"Here was a wee laddie from Glasgow who was 21 years of age before he began playing and he was suddenly the toast of London. Of the east end anyway!"
In October 1987, after taking over the reins at Celtic after an infamous meeting in a service station car park, Billy McNeill decided that it was time to bring Frank to his spiritual home.
In a deal worth £750,000 Frank headed to Paradise. Imagine spending only three-quarters of a million pounds to secure the services of the EPL's second top goal scorer!
Frank was to make his debut for Celtic in a rather inauspicious one all draw with Hibs at Celtic Park.
Macca was a hit with the Celtic faithful who were minus a folk hero or two since the transfers of Mojo, Brian McClair and Alan McInally. He was an intrinsic part of the team that won the double in Celtic's centenary season, none more so than when his two goals secured the Scottish Cup and an unprecedented double.
Other stories worth mentioning about Frank was that fateful day in October 17th 1987 at Ibrox. With Celtic leading 2-0 Macca was tangling with Chris Woods repeatedly when all hell broke loose and both Frank, Woods and Rangers defender Terry Butcher were sent off for fighting. Further repercussions were to follow as all of the players ended up in the Dock and facing charges of "behaviour likely to cause a breach of the peace"
Frank and Roberts both escaped, the result being not proven. Butcher and Woods were both convicted and received fines.
The game is remembered in more detail by the author "There was nothing much to indicate that the match between the two sides would go off in the way that it did. Celtic were four points clear (in an era when Scottish clubs still played two points for a win), so it was a vital match for Rangers to win. Watching it back, I'm struck by the sheer intensity of the atmosphere. The crowd is a wall of noise from the very start, and the player's waste no time whatsoever in kicking lumps out of each other. The key incident came after seventeen minutes, when striker Frank MacAvennie clattered into Rangers goalkeeper Chris Woods. The words "handbags" spring immediately to mind, but the full-on assault by Graham Roberts and Terry Butcher that followed was anything but. To general disbelief, MacAvennie and Woods were sent off, and Butcher went into the book. This being the age before substitute goalkeepers, Roberts went in goal for Rangers.
It should, of course, have been all over at this point. Celtic raced into a two-goal lead - Rangers might have had all manner of attacking options, but their defending with ten men was atrocious. It was only a mixture of profligate Celtic finishing and surprisingly competent goalkeeping by Roberts that kept Rangers in the match. With Ally McCoist having pulled one back for Rangers, it was time for Butcher's moment in the limelight. After challenging Alan McKnight for the ball (and deservedly conceding a foul), he took a well-aimed kick at the prone Celtic goalkeeper. A straight red card followed, even though he had already been involved in the earlier flare-up.
With the roofs of the Ibrox stands threatening to lift clean off, Richard Gough scrambled a last minute equaliser. Graham Roberts then covered himself in a very dubious type of glory at the other end of the pitch, first by clearly diving at a challenge from Owen Archdeacon, and then following that up by leading the supporters in one of their oh-so-charming sectarian songs. After the match (as noted in the comments below), the three players sent off (along with Roberts) found themselves in court on criminal. On the pitch, Rangers' dramatic point didn't make much difference in the long-term. Celtic won the league with a record 72 points.
The lure of the London nightlife was too strong for our hero though. Sick of flying back and forward to London to enjoy the nightlife and even more sick at the fines imposed on him by Caesar for turning up late for Monday training he headed back to Upton Park and West Ham United. Celtic fans everywhere were left with an ugly taste in their mouths as the Kelly clan decided that a £500,000 profit was more important than keeping a 25 goal a season striker at the club. There was also the small-unresolved issue of monies owed to Frank by the Celtic board. Frank remember this "I only left Celtic because they owed me money but West Ham got relegated and then I broke my leg, so looking back it probably wasn't the best decision I ever made"
Part 3 to follow