McCann: We were ready to sack him

He acknowledged the coach's contribution to the best season Celtic have had in his time at Parkhead, but added: ''It would have been unlikely we would have asked him to continue if he had not resigned. You can't have one man in the club saying: 'I am Celtic FC.' This is a team effort and everyone is a part of it. This league title was not won in a year. It took much longer than that.''

The man who dismissed Lou Macari and Tommy Burns went on: ''His particular style of not fitting in within a system, within a policy, made it difficult.''

McCann and Brown said that the difference between the coach and them was in his refusal to have anything to with long-term planning. Brown pointed out that Jansen had been asked to produce a strategy for next season, indicating players he might want and money he would wish to spend. ''He refused to take anything to do with it. He said: 'That is not my way.'''

Brown went on: ''We are talking about a plc, with stock exchange obligations, and it is totally inapproriate to talk in the kind of numbers we have used this season without a plan and strategy that stacks up for shareholders. many of them are fans.

''You have a responsibility you have to discharge in that respect. You can't pluck a name out of the air, find he might cost #6m and say: 'Can I have him tomorrow, please?'

''There has to be a plan attached. Had we been given that plan when we asked for it in March, even if it had been an extremely ambitious one, involving an awful lot of money, I would certainly have argued vehemently before the board for the resources to see it through.

''I am sure I could have persuaded this board to realise these plans, even if it meant borrowing money to do it. You can't just work on the basis of going out and spending X million pounds. Nobody can accept that as a feasible way of working in the operation on a scale that we are running.''

McCann added a piece of unconnected, but perhaps more damning information: ''Wim would not take responsibility for anything. He blamed Jock Brown, the players or anybody else bar himself.''

The two men said that they had not been surprised at the news from Portugal in the morning. ''We had suspected it would be the case for the last six weeks or so,'' said Brown, ''and for that reason we have begun to make plans for a successor.''

Neither he nor the managing director would expand on that, but it is clear that names have already been written down, and it may be that some tentative contact has already been made. They do admit they are determined to have a new man in place much quicker than they did last summer when the team had begun pre-season training before Jansen had been appointed.

Brown refused to accept that his relationship with Jansen was a contributory factor to his departure. ''If there is some suggestion from him that there was some difficulty between us I would say that it would only be in a difference in philosophy. I don't think personality matters but I have to say that there were areas where we disagreed.

''My job is to carry through the policies of this club and they are long term but Wim's approach is more short term. It would not unfair of me to say that I was not on the same wavelength as Wim in that context.

''I have to add that it has upset me that we have to live with the prospect of this for six weeks when I feel his contractual details should never have been in the public domain.

''I am always still uspet to see stories that say I interfered in football matters which Wim himself dismissed many weeks ago. And it is also upsetting to read that I forced the appointment of Eric Black to the coaching staff without Wim's agreement. In fact he and Murdo interviewed him and came back to me and said: 'Sign him'.''

Brown and McCann dismissed out of hand Jansen's allegation in Portugal that he had offered to resign after two weeks in the job.

The managing director also insisted that the more intelligent fans would acknowledge that the success of the team was down to many others, including the players and other staff. ''I think that the winning of the league is the result of a cumulative effect over a few years and the people who helped in the past also deserve credit.''

He included previous manager Tommy Burns in that accolade.

There was also the matter of the private jet laid on to see Harald Brattbakk in Norway before making the final decision to sign him. ''We made it clear to Wim once he settled in that it was club policy that the manager went to see any players he wanted to sign,'' said Brown. ''He said he could not go to see Brattbakk because he did not want to miss training, which is fair enough. We then laid on a private jet to take him to see the player, but he refused that, too.

''I then said that if he was not going to see the player there was a strong chance the board would not sanction the signing. He just said: 'Too bad'.''

Asked why there was no attempt to persuade the man who had steered the team to its first title win for a decade, Brown said: ''We are in the situation where I have to go to a board of directors with a strategy plan for next season's spending and I am told: 'I am not going to co-operate.' I mean, if that was going to continue, we are in substantial difficulty, so attempting to dissuade him from departing would have been hypocritical for a start.''

McCann's parting remarks about Jansen acknowledged his contribution and wished him well. ''Wim was seen to be a bit of a free spirit before he came here. I think he is a guy who likes to be somewhere he is happy and you have to respect that. Unfortunately, he decided after a year he wasn't happy either being here or to fit in with Celtic's objectives or plans or structures.''

''This is an organisation that has to have plans, has to think ahead, has to know what it wants to do. You can't have one man sitting in isolation saying: 'I am Celtic FC'.''

And so another stormy chapter in the rollercoaster life of the Celtic fan ends, another is about to begin. It's goodbye to Wim and hello to who?

qMURDO MacLEOD and Martin O'Neill were last night named joint favourites by bookmakers to take over as manager of Celtic. Wim Jansen's assistant is 5-2, with the Leicester City manager to lead Celtic. Full list:

Murdo MacLeod, Martin O'Neill 5-2; Craig Brown 4-1; Mick McCarthy 6-1; Gordon Strachan 7-1; Joe Kinnear 8-1; Paul Sturrock 16-1; Arthur Jorge, Ruud Gullit 20-1; Dave Jones 25-1; Eric Black, Peter Beardsley 33/1.

Smith's also offer departing Rangers manager Walter Smith at 100-1 and his assistant, Archie Knox, at a generous 200-1.