by South Coast Royal »
27 Jan 2021 14:01
From Despair To Where? South Coast Royal Pepe the Horseman I'm hoping he ends up at Celtic for a nice rivalry with Stevie G.
They tend still to go for RC managers so I think that rules Fat Frank out.
Of their 12 managers since Tommy Burns, 7 have not been Catholic (incidentally, neither was Jock Stein), 4 have been Catholic (all Northern Irish as well), 2 of which were Neil Lennon, and the other (Billy Stark) had a Protestant father and a Catholic mother.
So when you include Burns and Lennon twice it takes it to 50% so yes they do tend to go for RCs.
Interestingly (or not) people often assumed that King Kenny was RC, because of the Celtic connection when nearly every player was, but his first choice as a Protestant would have been Rangers who didn't want him (too small?).
Fortunately on the playing side it is no longer a consideration when signing players for both clubs (with Rangers I think it was when they started signing Italian players) but young Scots do tend still to want to go to one or the other based on their religious background.
I think it was Kevin Drinkell who some Rangers fans refused to call by his first name because it was perceived to be an RC Christian name which really does feel like partisanship going a bit far.
Can't believe that Drinkell is now 60 as will Trevor Senior be this year..