Celtic coach Wim Jansen looked back to his own career yesterday - which included two World Cup finals with Holland - and decided that today's game, between Celtic and St Johnstone, required total concentration from his players and, if that were achieved, the championship celebrations would begin.
The Dutchman, who has guided the Parkhead club to within touching distance of their first premier division title in a decade, was relaxed as he prepared to take his players away to a secluded hotel in a break from the usual weekend tradition. It was almost as if he realised that the work he had to do had been done and the preparations were exactly what the players wanted and today they could go out in front of more than 50,000 fans and end the 10-year spell of domination by Rangers.
Smiled Jansen: ''We are going to take the players away to a training headquarters before the game because they asked for this. It was their request.
''We have done it before earlier in the season before big games and then the players decided that they preferred to stay at home. This week they changed and that pleased me.
''They asked to go to a hotel and to get themselves ready there for this game. When I look back at my own time as a player, I know that you cannot allow your concentration to slip one little bit.
''That is what we have to ask from the players tomorrow. We have to have them focused totally on what they must do and it is simple what they have to do.
''They must win the game. We cannot think about anything else.
''As far as I am concerned, Rangers will win their game because they have to do that. Therefore, we have to win our game and, if we do so, then the title has been won. It is in our own hands and nothing can be allowed to deflect the team from this game.''
Jansen revealed that he had, himself, been involved in a last-day title decider when he was a player in Holland, but he added mischievously: ''I won, but I don't want to talk about it, because it has nothing to do with this game tomorrow. The past is in the past.''
Celtic will go into the game with only David Hannah from the first-team squad unavailable. Simon Donnelly and Henrik Larsson and Jackie McNamara are all fit again and the Celtic coach stressed that, while they had missed training in the early part of the week, all of them had been working full-out since Thursday.
They are available for selection, though Jansen did not go so far as to name his team yesterday. He is a man who is much too cautious for that.
However, in the current campaign, Jansen has not experimented with his team to any extent. He will stand by the players who have taken the club so close and he believes the players will overcome the pressure that has been placed upon them.
He shrugged yesterday: ''The players must handle the pressure. Some of them I shall speak with, because that is what they require in this situation, some kind of talking.
''Others will be allowed to prepare themselves, because that is what they need, to be left alone. We know the players and we shall handle that in the right way.''
As for himself, Jansen admits that today he will feel some pressure, but he is a man who clearly savours the moment. He says: ''If you don't want to be involved in this kind of situation, you would not be in this job. This is something that I will feel tomorrow, but it is something, also, that you want to experience if you are a coach.''
Jansen does not feel that the thousands of transistor radios that will be playing around the ground will affect the players. He insists that the players have a victory target and that is all that has to concern them. If they win, he stressed constantly, then nothing can take the title away from them.
The emotional pressure that may sweep down from the stands is another matter and the little Dutchman admitted: ''We need the supporters to be patient. We need them to be with the team and to support the team and then all of us can win together and that is all that matters on this day.''
Of course, there is a supporting cast at Parkhead, and St Johnstone take on that role with their supporters still infuriated that their allocation of tickets for the big day has been cut to just 850.
Their injury problems are well known and have been all week. Jim Weir and Alan Kernaghan are out of the central defensive areas, but manager Paul Sturrock recognises that he must continue to play for a place in Europe.
If Kilmarnock slip, then the Perth club will have that opportunity of a UEFA Cup place. However, I cannot see anything other than a Celtic victory this afternoon.
They may have spurned the chance of victory in the championship race too often in the past few weeks, but that they simply cannot do so again. It would be a tragedy if they were to do so and one that would wreak enormous psychological damage on the players and on the support.
However, it will not happen. Today, Celtic will be crowned champions and then head off to Lisbon - that city of so many memories - and the final game of an arduous year against Sporting Club on Tuesday.
BOOKIES' VIEW: Celtic - 2-5, St Johnstone - 8-1, Draw - 100-30.
qHay recals the final-day drama in 1986 - Page 13
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