Bobby Robson, the man that Fergus McCann always wanted

By Joe McHugh

There can be little doubt that Bobby Robson was greatly admired by Fergus McCann and could have had any job that he liked during McCann's time at Celtic.

The summer of 1997 would appear to have been the closest that Celtic got to Robson but despite the offer from McCann the former England manager decided to take on a General Manager role at Barcelona to Louis van Gaal while Celtic eventually turned their attention to Jock Brown...

McCann, after two decades in North America, appeared to pick up on Robson during the 1993/94 season when he eventually ousted the Celtic dynasties of the Kelly's and Whites.

LOU MACARI

During that season Celtic played Sporting Lisbon in the UEFA Cup with Frank Connor guiding the team to a 1-0 win in the first leg before new manager Lou Macari lost the return match 2-0 to a side featuring Jorge Cadete who would go on to feature heavily in McCann's five years at Celtic.

Macari's part-time confrontational management style was never going to last under McCann. Tommy Burns was chosen as Macari's successor but from his North American background McCann was never comfortable with the managerial set up favoured in the UK where one man, the manager seemed to be the decision maker for every area of the club.

McCann and Burns both had their ambitions for Celtic but the route to get there was never shared. Paying out large sums of money for footballers, and to agents, made McCann uncomfortable with the fee and the terms of the deals for Phil O'Donnell and Tommy Johnson particularly irksome.

By the time of the Johnson deal in 1997 McCann was already looking at a new managerial model for Celtic with Robson's success noted as manager of Barcelona after a similarly successful spell in charge of Porto.

BARCELONA

The interest in Robson was highlighted by the friendly that Celtic played with Barcelona in November 1996 although in typical McCann fashion there was threats to sue Barcelona for not sending their strongest team and Robson admitted that he was mystified as to why the game had taken place!

Despite winning three trophies including the Cup Winners Cup in 96/97 Robson was getting booted up stairs by Barca as they brought in the Ajax approach of Louis van Gaal who had made the Dutch side a Champions League force for the first time in twenty years.

As Burns was sacked by Celtic a new blueprint for management was unveiled featuring bold ambitious job titles leaning heavily towards the continental model, at the launch the names of Wim Jansen, Jock Brown and Eric Black seemed to be miles away.

Robson seemed unsure of his future but was popular at Barcelona. He knew all about Celtic's interest but was perhaps unsure of McCann who had vowed to sell up and move on at the end of his five year Celtic plan.

In those days every summer seemed like a lifetime at Celtic, determined not to make mistakes and wary of media interest, McCann was in charge of everything from stadium redevelopment and managerial appointments while battling away against his detested agents and players who he clearly believed were working their ticket.

TEN-IN-A-ROW

As an outsider looking in Celtic, despite it's potential and attractions wasn't the most appealing of jobs as the club struggled to contain the then free-spending Rangers on their way to an inevitable ten-in-a-row as they brought in Jonas Thern, Sergio Porrini, Lorenzo Amoruso, Marco Negri and Rino Gatusso from Seria A plus other not so super superstars like Stale Stensaas, Tony Vidmar and Anti Niemi to help out Paul Gascoigne and Brian Laudrup with the focus set of European domination with Scotland virtually assured...

The General Manager role didn't really appeal to Robson, he was a tracksuit man rather than figurehead but without doubt he could have had whatever role he wanted at Celtic.

Robson opted for the General Manager's job at Barcelona but was back in management a year later at PSV Eindhoven before his homecoming to St James Park and Newcastle United after a lifetime in the game spent away from his native North East.

With Robson out of contention McCann found time running against him as a new season approached without a manager, with Paul McStay retired through injury and various issues going on with the supporters golden boys.

JOCK BROWN

Pierre van Hooijdonk had already left for Nottingham Forest, Jorge Cadete was having a breakdown while Paolo di Canio was discovering little problems in his contract.

Throwing Jock Brown in as trouble-shooter/General Manager poured petrol on the flames but one way or another Wim Jansen fashioned a team out of it all to take the title from Rangers before slipping off into the horizon.

Who knows what Robson would have made of Celtic if he had taken up the offer to come to the club?

NEWCASTLE

In his final management job he took Newcastle United into the Champions League which in this day seems an incredible achievement. Finishing third, fourth and fifth in the Premiership wasn't good enough for the Newcastle directors who decided to sack Robson and replace him with Graeme Souness.

Since sacking Robson in 2004 Newcastle have had ten different managers including Kevin Keegan, Joe Kinnear, Chris Hughton and Alan Shearer last season.

One of Robson's last actions as Newcastle manager was to savage the Rangers support during a pre-season tournament at Newcastle.

Alan Shearer was the target for a Rangers team including Fernando Ricksen and Boab Malcolm with the travelling support upto their usual hostilities.

Robson said: "I also don't like filthy chants and there were a lot of unclean mouths making filthy chants. Alan Shearer doesn't have to put up with that situation. I wasn't having that, having them screaming unpleasantries at him, so I got him out of that muck."

Ahead of his time as ever.

An eagerly awaited night

By Joe McHugh

Would it be too dramatic to say that tonight's match with Moscow Dynamo is the most eagerly awaited game since the UEFA Cup Final in Seville?

VIDEO OF EUROPEAN GOALS

Curiosity has given way to anticipation as the game approaches, sluggish ticket sales have accelerated since the weekend with supporters at last really wanting to get along to the match.

Since Seville we've had our moments of course, we've beaten AC Milan and Manchester United during three successive seasons in the Champions League.

