John Hartson recently posted a clip on his social media channels in which he proclaimed the three proudest moments of his life, which were being present at the birth of his five children, being told he was cancer free and signing for the greatest club in football, Glasgow Celtic.
John of course signed 22 years ago, when Martin O’Neill swooped to bring in the Welshman for a fee of around £6 million from Coventry City. Hartson was eager to do well for the club right from the word go. Even more so since our bitter rivals Rangers turned him down the previous year due to a ‘dodgy knee’, something that never hampered John’s career in the Hoops.
LIVERPOOL – MARCH 20: John Hartson of Celtic is tackled by Djimi Traore of Liverpool during the UEFA Cup Quarter-Final second leg match held on March 20, 2003 at Anfield, in Liverpool, England. Celtic won the match 2-0, winning the tie 3-1 on aggregate. (Photo by Gary M. Prior/Getty Images)
Anyway their loss was our gain as John soon got down to business scoring 24 goals in all competitions as the league title was clinched. It was to be a familiar story for the remainder of his Celtic career as John went on to score 109 goals for the club in 2001 games in a five year period, winning six honours in the process.
His record was even more remarkable considering he was up against the successful Chris Sutton and Henrik Larsson pairing. Although partly due to Chris Sutton’s wonderful versatility, which allowed big John to play more regularly in the striking role with the Englishman regular dropping into midfield, sometimes even at centre back.
Aiden McGeady, John Hartson & Stilian Petrov 30 July 2005. Photo Allstar/RichardxSelle
All this success for a guy who supposedly had a dodgy knee, who would’ve thought? Well David Murray and Rangers didn’t. Big John has been on record several times stating that the he took the snub by Rangers personally and over his days wearing the Hoops he certainly made the old Ibrox club suffer.
Just an Ordinary Bhoy
