Long Live The King of Kings - Henrik Larsson Retires.

[Jaemi]

I'm confident he'll be back at Celtic in some capacity.

[Mrs.Evil of Hesselink]

You wouldn't wish the current squad on anyone never mind Henrik.

Get him back playing till he's 65.

[¡Punk!]

Originally Posted by Semprini

We should've retired the number 7 when he went

Rubbish. Should you have retired it after Jinky? Or Dalglish? Keep the number and try and get someone else to fill the boots of a Jinky, Dalglish, Larsson or Simon Donnelly. Give a kid something to aim for

[~LEE~]

Originally Posted by Westy

Laudrup was better I think.

Maybe it'd be good to get a non biased point of view. Ask some folk who don't support Rangers or Celtic.

And footballers that won very little that should have won more, Davie Cooper is one. George Best only had 3 winners medals.

You cannae really compare players by how many medals they won. I mean Mo Ross and Kevin Muscat won the treble with us!

Henrik does have an immpressive well deserved haul but that doesn't make him better than other players who have won less.

Westy, I like you mate, I really do, but you are spouting utter, utter shite here. This just stinks of you arguing Laudrup was better just because you'd hate to see an ex Celtic man get the credit he deserves.

Henrik pisses all over the top of Laudrup. The guy could single handedly take a game by the scruff of the neck and turn it in his favour (See that Champions league final)

I truly believe that around the time he scored 50 goals he was the best striker in the world. No matter what league you'd have put him in, I'm sure he would have still done the damage.

Another thing that really sticks out for me was how hard working and unselfish the guy could be. Sure, when the goal was there for the taking, he'd batter it in 99% of the time but Celtic scored so many more goals just by him doing the work and laying it on plate for the others.

Oh, and did you ever see the guy head a ball? Fucking hell, I wish my right foot was as good as his head!

Legend. End of.

[Semprini]

Originally Posted by ¡Punk!

Rubbish. Should you have retired it after Jinky? Or Dalglish?

Well, it was a different era before Sky Sports invented football in 1992. If Jinky or Dalglish had knack of some sort, someone else wore 7. But in the era of squad numbers, I think retiring one's perfectly fine.

[¡Punk!]

Mayhaps. Having said that: get squad numbers tae fuck. 1-11 plz

[EvilElvis]

Originally Posted by Semprini

Well, it was a different era before Sky Sports invented football in 1992. If Jinky or Dalglish had knack of some sort, someone else wore 7. But in the era of squad numbers, I think retiring one's perfectly fine.

Nice sentiment, only problem being that after you retire one shirt for a legendary player, you'll end up having fans demand numbers be retired after their favourite player quits/ passes away (Man City retired the number 23 when Marc Vivan Foe died) and you'll slowly, but surely run out of number that will be useable.

[I'm Your God Now]

Should've retired number 1 after Gould.

[¡Punk!]

Or 5 for big Rico Annoni

[Warped]

I love him and his boots, pure trend setter.

[I'm Your God Now]

On a more serious note, he was one of the best players I had the privilege (to some extent) of seeing play. Couldn't help but like him, as much as one could considering my colours, very awe inspiring at times.

[spoonie]

I saw him play in the flesh several times for Celtic and twice more at the Nou Camp for Barca and he was absolutely astounding throughout. I don't disagree that Laudrup was a special talent, but Larsson was something else.

Playing for Barca, I was at a game against Sevilla (the season where they both won European trophies) where they were 1-0 down at the half, looking that lazy, half-arsed way that Barca have a tendency to do from time to time. They brought him on at the half and he changed the game, scoring once and setting up the other in a 2-1 win.

The other time I saw him at the Nou Camp, we were sitting in a section of the crowd alongside a group of the administrative staff of FCB and they overheard us chatting and asked where we were from. At the time it was Glasgow and they said "Oh, so you'll have seen Henrik Larsson play before" which started up a long conversation in which they gushed about how nice a guy he was. They said the thing they liked most was how he'd just pop into the offices for no other reason than to say hello. He sounded like a true gent. In that game, he was in fine form and the home side won 3-0.

Speaking as a Dons fan, he was one player who, when he had the ball at his feet, my toes curled in anticipation of what he was capable of and what he might do.

[¡Punk!]

I mind we played Celtic at Cappielow Park and for most the first half were the better side, had a couple of penalty claims waved away, when Viduka turned it on and scored two belters. In the second half Paul Fenwick, who until then had Larsson pocketed, made a hash of a back pass and Larsson nipped in to score but as he turned away to run to the half way line he patted big Fenners on the back as if to say sorry.

Found it hard to dislike him after that despite playing for them.

[~LEE~]

Gentleman!

[¡Punk!]

Or taking the piss?