William Patrick Maley (25 April 1868 – 2 April 1958) was an Irish-born Scottish international football player and manager. He was the first manager of Celtic Football Club, and one of the most successful managers in Scottish football history. During his managerial tenure, Maley led Celtic to thirty major trophies (16 league championships and 14 Scottish Cups) in forty-three consecutive years as manager. He is attributed to have coined the famous Celtic motto 'It is not his creed nor his nationality which counts; it's the man himself.'[citation needed]

Willie Maley
Portrait of Maley as a player in 1892
Personal information
Full name William Patrick Maley
Date of birth (1868-04-25)25 April 1868
Place of birth Newry, County Down, Ireland
Date of death 2 April 1958(1958-04-02) (aged 89)
Place of death Glasgow, Scotland[1]
Position(s) Half-back
Youth career
1886 Cathcart Hazelbank Juniors
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1887 Third Lanark 0 (0)
1888–1897 Celtic 70 (2)
1896 Manchester City 1 (0)
Total 71 (2)
International career
1893 Scotland 2 (0)
1892–1894 Scottish League XI 2 (0)
Managerial career
1897–1940 Celtic
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Early life

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Maley was born in Newry Barracks, County Down, Ireland, the third son of Thomas Maley and Mary Montgomery. Thomas came from Ennis, County Clare, while Mary had been born in Canada to Scottish parents. At the time of his son's birth, Thomas was stationed in Newry as a sergeant in the 21st (Royal North British Fusilier) Regiment of Foot.[2] In 1869, Thomas took honourable discharge from the British Army and the family moved to Scotland, settling in Cathcart – at that time a village just south of Glasgow.[3]

Willie Maley left school at the age of 13 and worked for a few years in the printworks of Miller, Higginbotham & Co., and then at the Telephone Company of Glasgow. Eventually he was offered the opportunity to train as a chartered accountant with Smith and Wilson, a Glasgow accountancy firm.[3] As a young man, Maley was much more involved in athletics than in football, although he had played a few games for Cathcart Hazelbank Juniors in 1886 and had played with Third Lanark from later that year.[4]

Playing career

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On a visit to Cathcart in December 1887 to invite Tom Maley to join Celtic, Brother Walfrid and the rest of the Celtic deputation met Willie Maley and they casually invited him to also play for the club. In 1888, he was signed by the fledgling Celtic and became one of the club's first players as a midfielder. In 1896, he made a single appearance for Manchester City in a Second Division match against Loughborough.

Due to his Scottish maternal grandparents and having lived in Scotland since the age of one, Maley played for the Scotland national team, earning two caps in 1893 against England and Ireland.[5] Maley represented the Scottish League twice.[6][7]

Managerial career

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In 1897, the board of Celtic directors appointed Willie Maley, at just 29 years of age, as Secretary-Manager – the first manager – of Celtic. He won the Scottish League championship for the club in his first full season as manager. Maley never worked with his players in training, he watched games from the directors' box and never indulged in team talks or spoke to his players at half-time or post-match.[citation needed] Maley would not even announce the team: players learned if they were in or out through reading the line-up in the newspaper.[citation needed]

Celtic had been a buying club in their opening decade, spending heavily to bring professionals to the club.[8][9] Maley decided to scrap that and rely almost entirely on recruiting youngsters fresh from junior football.[10]

Maley created a young team who won six consecutive league titles in a row between 1905 and 1910 and won the first Scottish League and Scottish Cup doubles. They were the best team in Glasgow, and the six-in-a-row record remained unbroken until the 1960s. As his six-in-a-row team began to age, Maley set about the task of building a younger team. This younger side, which included Patsy Gallacher and the apparently 'ageless' Jimmy McMenemy, won four league titles in succession between 1914 and 1917. They also set a UK record for an unbeaten run in professional football, 62 games (49 won, 13 drawn) from 13 November 1915 until 21 April 1917, which stood until it was broken by Brendan Rodgers' Celtic in November 2017.[11]

That side won two more titles, in 1919 and 1922. Celtic continued to gather trophies throughout the 1920s and in the mid-1930s Maley built his third great team, featuring Jimmy Delaney and Jimmy McGrory. This side won the league title in 1936 and 1938 and the Scottish Cup in 1937. By then, Maley was approaching 70. The Maley years ended in a less than happy fashion. With Celtic at the bottom of the table, Maley finally retired after a meeting with the board of directors in February 1940. He was the longest-serving manager in Celtic's history. In his 43 years as manager, he won 16 Scottish League championships, 14 Scottish Cups, 14 Glasgow Cups and 19 Glasgow Charity Cups.[12][13]

Cultural references

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His Celtic career is detailed in the song Willie Maley, written by David Cameron, one of the most popular Celtic songs among fans.

