We Never Depended On Luck

Henrik Larsson: Back in My Day, Celtic Didn’t Need a Red Card to Win – We Just Took the Game Away from Them

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Ah, listen. I see all these modern games, all this VAR nonsense, players rolling around like they’ve been shot, referees flashing cards left, right and centre. And I think to myself: what happened to proper football? What happened to the days when Celtic could walk into Ibrox or Parkhead and simply destroy the other lot without anyone needing to get sent off?

Don’t get me wrong – I loved a good battle. The Old Firm was war, pure and simple. But back in my time, from ’97 to ’04, we didn’t need the opposition to go down to ten men to win. We just played better. Much better.

Take that famous 6-2 at Parkhead in 2000. People still talk about my chip over Klos like it was yesterday – beautiful, cheeky, right in the top corner. But the story isn’t the chip. The story is how we were 3-0 up inside twelve minutes. Sutton, Petrov, Lambert – bang, bang, bang. Rangers were chasing shadows. Barry Ferguson got himself sent off late on for throwing the ball away like a toddler, sure, but we were already cruising. We didn’t need that red card. We were already winning by miles.

Or remember those cup ties, league games where they’d try to kick lumps out of me – Konterman tugging shirts, Wilson clattering in – and still, we’d score. I’d score. Two, three, four sometimes. And the crowd would roar so loud you couldn’t hear the whistle anyway. Referees? They were there, somewhere. But we didn’t rely on them. We relied on ourselves. Larsson and Sutton up top, Petrov bossing midfield, Lambert everywhere. That was the machine.

These days, it feels like every big game needs drama – a red card here, a penalty there, some big controversy to fill the papers. But us? We won titles, trebles, marched to Seville without needing favours. We earned it. Clean. Well… mostly clean. (I never got sent off at Celtic, by the way. Not once. Ask anyone.)

So when I hear fans moaning about this red card or that dodgy decision, I just smile. Back in my day, Celtic didn’t need a red card to win a match. We just needed the ball at our feet, space to run into, and a bit of that famous Parkhead roar behind us. The rest took care of itself.

And if the other lot lost a man or two along the way? Well… that was their problem, not ours.

Still Celtic till I die.