Celtic Player of the Day: Tony Cascarino – “It should have been the prefect scenario”

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The Celtic Star

·4 maggio 2025

Celtic Player of the Day: Tony Cascarino – “It should have been the prefect scenario”

Bizarre! That is the only way to describe the Celtic career of Tony Cascarino which contained 30 games and lasted little more than six months…

In the same way that Dziekanowski was supposed to be the answer to all problems in 1989/90, so too it was Cascarino, a proven goalscorer for Aston Villa and Ireland, who was going to make it happen for Liam Brady in 1991/92. He talked a good game (and still does) but Tony was simply one of those players who could not handle Celtic and Scotland.

30.07.1991Photo imago/Colorsport Tony Cascarino (Celtic) ; Arsenal FC London – Celtic Glasgow 2:2,

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The goals simply did not come. He was soon relegated to the bench, and it was from there on 5 October 1991 that he appeared for six minutes in which he scored his first goal for the club (with a mis-kick!) Ah, now this is the start of something, we thought! Well, no actually. He then threw a punch at a Hearts player and got sent off!

The only good thing that he did was to earn Celtic a draw at Ibrox. Apart from that, his short career was one of unmitigated disaster – and to his credit, he has admitted it himself. He departed to Chelsea in February 1992 in an exchange deal for Tom Boyd.

It was one of Celtic’s good decisions in what must be looked upon as a very dark era in our history.

David Potter

*Article from The Celtic Star archives, remembering the fine Celtic writing of the late David Potter

“I will never forget the night after I scored at Ibrox. I got quite drunk in a Chinese Restaurant. I then kept falling asleep, and the waiters kept shaking me to wake me up. All I kept saying/singing was ‘Who put the ball in the Ranger’s net? I did!’”. Tony Cascarino on scoring against Rangers at Ibrox, November 1991 Tony Cascarino, Celtic FC. Photo The Celtic Wiki “I don’t want to make excuses. My only regret is that it was the perfect move at the wrong time. I didn’t show what I was close to being capable of. It was my worst time in football. The worst. It should have been the perfect scenario: Irish centre-forward plays well for Celtic. It wasn’t.” Tony Cascarino (2017)

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