Card of the Day - 2024-02-10

Panini The Bhoys
Panini [trade/commercial : cards : O/S : Italy] “The Bhoys” (1999) 109/174

We started the week with Billy Mc Neill, who has a very interesting link to our theme because, according to The Scottish Sun, his nickname of "Cesar" was derived directly from Cesar Romero. 

This set of Celtic F.C. cards is split into sections, the first 82 showing the current Celtic Squad, numbers 83-92 being the stadium, the fans, and the team at training, numbers 93-144 being assorted “Magic Moments” in the Club story, and numbers 145-174 being past players. 

Be aware there is another set, called “Here Come The Bhoys” this was the follow up which was issued from 2000 to 2001. 

Now in case you were wondering, the word “Bhoys” comes from the Gaelic practise of adding an “h” after a “b”.

This is not the Club`s only nickname, for it is also known as The Celts, as a shortening of Celtic, and also because at one time, before transfers in and out of the area were common place, its players were almost exclusively of local and Celtic origin).

Another name is The Tims, which seems to have links back to a gang from the turn of the twentieth century, and is primarily used to refer to the fans rather than the players which makes me think it is more of a sly comment used by rival teams).

Lastly they are called The Hoops, simply because the colours of their strip, since 1903, has been a series of green and white hoops rather than the more usual stripes.

I am not sure I know the difference between a stripe and a hoop, so maybe someone would like to educate me and I can tell everyone else too.