Honours

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Player

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Celtic (1888–1897)[14]

Manager

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Celtic (1897–1940)[18]

Individual

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Notes

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  1. ^ Competition staged only once to commemorate the Empire Exhibition, Scotland 1938.
  2. ^ The ranking only includes trophies of at least national level.
  3. ^ Since article was published Pep Guardiola has moved up to second on the list with a total of 36 trophies.

Managerial statistics

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As of 30 November 2013.
Team From To Record
G W D L Win %
Celtic[a] September 1897 January 1940 1,612 1,039 315 258 064.45
  1. ^ Includes all Scottish League (with 1905 playoff P1 W1) and Scottish Cup matches but no other minor cups (the Glasgow Cup is fully counted in the source:P125, W65, D32, L28) nor wartime competitions.[18]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ Friends of Cathcart presents Footballers of Cathcart: one of Glasgow's Footballing Graveyards, Football Makes Glasgow via YouTube, 11 January 2022
  2. ^ Brian McGuirk, "Celtic FC: The Ireland Connection" (Black and White Publishing, 2009), p. 95.
  3. ^ a b Brian McGuirk, "Celtic FC: The Ireland Connection" (Black and White Publishing, 2009), p. 96.
  4. ^ Bathgate, Stuart (27 September 2012). "Celtic fans get chance to own medal won by club legend Willie Maley". The Scotsman. Retrieved 28 August 2015.
  5. ^ Willie Maley at the Scottish Football Association
  6. ^ "Willie Maley". LondonHearts.com. London Hearts Supporters Club. Retrieved 15 May 2014.
  7. ^ "William Maley". LondonHearts.com. London Hearts Supporters Club. Retrieved 15 May 2014.
  8. ^ Campbell, Tom; Woods, Pat. The Glory & The Dream. Grafton. p. 50.
  9. ^ Campbell, Tom; Woods, Pat. The Glory & The Dream. Grafton. p. 58.
  10. ^ Campbell, Tom; Woods, Pat. The Glory & The Dream. Grafton. pp. 67–70.
  11. ^ "Celtic make history as St Johnstone rout takes unbeaten record to 63". The Guardian. London. Press Association. 4 November 2017. Retrieved 4 November 2017.
  12. ^ "Willie Maley". Scottish Football Hall of Fame. Retrieved 14 October 2015.
  13. ^ "2009 Scotland Hall of Fame inductee biographies". STV Sport. 17 November 2009. Retrieved 14 October 2015.
  14. ^ Celtic player Maley, William, FitbaStats
  15. ^ "Glasgow North-eastern Football Association Final Cup Tie". The Scotsman. 13 May 1889. Retrieved 16 April 2021. The Celtic Wiki.
  16. ^ "Football". Edinburgh Evening News. 7 August 1889. Retrieved 19 April 2021. The Celtic Wiki.
  17. ^ "Couple auction Celtic FC legend Willie Maley's historic medals for charity". Daily Record. 10 March 2017. Retrieved 19 April 2021. The Celtic Wiki.
  18. ^ a b Celtic player Maley, Willie, FitbaStats
  19. ^ a b c d e f g h i j "CELTIC FOOTBALL CLUB 1890 TO 1899". Retrieved 16 April 2021.
    "CELTIC FOOTBALL CLUB 1900 TO 1909". Retrieved 16 April 2021.
    "CELTIC FOOTBALL CLUB 1910 TO 1919". Retrieved 16 April 2021.
    "CELTIC FOOTBALL CLUB 1920 TO 1929". Retrieved 16 April 2021.
    "CELTIC FOOTBALL CLUB 1930 TO 1939". Retrieved 16 April 2021. Celtic Football Club.
  20. ^ "Trophy that took 74 years to get to Paradise". Celtic FC. 21 May 2014. Retrieved 16 April 2021.
  21. ^ "Lobanovskyi and Lucescu: who has more titles?". UPL. 22 March 2019. Retrieved 12 December 2023.
  22. ^ "Eight more Scots greats enter Hall of Fame", thescotsman.scotsman.com, 16 November 2009; accessed 6 May 2014.

Further reading

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  • McGuirk, Brian. Celtic FC: The Ireland Connection (2009).
  • Potter, David. Willie Maley – The Man Who Made Celtic (2003).