But if he didn't care for the prospect of people always talking behind his back, one might wonder, why did he opt to pursue a career as a football coach?

Given that Celtic Park has been home to suspicious minds and much mistrust between players and management in recent years, there might be no place more unsuitable for someone who could have happily completed his 'knowledge' and pottered around north London - the long way, of course - for the rest of his days.

But Walford's path in life has been altered by an inability to say 'no' or, in taxi parlance, 'I won't be coaching north of the river at this time of my career, mate' to Martin O'Neill.

Since O'Neill invited the former Arsenal and Tottenham defender to oversee the launch of Wycombe's youth development scheme, the duo have worked together at Norwich and then, so successfully, at Leicester City where he earned a reputation as one of the most shrewd training ground

So when O'Neill went outside the safe boundaries of Leicester, Walford was destined to follow.

Walford has completed his first week on the turf at Barrowfield training ground, where his task is to impress O'Neill's ideas upon the Celtic players.

O'Neill is almost old school in his managerial style. The advent of the 'head coach' position at Parkhead, first filled by Wim Jansen, has been copied elsewhere in the British Isles but O'Neill's desire to be involved in every level of the football operation is all-consuming.

And that means while he must spend time at his desk, as he did at Leicester, Walford is the man who makes the team tick each day.

It was close to transfer deadline day in 1981 when the two first met as new arrivals at Norwich.

Walford recalls: 'I would've laughed at the prospect of us working together like this back then.

'We were room-mates on trips and he'd stay at my house sometimes and

we became friends over that period of time. But I always liked the coaching, especially with young players.

'I had done my coaching badges and was trying to get involved coaching part-time.

'If I had done my 'knowledge' for the taxis, then I'd have used it as back-up to earn some money.

'But I might well have been driving around London by now. I was going to start doing the taxi trade.

'My brother-in-law had a taxi and had a very comfortable life.

'He'd say to me that he went out for a couple of hours a day and just earned what he needed. I thought: 'That sounds good'.

'Then I got a call asking if I wanted to go to Hong Kong and the family went out there for a year.

'By the time I got back, Martin had taken over at Wycombe and I joined him there.'

It has been suggested that Walford arrived as the saviour of the ailing Celtic defence, but while he was deployed there during his playing days, he is not a specialist coach who will make Olivier Tebily less frightening to watch.

His partnership with O'Neill is a perfect blend, he claims. 'A lot of the time, I'm on the training ground putting Martin's theories into practice,' he explained. 'Then, on match days, Martin really takes over.

'That's when he comes into his own, when he's at his best. He is good at getting his point across.

'He keeps everything very simple and is very good with players, at telling them what he wants and expects.

'I am maybe at a little bit of a disad-vantage because I haven't watched as many of the Scottish games as Martin but I'll be taking everything in.

'But if I can get the team feeling confident and happy on the training field, then they are the most important people and they can feel good about matchday.'

And is the excitable animal we see bounding in and out of his technical area the real O'Neill?

'Oh, he takes that back into the dressing room all right. He does not like losing.

'He loses his temper at times but he's not a cup thrower. Me? I'm very placid. I might be more aggressive out on the training field, though, if it's not going right.'

As Walford and family were settled in the north of London, and he commuted up the M1 to Leicester each day, it would have required a major job to tempt him into disrupting that contentment and head further north.

Then, when one considers the recent uneasy history of Celtic coaching staff, it's a wonder that Walford did not consider the taxi trade again when O'Neill extended the invite to join him in embarking on one of the toughest tasks British football can offer.

'It would've been a lot easier for me to stay,' he said. 'But I actually feel honoured to be the first-team coach of Celtic.

'You know at a club that if things don't go well, the manager will normally not survive.

'I don't see it like that. I never even thought that we could fail and be out of work. Maybe that's because, like Celtic, I have an awful lot of faith in Martin.'