Sports
John Hartson swipes at Rangers as he reveals what Martin O’Neill told him at Celtic after he failed the Rangers medical
The story of John Hartson’s sliding doors moment at Celtic is now infamous.
The huge Welshman was on the verge of signing rivals Rangers for roughly £6.5 million on the same day they signed Ronald de Boer as a show of intent.
The financial outlay they would provide Hartson, on the other hand, requested that the Ibrox medical team do a much more forensic and extensive examination of his ailments, with one in his knee being identified.
The deal fell through, and Hartson, who had previously stated that he would have completed his transfer to Celtic’s opponents, would return to Coventry, where he had been playing.
Ironically, it was a training session with future Hoops manager Gordon Strachan with the Sky Blues that provided him with his most significant professional opportunity in Glasgow.
After speaking with then-manager Martin O’Neill, Hartson was confident that Parkhead would be his permanent home.
An unexpected turn of events in 2001 would eventually see him wear the green and white for five years, scoring 105 goals in just under 200 appearances for the club.
Speaking to the BBC’s Sacked in the Morning program, the 49-year-old recalled exactly what O’Neill told him about his aborted move to Rangers and how he demonstrated how much he wanted the ex-Arsenal striker.
John Hartson almost joined Rangers before Celtic in 2001
“Yes, it was, yeah. It was almost like one of those sliding doors moments, you know, where one door shuts and another one opens. I went to Rangers, of course, to sign and I would have signed if I passed the medical,” Hartson explained.
“Dick Advocate was in charge at the time. They were signing Ronald de Boer on the same day. I flew up to Glasgow and saw David Murray’s private jet, picked me up in Cardiff and I was, I was taken out in a car to Ross Hall Hospital.
“I was given a couple of scans, all the terms, all the length of contract, everything was organized, decided. And then when they saw my knee on a scan, they decided not to go ahead with the deal. But it was, it was for 6.5 million pounds, big wages.
“And they always say, when is, when is that size of transfer? People are very cautious there because nothing can go wrong. If I was going for £200,000 or £100,000. Yeah, then we just see it through. We can afford to, if it doesn’t happen, then that’s fine. It doesn’t hurt us too much.
Hartson would form a deadly trio with Henrik Larsson and Chris Sutton at Celtic
“And then a couple of months after I’m doing pre-season with Gordon Strachan in the student dorm, St. Andrews University.
“And he put me on the phone to Martin O’Neill after a training session. And Martin said, look, he said, I know all about your medical history. He said, we’re delighted that you failed that medical across the road.
“He said, ‘I’m going to come up on Friday. He said, I’ll have a contract in my hand and you’re going to sign it’. So I signed for Celtic.
And as I said, a great success there.”
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