John Hartson became Martin O’Neill’s record signing when he joined in 2001.
A Celtic team which had just won a stunning treble was looking to reach the next level ahead of their first ever season in the Champions League Group Stage.
The Hoops had been linked with Hartson in the past, but the Welshman’s reputation had been tarnished by a string of failed medicals.
The most notable of these was across the road at Rangers, where he had fully signed his contract just to have the plug pulled by Dick Advocaat’s medical staff.
The rest, as they say, is history…
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Martin O’Neill on signing John Hartson at Celtic
Hartson had already played for a fair few clubs in his career when he came in the door at Celtic Park.
He had played in a European final with Arsenal, been relegated with Wimbledon and featured under Gordon Strachan at Coventry City.
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But Celtic ended up being the club at which he scored the most goals, and such was his affinity for the Hoops that he ended up getting a tattoo of the club’s crest.
Speaking to Sky Sports, O’Neill reflected on getting Dermot Desmond to, in Hartson’s words, force the deal through.
He said: “We were a year into proceedings at Celtic, we’d just won the league and the treble. Essentially, we had Chris Sutton and Henrik Larsson.
“So if anything happened to any of those two, it was going to be a struggle, particularly with European football.
“The very obvious thing was to try and get a centre forward who could maybe compete for a place with them, and John, to me, was the obvious target.
“If his knees had been falling apart, I wouldn’t have spent the club’s money on somebody who’s not going to play any of the games.
“Dermot Desmond asked, ‘do you want to go and do it? We’ve got the wherewithal to do it.’ He never questioned it.
“The last thing you want is a catastrophic signing; somebody’s cost the football club a lot of money, this was my complete say.
“I think he wanted to prove his fitness, he wanted to prove Rangers wrong.”
Who was Martin O’Neill’s best signing at Celtic?
Celtic’s best signings under Martin O’Neill
Across his iconic spell in the Parkhead hotseat, O’Neill brought some brilliant players to the club.
The headline signing of his first transfer window was Chris Sutton, who was used in a wider variety of positions after the arrival of Hartson.
O’Neill reunited with Leicester ally Neil Lennon that December – his affiliation with Celtic would go on to last almost two decades.
Alan Thompson, Joos Valgaeren and Bobo Balde were among the other prominent signings made in the early 2000s.
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