Wim Jansen was unveiled to the media as Celtic’s eleventh permanent manager in 109 years on Thursday, 3 July 1997. It was a time of upheaval for the club, and their failure to win a league title in the preceding nine years was exacerbated by the fact that Rangers had scooped up the lot to equal Jock Stein’s longstanding nine-in-a-row record.
‘Stopping the Ten’ became the mantra of everyone with a Celtic state of mind, but the Hoops were suffering a level of internal turmoil that threatened to derail any hopes of halting the Ibrox gravy train…
Talismanic Captain, Paul McStay, had retired at the end of the 1996/97 campaign, 15 years after making his debut; Paolo Di Canio refused to travel to the Netherlands for Celtic’s pre-season tour, which resulted in disciplinary action and a vow from General Manager, Jock Brown, that the Italian maverick was not for sale; star striker, Jorge Cadete, was also absent and faxed a medical certificate from Portugal to confirm an apparent illness; and senior pros, Tosh McKinlay and Peter Grant, were out of contract.
Wim or Bust
Added to this backdrop of chaos was a two-month absence of a head coach following the untimely sacking of Tommy Burns the previous May. According to Fergus McCann, Dutchman Jansen was the only candidate formally offered the Celtic job, as the Managing Director stated, “With his (Brown’s) legal and media background he is completely at home negotiating contracts and transfers and handling the press. Wim is a respected coach with an excellent pedigree. He will concentrate on getting the best out of the players on the training field and pitch. The days of football managers spending all day talking to the press, agents and making deals could soon be over and I think other big clubs will follow our lead.”
“By the time the competitive season begins, season books will be sold out for the second year running and the waiting list for books will be longer than last year. I am optimistic recent changes in the football side will be successful and it is success on the field that we all want.”
Despite Jansen’s impressive pedigree (as a player, he had won two European trophies and played in two World Cup finals), he was branded “the second worst thing to hit Hiroshima” by certain quarters of the Scottish press – a crude reference to his previous managerial appointment at Sanfrecce Hiroshima.
Meanwhile, a true football expert, Johan Cruyff, had this to say of his countryman:
“I have been in touch with Celtic to congratulate them on the appointment of a top class coach who has been a close colleague and friend of mine for many years.
“It’s a massive statement of Celtic’s ambition. I have no doubt he will be a huge success.”
Solving a little problem
Although Di Canio had refused on three occasions to join Jansen and his squad for their pre-season tour of the Netherlands, Jock Brown was keen to quash rumours that the Italian was on strike, claiming instead that he would train and recuperate in Scotland.
With one Italian seemingly on his way out of Celtic Park, another was sensationally linked to the title-chasers.
Gianluca Vialli had been frozen out at Chelsea by Ruud Gullit, and was on Celtic’s radar prior to the arrival of Jansen. Vialli’s agent, Andrea D’Amico confirmed to the Daily Record that signing talks had opened with managerless Celtic, “There has been no progress because we must wait for the new coach. But the discussions have been good and we do not see any problems.”
Jock Brown confirmed that the new coach would be handed a list of ten signing targets by Davie Hay. On the subject of Vialli being one of them, Brown bullishly confirmed, “The concept of signing Vialli or someone of his stature in no way frightens us. But it will depend on what the head coach says.”
A week after Jansen took over, Celtic’s interest in Vialli had cooled, as D’Amico said, “We have not heard from Celtic today. We are waiting for a call and maybe they will contact us tomorrow. Vialli is a great player and he has choices to make. He does not want to push Celtic by having us make contact with them.
“It is up to Celtic now. If they want Gianluca they will have to come to us.”
“He would like to play for Celtic and if economic problems can be overcome, I think he would sign.”
D’Amico even offered a solution to Celtic’s little problem, claiming that Vialli’s arrival would tempt Paolo Di Canio to stay at the club: “If Vialli comes, it will be great for Paolo and also for Celtic. Luca and Paolo were team-mates at Juventus, but they were also close friends as they shared a house in Turin. He will be a good influence on the other players and I am sure Paolo will be more determined to stay if Luca is joining up.”
Wim Jansen passed on both Italian players, with his former Feyenoord winger, Regi Blinker, eventually being ‘traded’ for Di Canio. By the time we faced Italian opposition in the shape of Parma on 26 July 1997, Celtic had signed the Swedish internationalist, Henrik Larsson.
There was no doubt that Vialli was keen on a move to Celtic Park, but even that arrival would have been unlikely to change Di Canio’s attitude at that time. So we lost out on Di Canio and Vialli, but brought in the King of Kings instead.
As much as it would have been great to see Italian icon Vialli in the hoops, the fullness of time has shown us that Wim Jansen called the recruitment decisions absolutely correctly in the season that we stopped the ten. After a slow start, the dreadlocked forward that he brought in didn’t do too badly either.
PAUL JOHN DYKES
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