FEED THE BEAR | BIG ROY'S DREAM TEAM

  

He is "The Bear" who also goes by the moniker "Shirley". However you describe him, Roy Aitken is a Celtic legend who made his name as a ferocious competitor for club and country.

Aitken's mop of curly hair as a teenager at Parkhead prompted team-mates such as Kenny Dalglish to delight in likening him to Shirley Temple.

"When I meet those boys now they still call me Shirley. I take it as a term of endearment," says the 62-year-old.

Equally comfortable in defence and midfield, Aitken made 672 appearances for Celtic, captaining the club and winning six league titles among his dozen trophies.

He played 57 times for Scotland, featuring at the 1986 and '90 World Cups, and later turned out for Newcastle United, St Mirren and Aberdeen, where he became manager.

In choosing the best team-mates he played with, Aitken delivered a dizzying array of star names. He wasn't joking when he said: "I could give you three teams and they could all beat each other."

Having eventually whittled it down, here is his XI:

Goalkeeper - Andy Goram

Pat Bonner, Jim Leighton and Goram were the three goalies I couldn't split. Big Packie was fantastic for Celtic. Leighton and Goram competed for the Scotland jersey for many a year and both were outstanding at club and international level. Goram narrowly gets the nod.

Defenders - Alex McLeish, Willie Miller, Danny McGrain, Maurice Malpas

The one and only McGrain, he's on his own. Fantastic quality. If Danny ever had a bad game, I must've missed it. Just amazing consistency. Great leader, great trainer. Everything he did was top drawer.

McLeish and Miller were different class. As a centre-back partnership, they were as good as I played with.

Malpas, at left-back, I played many times with for Scotland. So consistent, could go with his left or right foot, just a very good defender and solid player.

Midfielders - Paul McStay, Graeme Souness, Bobby Lennox, Gordon Strachan

Lisbon Lion Bobby Lennox was a mentor to Roy Aitken in his early days at Celtic

When I was called into the Celtic first team at 16-17, Bobby was my partner for travelling up from Ayrshire to training. What a great mentor and example of professionalism. He showed me what it took to be a player at that level, and also the demands and expectations at Celtic, which were huge.

He played that left-hand side for the Lisbon Lions. Just terrific. He also scored an unbelievable amount of goals - he is Celtic's second highest scorer behind Jimmy McGrory.

Wee Gordon on his game was as good as anybody. He could pass it, cross, score goals. High energy, terrific player.

Central midfield is particularly difficult, because there's so many good players to choose from. But McStay and Souness are the two I have to go with. They're as good as any you'll get.

Strikers - Kenny Dalglish & Charlie Nicholas

My goodness, the strikers. Dalglish has to be in there. He was captain when I came into the Celtic team. He could win a game out of nothing and did so on many occasions at both club and international level. His ability to create and score goals was fantastic.

Wee Charlie was a genius when he broke through at Celtic as a youngster. The goals he scored, and the way he would make one for himself, he was so calm in his finishing and receiving the ball. He had this ability where he would take the ball with his back to a defender, turn and face them and go either side. There was no stopping him.