The proverbial blast from the past popped up on BBC Radio Scotland the other week when I heard the voice of Largs man Lou Macari, who was being interviewed on football show, Sacked In The Morning.

Despite the fact that the former Scotland star was, indeed, sacked from several football managerial jobs, including Celtic, he was, surprisingly, never asked about those dramatic episodes in his long career.

Instead, it became the story of his achievements - from being a lad in Largs kicking the ball about on the prom or at Barrfields Park. He was to be signed as a teenager by Celtic and rise to international prominence with Manchester United and Scotland.

What intrigued me was that I saw the start of it as a schoolboy at St Michael's College in Irvine in the swinging sixties, when I recall watching the young Luigi play for the school team which reached the semi-finals of the Scottish Cup - and we was robbed by a dodgy refereeing decision!

Although Lou was several years older than me, we all transferred to a brand new St Michael's Academy in Kilwinning - my birthplace - which was run by Sister Pauline and her band of merry nuns, who seemed quite happy to 'punish' you with the belt for some misdemeanour like not getting eight of ten in the weekly Latin vocabulary test. (Aye, madam, a Latin scholar me. That explains all.)

The football minded among you will recall the legendary Celtic and Scotland manager Jock Stein, who was a frequent visitor to Largs, where he was best pal with a local bookmaker Bunny Wilkie. To be honest, Macari, Stein and myself have one thing in common: we liked a flutter on the horses.

Anyway, I remember the great Stein coming to St Michael's around 1965 to sign two of our star players, Macari and Jim Clarke, cousin of the present Scotland manager Steve Clarke.

Lou, whose family had Macari's cafe - where, funnily enough, Ladbrokes betting shop is now on Gallowgate Street - travelled by train, and the 269 Auchenshuggle bus, to be trained alongside the Celtic players who were to become known as the Lisbon Lions, beating Inter Milan to become the first British team to win the European Cup in 1967.

As he told the BBC: "I put the kit out for the Lisbon Lions."

After a successful seven-year stint with Celtic he dared to ask Big Jock for a wage rise from his £45 a week, only to be told: "We don't do rises here."  Lou decided he would have to move to the big time of English football, where he knew the top players were paid £180 a week - a small fortune in the early 70s.

Months later, what Lou described as "a mystery tour" began in Largs to an unknown destination, as Celtic sent a car to his home, but refused to say where he was going. It happened to be Liverpool where the famous Ayrshire manager, Bill Shankly, told him he was going to be signed.

However, the fickle finger of football fate intervened when Tommy Docherty - a one time resident of Largs - moved quickly to sign him for Manchester United overnight.  And at £180 a week!

As Lou told the programme: "I was going to rub shoulders with Denis Law, George Best and Bobby Charlton." All giants of the game.  Not only that, but he scored for United on his debut against West Ham - exactly 50 years ago. Incidentally, he could also afford to marry his American wife Dale Anderson, who had also lived in Largs, in St Patrick's Cathedral, New York.

Despite the programme being called "Sacked In The Morning", Lou was not reminded of the fact that he was sacked by Celtic, after a short unsuccessful spell as manager from 1993-94, and that he never played for Scotland again after going to the World Cup in Argentina in 1978 and being involved in a players' revolt over bonus money.

Lou was also "relieved of his duties" in a second spell with Stoke City, but his time there was commemorated in a TVfilm called "Marvellous" which revolved around Neil Baldwin, a circus clown whom Macari appointed as the team's kit man to foster fun in the dressing room.

Interestingly, he has gone back to his Largs catering roots by opening the Macari fish and chip shop near the Manchester United ground - but his great satisfaction today is the fact that he acquired a hotel building in Stoke and turned it into the Macari Centre for the Homeless where he is a 'hands-on' worker.

Lou continues to be an ambassador for the mighty Manchester United, but is also a proud papa when watching his grandson, Lewis Macari, play for Stoke City.

If I ever get to interview him I must ask if he ever got 'the belt' for failing in his Latin homework.


Thought for the Week: Time is like a river. You can't touch the same water twice as the flow will never pass again. Savour the moment.


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WHEN is a scam not a scam?  Maybe it's when it's described as a promotion?

Being an old codger who has actually been victim of a bank scam a few years ago - but, thankfully, got my money back, as Santander realised I was a numpty - I have been on high alert ever since.

So, imagine my bemusement when in the same week the same lady got in touch with two very separate offers, under two separate names.

First there was a newspaper promotion for "exclusive readers" (that'll be me then) offering 10 free lottery tickets. All I had to do was phone Katherine Walker, who was head of customer care and who was pictured (above, inset) along with the offer - though I know not whether the lady in the picture was indeed Katherine.

While I swithered at the outside chance of being a lottery winner, lo and behold, a letter arrived offering me £1,000 per person off a 15 day tour of Rhodes and the Aegean.

All I had to do was phone Katherine, but this time she had changed her name from Walker to Anne Castleman, in a guise as managing director of RSD Travel Ltd. 

If this lady contacts you, be cautious.