He always gave his time

May 18 2008 Mark Guidi

PAUL HARTLEY and Arthur Numan were kind enough to give up their time last Monday night to hand out prizes to my daughter's football team.

You couldn't put a price on how happy the kids were at seeing these guys.

It made me think back to the players who were good enough to turn up at such nights when I played youth football.

Tommy Burns was a regular. Posed for photos and signed countless autographs.

As a senior Celtic player he came along to take training sessions then sat in the dressing-room afterwards and spoke at length about what was required to make it.

The dedication that was needed and the sacrifices that would have to be made.

His advice to a group of 15-year-olds was taken on board. His presence gave us all a huge lift as unfortunately it wasn't the norm for players.

Some of my team-mates went on to play in the same side as Tommy who also managed a few of them. The closest I got to working with him after that was in this job at press conferences.

The last time I spoke to him was in Barcelona on March 3, the eve of Celtic's Champions League clash in theNou Camp.

Tommy knew then his cancer had returned but kept quiet, never one for sympathy.

He didn't need to sit with us yet gave 45minutes of his time when he must have had all sorts of worries.

Unfortunately, there aren't many of his kind around. That's one of many reasons why he will be sorely missed.