We've watched Henrik Larsson, John Hartson, Craig Bellamy, Roy Keane, Shunsuke Nakamura and Artue Boruc over the last few years and perhaps became a bit blase about the big games but after the pain and strain of last season, throwing the title away to cash-strapped Rangers a fresh impetus was urgently required.

Tony Mowbray's arrival brought hope but also concern. His West Brom team had been relegated from the Premiership where Stoke and Hull had survived.

Were we bringing in a manager more concerned with style than success?

Would we look back on the three-in-a-row era misty eyed about a period when we dominated domestically and made a fight of it in the Champions League?

WEMBLEY CUP

The weekend of the Wembley Cup has whetted the appetite of the supporters. The wins were great but the style of play and 'reincarnation' of players was just as impressive and unexpected.

Players that looked like deadwood suddenly found their feet again, shackled players discovered freedom and a surge of confidence was evident on and off the park.

In the bigger picture the Wembley Cup won't mean too much but regaining confidence through a pleasing style of play that is crucially also effective could be priceless.

The acid test comes tonight from Moscow with danger. Dinamo will be well drilled, organised and match sharp which are qualities that Celtic can't attain over four pre-season friendlies.

Will confidence and enthusiasm be enough to wear down the Russians who are equally desperate to make their mark in the Champions League?

TEAM SELECTION

Tonight's team selection will be fascinating.

No more than four players can be sure of their place, other than Boruc, Andreas Hinkel, Aiden McGeady and Scott McDonald no-one can be sure of starting.

Which combination of Gary Caldwell, Glenn Loovens and Darren O'Dea will be in central defence. Will Danny Fox edge out Lee Naylor at left back?

Will Shaun Maloney be played out wide? In centre midfield it's anyone's guess who will play with Landry N'Guemo, Marc Crosas, Massimo Donati, Willo Flood all competing for two places.

In attack will Marc-Antoine Fortune partner McDonald or will Georgios Samaras or Chris Killen get the job?

Competition is always healthy. Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink came back to life when Samaras arrived on loan from Manchester City. Barry Robson's signing brought out the best in Paul Hartley and Scott Brown.

PREDICTABLE

Last season we were predictable. Supporters knew how we would play, opposition managers knew how to stop us playing.

Without getting carried away it's a fresh start tonight at Celtic Park, it's eagerly awaited. If the players hit the heights they will get incredible backing from the supporters, the twelfth man.

Expectations can be crippling, let's hope that with Billy McNeill as the club's official ambassador that expectation becomes inspiring.

Darren's Delight

WEMBLEY ROUND UP by Joe McHugh

What a great weekend that was, much better than anticipated with just about everything going right for the re-born hoops.

The trophy was a great reward but even if we had lost or drawn one of the matches there would still have been plenty to be encouraged by.

Who would have guessed last season that Lee Naylor, Massimo Donati and Chris Killen would all make telling performances in the same match?

The team selection for the Dinamo Moscow match is going to be very interesting, there is genuine competition for every place, there will be a few players left sitting in the stand who'll feel with justification that they could have started.

Suddenly we have a squad fighting for places, last season you could pick the team in advance most weeks with everyone secure of their place with only the 'heads I lose tails you win' decision to be made between Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink and Georgios Samaras to partner Scott McDonald.

CHAMPIONS LEAGUE

There's a recurring theme to all the post match comments and that's that the Wembley Cup means nothing if we don't carry the confidence from those games into the start of the season, or Moscow Dinamo as it's better known.

The pessimism that accompanied the Champions League draw is clearing up but can't be overtaken by over confidence, any sort of win will be very welcome against Dinamo taking a 1-0 or 2-0 over there with our keeper looking like his old self should swing the advantage our way.

RESERVES

As a keen follower of the reserves of the reserves it was great to see so many of them doing themselves justice against Spurs.

Paul Caddis was probably the most eye-catching and looks a reliable back-up to Andreas Hinkel as well as a potential match winner if used as an attacking substitute.

Seeing Paddy McCourt and Koki Mizuno starting together was unexpected and both made their mark without excelling.

Mizuno is lively and direct and would have benefited greatly if he had tucked away his early chance, with confidence and experience he could emerge into a squad player with benefits.

McCourt is an incredible enigma. No other player on the pitch could have put together the run that took him through on the Spurs goal at the start of the second half.

His skill and close control are fantastic but without a burst of pace I think that it'll be hard for him to make the breakthrough at Celtic.

In a strange way he reminds me of Didier Agathe, if Agathe could cross the ball he'd never have ended up at Celtic or disappeared off the football map post Celtic. If McCourt had pace he'd have by-passed Rochdale, Shamrock Rovers, Derry City and Celtic and be picking up a fortune in one of the rich leagues.

CAPTAIN DARREN

After speaking out about this season being so important to him it must have been a great feeling for O'Dea to have been handed the captain's role against Spurs.

Being in the team against Dinamo Moscow on Wednesday would mean more to him but the armband was recognition of his qualities as well as ability.

O'Dea plays the game as a captain with or without an armband. When he first came into the team he carried forward the leadership skills that have always been part of his game, organising comes naturally to him.

Patience has also been a quality. Most younger players would have moved on after being generally overlooked in the way that O'Dea has been over the last two seasons.

This could also be a World Cup season for O'Dea, if he joins Aiden McGeady in the international set up it would be a great commendation for the Celtic Academy with many hours, months and years put in to developing both players to their current status.

DARREN O'DEA INTERVIEW