Scotland
The comeback of Celtic
After 10 years the "BOYS" win again, helped by their opponents' mistakes.
Finally last season Celtic took advantage of its opponentsí troubles and won its first Scottish Championship over the last 10 years.
Former champions Rangers had a disappointing season and the Italian players arrived during the summer (Amoruso, Porrini, Gattuso and Negri) didnít make the team better but just more exotic.
Marco Negriís goals were good only for the annals and during the last part of the season he was even benched and replaced by Alistair Mc Coist.
More expected was the drop of the Hearts of Midlothian.
Unpredictable was instead what happened to Celtic.
Paolo Di Canio had some good reasons when he decided to leave the the Club at the end of last season, after coach Tommy Burnes was fired.
As it seems something is wrong with the Management of Celtic, if even at the end of this so winning season (the Cup after 15 years and the Championship after 10 years) Holland coach Wim Jansen was pushed to quit the team because of some controversy with the Catholic Club of Glasgow.
The answer: "Players, not coaches, win championships".
It's probably a matter of points of view.
Maybe someone didnít like to lose the last Old Firm (match versus Rangers) of the year or to jeopardize the entire season by missing a penalty kick and drawing with Hibernian (that finished last in the League).
Still the true is that Jansen had a very important role in shaping and leading Celtic back to the top of Scottish football.
One year ago Jansen accepted to face a very difficult challenge by taking over as a coach of a team that was just losing the best scorer of the League (the Portuguese Cadete), the best player of the year (the Italian Paolo Di Canio), the playmaker Paul Mc Stay (who retired after his nth injury) and the Holland striker Pierre Van Hooijdonk.
A team overwhelmed by the protestant Rangers (champions for as many as 9 seasons in a row).
Jansen arrived without clamour and surrounded by some distrust, but he immediately turned up his shirt sleeves and began to work changing 8 of the previous yearís 11 starters.
The only 3 veterans retained were the Captain Tommy Boyd, the young Jackie Mc Namara and the stopper Alan Stubbs.
As a goalkeeper he picked the English Jonathan Gould from Bradford City.
Jansen upgraded his defense with Marc Rieper (acquired from West Ham United and member of the Danish national team) and with Tommy Boyd himself (lined up as a central defender).
As a left fullback, Jansen utilized the French Stephane Mah.
Also the midfield was totally changed.
After many seasons as a second-rate player with Gullitís Chelsea, Craig Burley emerged as the best defensive midfielder of the Scottish League.
Along with him, the gigantic Morten Wieghorst (who, thank to Jansen, became also part of the Danish national team).
Finally Paul Lambert, who gave up the opportunity to play the Intercontinental Cup with Borussia Dortmund and accepted Celticís proposal to replace Mc Stay as a playmaker.
The talented Simon Donnelly and the Swedish Henrik Larsson were helped by Jansen to mature and to recover their self-confidence.
They quickly became Celticís starting forwards and Larsson even recovered a starting role with his national team.
(Larsson was already a Jansenís pupil when they both were members of Feyenoord. After some trouble in Rotterdam, therefore, Larsson decided to join his mentor again and suddenly his performances improved and his goals increased).
Jansen was also right in patiently waiting for Darren Jackson (seriously injured at the beginning of the season) but was less lucky in choosing Jacksonís temporary replacement (the Norwegian Harald Brattbakk), who arrived tired at Galsgow after winning the Championship and playing the first match of the Champions League with Rosenborg.
Top 11 of Celtic Glasgow champion
| Player | role | nationality |
data |
| Jonathan Gould | inglese | 18-7-1968 | |
| Tommy Boyd | defender | scozzese | 24-11-1965 |
| Alan Stubbs | defender | inglese | 6-10-1971 |
| Marc Rieper | defender | danese | 5-6-1968 |
| Stephane Mahè | defender | francese | 23-9-1968 |
| Jackie Mc Namara | midfielder | scozzese | 24-10-1973 |
| Morten Wieghorst | midfielder | danese | 25-2-1971 |
| Craig Burley | midfielder | scozzese | 24-9-1971 |
| Paul Lambert | midfielder | scozzese | 7-8-1969 |
| Henrik Larsson | forward | svedese | 10-9-1971 |
| Simon Donnelly | forward | scozzese | 1-12-1974 |
| Wim Jansen | coach | olandese | 28-10-1946 |
La Top 11 della stagione 1997-98
| Player | role | nationality | date of birth | team |
| Jonathan Gould | goalkeeper | inglese | 18-7-1968 | Celtic |
| Paul Ritchie | defender | scozzese | 21-8-1975 | Hearts |
| Andrew Tod | defender | scozzese | 4-11-1971 | Dunfermline |
| Alan Stubbs | defender | inglese | 6-10-1971 | Celtic |
| David Weir | defender | scozzese | 10-5-1970 | Hearts |
| Jack Mc Namara | midfielder | scozzese | 24-10-1973 | Celtic |
| Craig Burley | midfielder | scozzese | 24-9-1971 | Celtic |
| Stefano Salvatori | midfielder | italiano | 29-12-1967 | Hearts |
| Robert Winters | midfielder | scozzese | 4-11-1974 | Dundee United |
| Marco Negri | forward | italiano | 27-10-1970 | Rangers |
| Henrik Larsson | forward | svedese | 10-9-1971 | Celtic |
| Wim Jansen | coach | olandese | 28-10-1946 | Celtic |
Leaderboard
| Leaderboard | points | g | v | n | p | gf | gs |
| CELTIC GLASGOW (champion) | 74 | 36 | 22 | 8 | 6 | 64 | 24 |
| Rangers Glasgow | 72 | 36 | 21 | 9 | 6 | 76 | 38 |
| Hearts | 67 | 36 | 19 | 10 | 7 | 70 | 46 |
| Kilmarnok | 50 | 36 | 13 | 11 | 12 | 40 | 52 |
| St. Johnstone | 48 | 36 | 13 | 9 | 14 | 38 | 42 |
| Aberdeen | 39 | 36 | 9 | 12 | 15 | 39 | 53 |
| Dundee United | 37 | 36 | 8 | 13 | 15 | 43 | 51 |
| Dunfermline | 37 | 36 | 8 | 13 | 15 | 43 | 68 |
| Motherwell | 34 | 36 | 9 | 7 | 20 | 46 | 64 |
| Hibernian | 30 | 36 | 6 | 12 | 18 | 38 | 59 |