CELTIC great Roy Aitken today paid an emotional tribute to his close friend and former Parkhead team mate Frank McGarvey after it was announced the legendary striker had passed away at the age of 66 following a battle with pancreatic cancer.
Aitken won every major honour in Scottish football playing alongside McGarvey during the early 1980s and believes the forward, who netted 109 times in 245 appearances for his boyhood heroes, should be remembered as one of the Glasgow club’s all-time great goalscorers.
The Easterhouse lad’s most famous moment was scoring a late winner in the 1985 Scottish Cup final against Dundee United in front of a crowd of 60,346 in what turned out to be his last game for the team he had grown up cheering on from the terraces.
The ex-Celtic captain believes that his countryman, who became Scotland’s record transfer when he was signed from Liverpool for £250,000 in 1980, was integral to all of the successes which Billy McNeill and Davie Hay’s sides enjoyed during that halcyon era.
“First of all, Frank was a good friend,” said Aitken. “He and I went to the Celtic boardroom for a game about seven or eight months ago and had a great day out. I am an ambassador now and I took him along and he thoroughly enjoyed himself.
“He was a good friend for a number of years. That Celtic team in the early 1980s was a good strong unit. It was a very strong dressing room. There was a lot of camaraderie in there between the players. A lot of us had come through the system and were supporters. Frank was very much a part of that. He was a real character.
“Billy brought him in and he stayed on when Davie came in. He memorably scored the winner in the 1985 Scottish Cup final in what proved to be his last game. It was fitting that he bowed out as a hero. A lot of people will remember him for that.
“But he was always a great goalscorer. He scored over 100 goals if I’m not mistaken. He is one of a select few players who have achieved that for the club. He is legendary for what he achieved as a goalscorer.
“He was always reliable. He trained hard, he played hard, he was a good guy to have in the dressing room. He was a good team mate generally. Successful teams are not just about being good on the pitch. You need to have quality in the changing room. Frank was a strong character, a funny guy, had his own personality.
“He left an impression on everyone who he met. I was involved with him on the park and in the dressing room for years. You live in each other’s suitcases in football. You get to know each other well. He was one of those guys you could trust."
McGarvey, who was capped for Scotland on seven occasions between 1979 and 1984, enjoyed lengthy spells at St Mirren before and after his time at Celtic and helped the Paisley club to lift the Scottish Cup in 1987.
Aitken admitted that he much preferred playing with him to against him.
“No doubt about it, Frank was a top player,” he said. “He had the big move to Liverpool early in his career before he came back to Celtic. I played against him many times as well as with him, in his early days at St Mirren and his latter days at St Mirren.
“He was an awkward customer, he was unpredictable. He had a few nicknames over the years – including The Human Eel! As a player, he was an unpredictable, dangerous goalscorer. I was happy to have him on my team in the early 1980s rather than to be playing against him.”
Aitken was devastated when McGarvey told him back in October that he had pancreatic cancer and had only been given a few months to live by doctors – but he recalled how his old team mate had treated the news with the same bravery he had always shown on the park in his playing days.
He was pleased when he saw that his close friend had been given a rousing reception by Celtic supporters when he went out onto the pitch at Parkhead at the cinch Premiership game against Hibernian that month.
“I spoke to him just after he was diagnosed,” he said. “I was out in Dubai and he called me to tell me that he had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and told me about all the complications that come with that. He gave me the shocking news at the time that he had only been given two or three months to live.
“It was a horrendous diagnosis for someone to get. But even that day when we were talking on the phone he was laughing and joking and going back down memory lane. That was just Frank. We spoke about the laughs we had and the good days that we had together.”
Aitken added: “I was so happy when I saw that Celtic had shown compassion and had invited him along to the game at Parkhead. It was great for him and his family to go along. I saw the video of Frank going on to the park and being greeted by the fans afterwards. It brought a tear to my eye.
“Frank always wore his heart on his sleeve, in everything that he did in life, not just in football. He was a joiner to trade and he was still working up until just a few months ago. There are so many stories about him.
“When I last met him personally, when we went to Parkhead about seven or eight months, ago he was so full of fun, full of form, full on life. He was talking about this and talking about that. He had an opinion on everything. That was just typical of Frank.
“Then he called me three months ago to tell me that he was on borrowed time. It was awful. It just shows you that you have to make the best of your days with the way the world is at the moment.
“We are all getting older. A few other team mates from that Celtic side of the early 1980s have passed away. It is just so sad. I knew exactly what was going on over the last few weeks and one of his sons phoned me to tell me the terrible news today. My condolences go to his family. It is just so sad. He was iconic.”
