John Hartson details what Martin O’Neill told him at Celtic after he failed Rangers medical

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It’s an infamous story, now, regarding John Hartson’s sliding doors moment at Celtic.

The big Welshman was minutes from joining rivals Rangers on a hefty deal worth around £6.5million on the same day they signed Ronald de Boer as a statement of intent.

The financial outlay they would offer Hartson, however, would have the Ibrox medical staff taking a much more forensic and detailed look at his issues and one in his knee was flagged up.

The deal collapsed and Hartson – who had admitted he would have completed his move to Celtic’s rivals – would head back down the road to Coventry where he had been playing.

• READ MORE: John Hartson chuckles as he recalls early Dermot Desmond broken Celtic promise

It was, ironically, a training session with future Hoops boss Gordon Strachan with the Sky Blues which handed him what would be his biggest career opportunity in Glasgow.

And after a chat with then-manager Martin O’Neill, Hartson was convinced Parkhead would be the place he would call home.

An interesting turn of events back in 2001 would ultimately see him don the green and white for five years and score 105 goals in just shy of 200 appearances for the club.

And speaking with BBC’s Sacked in the Morning podcast, the 49-year-old recalled exactly what O’Neill said to him on his failed move to Rangers and how he proved 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.”