorbalsbhoy
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PaulPinpointSCHOLES
Oct 19 2008, 01:16 PM
Have you ever seen the film 'Psycho'?

the original1 or american pyscho
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Scholes
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gorbalsbhoy
Oct 19 2008, 02:21 PM
the original1 or american pyscho

The 1960 thriller.
Scholes
 

Seriously, Frank Lampard is an absolute legend of the game. He needs to be recognised in some way eg. Frank Lampard OBE, Sir Frank Lampard or some kind of lifetime achievement award.

AntMcfc
 
Greatest ownage machine: Scholes. Absolute animal when he was a regular poster, I always knew I was in the right when he was backing me up, and I couldn't wait to read a topic that he was posting in because I knew he'd be tearing someone apart
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gorbalsbhoy
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Dong Fangzhou
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yes why
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gorbalsbhoy
Oct 19 2008, 02:28 PM
yes why

Homer is the motel owner.
Scholes
 

Seriously, Frank Lampard is an absolute legend of the game. He needs to be recognised in some way eg. Frank Lampard OBE, Sir Frank Lampard or some kind of lifetime achievement award.

AntMcfc
 
Greatest ownage machine: Scholes. Absolute animal when he was a regular poster, I always knew I was in the right when he was backing me up, and I couldn't wait to read a topic that he was posting in because I knew he'd be tearing someone apart
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RubberToe
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I always think which part of schizophrenic Homer will turn up after or during an Arsenal game lol :whistle:
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Homer
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gorbalsbhoy
Oct 19 2008, 11:29 AM
maybe you should stick to just pasting articles from other places onto the forums , it could work out better for you instead of you ranting and raving like a lunatic

I just posted an intelligent topic(albeit copied) and you have a go at me :(
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