Shambles that burst balloon of celebration

For managing director Fergus McCann to say that Jansen's decision to go ''is one that the board also believes is the best for the club'' will leave those fans baffled and angry, a lot more than the few hundred that made that anger clear outside Parkhead last night. Whatever else may be said, Jansen's departure cannot remotely be considered good for Celtic.

The revelation that McCann would probably have sacked the manager if he had not made his way out the door himself will boggle the minds of many who are still celebrating the great finale to the championship on Saturday.

Managers have been sacked in the past when their side has been top of the league but this must be the first time in Scotland that the man who has masterminded success in his first year was able to head his executioners off at the pass.

Wim Jansen, therefore, will go down in history as a unique legend in Celtic history, a one-season manager who collected two out of the three major trophies available to him in Scotland.

For Celtic supporters, however, another fraught summer beckons as they await the appointment of a successor. They are totally mystified as to why, having unearthed the right man for the job, despite criticism of their choice at the time, the club has proved either incapable of persuading him to stay or have accepted that Jansen's discontent cannot be remedied.

McCann and Brown insist that their coach would not co-operate with the long-term strategy they feel has to have in place. Jansen, it seems, belongs to the old fashioned school of managers who believe they call the tune and if they succeed that is all that matters.

At Parkhead, where the business plan is all, the structure matters most. Memos and reports and proper adherence to the future planning of the company are what must come first.

That is not necessarily the best way. What matters most is what the team win and, while in the modern world there has to be well organised structure and business foresight, there also has to be room for a manager that does things his way, as long as it brings success.

People whose lives have been football orientated since they were children have different aspects of the workplace than people whose raison d'etre is to see black figures in the bank balance.

Jock Stein would not have been much of a manager if he had been asked to submit reports and long term detailed plans of his intentions. By the very nature of their existence football coaches are individualists, otherwise they could never stand the loneliness of the job.

In failing to recognise and accommodate Jansen's style, Celtic have ended up with another shambles of public relations, but worse, have been able to puncture the balloons of celebration that are still flying high on the east side of Glasgow and far beyond.

Worse still, they might well have pulled the plug on the beginnings of an exciting new successful era. It is all very well for McCann to insist that the coach is merely a cog in the wheel of a successful football club but to pretend that the team manager is anything other than the most vial figure in any club is indulging in self deception.

Instead of being a position to revel in plaudits to which they would be perfectly entitled, McCann and Brown will find themselves the target for anger from people who find that, every time they cheer, something is stuck in their throats.

They believe McCann has been an extraordinary saviour of the club. Since 1994 the new owner has transformed everything about Celtic, making the club once again a name to be proud of, with a wonderful stadium to boast about. These fans have a burning to desire to deify Fergus but they keep finding hurdles put in their way.

They have seen three top class players disappear from the scene, Pierre van Hooydonk, Paolo di Canio and Jorge Cadete. In each case there seemed to be valid arguments in favour of the management stance, which they accepted, and again they were willing to concede, albeit reluctantly, that there was reasonable cause for sacking Tommy Burns as manager.

However, when one of their most committed workers, Davie Hay, is dismissed and takes Celtic to tribunal as a result, and that is followed by the voluntary departure of the manager who prevented Rangers from beating Jock Stein's nine-in-a-row record, serious misgivings about the club's administration surface.

It may be that the Hay incident was one of the watersheds in Jansen's growing discontent, as Wim had a lot of time for the former manager and trusted his judgment.

At any rate, when it became clear that Jansen was unhappy at the way McCann and Brown operate, the writing was on the wall. What will make Celtic supporters furious is that the two leaders accepted that situation and by their inactivity tacitly encouraged it.

Jock Brown, in my opinion, was an excellent choice to be the general manager in a modern continental style football club. He had the qualifications that seemed perfect for the job, a legal mind, a media background and a love of football but, according to Jansen, he and the coach did not get on at all.

Brown vehemently denies any interference into the football side and that has to be accepted but the admission by him and Jansen a few weeks a go that they were not buddies was effective evidence that their relationship had deteriorated.

No one is saying that any manager who happens to be successful should have the divine right to do what he likes. In a modern football business, which is what a club like Celtic must be, the various departments have to be given as much credence and respect as the main one, but good football team coaches, ones capable of the kind of impact made by Jansen at Parkhead, are difficult to name and even more difficult to acquire.

It seems there were major differences between Jansen, who works on a short-term basis, and the top management, who believe in the long term. It was inevitable, then, that the coach would go, but it will seem remarkable to the club's well wishers that, since this rift became public, no workable compromise was able to be constructed.

McCann has earned a reputation as a tough, single minded, brilliant businessman who likes things done his way, and who controls the purse strings with what he would insist is sensible parsimony.

Overall, it must simply be the case that the strong will of Jansen has clashed with the equally strong wills of Brown and McCann. Something has had to give and Wim has chosen to be it, which is just as well as it seems he would have been going anyway.

His decision will come as no surprise to those who knew the style of the Dutchman. He arrived in Scotland with a reputation of being a man whose stubborn conviction to stand by his own principles was immovable and he is about to keep that reputation intact.

He has gone, the third manager in four years to make his way out the front door at Parkhead. Now what? One thing is certain: Celtic cannot afford another summer of discontent. A replacement has to be secured quickly and it will need to be someone who can carry on the work of Jansen, rather than a coach with different ideas and systems, with a desire to start from scratch.

The foundations of a team style that succeeded at home and could succeed abroad have been laid.To dig them up and begin the process again could see Celtic go into the limbo they entered ten years ago after they won their last title.

The obvious answer - but it probably will not happen - would be to give the job to Murdo MacLeod. The former Celtic player formed a close relationship with Jansen, knows his methods intimately, has the respect and confidence of the players and has experience both as a manager and coach. As a player, he saw continental methods at close hand with Borussia Dortmund.

In that way at least, Celtic could achieve some kind of continuity, preserve some of the tactical and technical know-how initiated by Jansen, and give themselves a chance of as little disruption as possible. Whether Murdo would fit into the long-term picture that seems so desirable is another question and in any case his boats were probably been burned when he spoke out in Jansen's favour.

Jansen's legacy will not be grasped if the men at the top have not learned a few lessons of their own. Modern day coaches are not hindered by obsessive club loyalties, are utterly single minded and unshakeable in their convictions about how a club should treat them, and have such self confidence that they believe they can work the oracles their way at whichever club.

Wim Jansen proved man enough to take on a tough job; proved man enough to succeed; and proved man enough to leave on principle. Now Celtic will need to prove big enough to admit they made mistakes and resolve not to let this ability to shoot themselves in the foot continue to overshadow the great things that are being achieved.

Long-term-short-term. The man was a winner. Just ask the dancing dervishes who spent the weekend in ecstasy.

Jansen Factfile

1947: Born Rotterdam. 1966: Joined Feyenoord. 1970: Played in Feyenoord's European Cup win against Celtic. 1974: Won UEFA Cup winners', beating Tottenham. Played in World Cup final defeat by West Germany. 1978: Played for Holland in World Cup final defeat by Argentina. 1980: Moved to Washington Diplomats. 1981: Signed for Ajax. 1982: Returned to Feyenoord as youth-team coach. 1987: Coach of Belgian side Lokeren. 1988: Coached with Dick Advocaat at Dutch second division side Dordrecht. 1991: Joint head coach of Feyenoord, along with Wim van Hanegem. 1993: Assistant to van Hanegem with Saudi Arabia. 1994: Coaches Japanese side San Frecce. 1997: Celtic head coach; won Coca-Cola Cup. 1998: Leads Celtic to their first title in 10 years. May 11: Jansen resigns.