The footballer Tommy Burns enjoyed a relationship with Celtic that lasted over 20 years, a club he served as player, coach and manager. A neat and creative midfielder in his playing days, he won numerous trophies with the Glasgow outfit, and his most savoured achievement was helping to secure the league and cup double for the side in their centenary year in 1988.

His dedication to the club made him a much respected figure among the Parkhead faithful, who held him in great affection. A gentlemanly and genuinely popular character, Burns endeared himself to Scottish football in general, too. “You would never hear anybody in football say a bad word about Tommy Burns,” said the former Rangers player Ally McCoist. He was a religious, personable family man, known for his humour and courage, and he fought the cancer that he finally succumbed to with the same degree of grit and guts he had displayed on the pitch.

Thomas Burns was born and raised in the Calton district of Glasgow’s East End, a 15-minute walk from Parkhead, and attended the local St Mary’s school. He began his career at Maryhill Juniors, before joining Celtic in August 1973 at the age of 16. Having turned professional the following year, he made his debut in 1975 when he came off the bench for the last 20 minutes against Dundee.

During the late 1970s and 1980s Burns was to feature in many a title triumph with the Hoops, winning championship medals in 1976-77, 1978-79, 1980-81, 1981-82, 1985-1986 and 1987-88. He also helped Celtic to win the Scottish Cup in 1980, 1985 and 1988 and the Scottish League Cup in 1982.

The league win in 1988 was particularly memorable, as was that of 1986. In the mid-1980s the likes of Aberdeen, Dundee United and Heart of Midlothian looked as though they were going to break the Old Firm’s stranglehold on Scottish football, and with a week remaining of the 1985-86 campaign Celtic needed maximum points from their last three games, and Hearts to lose, to deny the Edinburgh side the championship. Winning 5-0 on the last day of the season, Celtic pipped Hearts to the title at the death.

After making a total of 352 league appearances for Celtic, scoring 52 goals, Burns reluctantly left the club at the age of 32. He made a literally tearful farewell in a friendly against Ajax. “I wanted to go out with a smile on my face and not a tear in my eye,” remembered Burns of that day. “So I got all of my crying out of the way during the warm-up. I ran about the pitch for 20 minutes with tears running down my cheeks because I knew I would never wear a Celtic jersey again.”

He thereafter moved to Kilmarnock, where he proved equally as popular, and in 1992 he was appointed player-manager, achieving promotion to the Premier League in his first season. His record at Rugby Park did not go unnoticed by his old club, and in 1994 he was appointed Celtic manager.

The 1990s were, however, barren times at Parkhead, with Rangers lording it over Scottish football. Burns did take Celtic to the Scottish Cup final in 1995, where they overcame Airdrie, and the team lost only one game in the 1995-96 season, when they were close-runners up to Rangers in the league, but otherwise the club could do little as their Glasgow rivals won nine championships in a row. A month after Celtic lost a Scottish Cup semi-final replay to first division Falkirk in April 1997, Burns was dismissed.

He moved to Newcastle United, working alongside his compatriot Kenny Dalglish as assistant manager, before being appointed manager of Reading. After a poor set of results he was dismissed.

He returned to Celtic in 2000 when Martin O’Neill was appointed manager, becoming youth development manager. He combined this role from 2002 with that of part-time assistant manager of the Scottish national side under Berti Vogts, and in 2005, with the appointment of Gordon Strachan at Parkhead, Burns became first-team coach at Celtic.

Tommy Burns was regarded as one of Scotland’s most gifted midfielders of his time, yet he only won eight international caps, seven of which came from 1981 to 1983; he made his debut against Northern Ireland in 1981 and his last game was against England at Wembley in 1988. The relative paucity of appearances may be accounted for the sheer wealth of talent the Scottish national side had in the 1980s: Burns had to compete with the likes of Graeme Souness, Gordon Strachan, Kenny Dalglish and Jim Bett.

His most bitter disappointment was not joining the Scotland World Cup squad in Spain in 1982. Burns later recalled: “Jock Stein gathered us at Hampden and said: ‘Obviously not everybody is going, Tommy Burns and Ray Stewart will be staying behind.’ I felt like a schoolboy whose mother hadn’t turned up to collect him.”

In 2006 it was announced that Tommy Burns was undergoing treatment for a melanoma. He was given a healthy prognosis after two lumps were removed from his leg but this March it was confirmed that the cancer had returned.

He is survived by his wife of 28 years, Rosemary, and two daughters and two sons.

Tommy Burns, football player and manager, was born on December 16, 1956. He died of skin cancer on May 15, 2008, aged 51