A dreadful week for many of those with Celtic in their hearts just got that little bit worse with the sad news of the passing of Jozef Venglos. Normally referred to by Hoops supporters with a combination of love and respect simply as “Dr Jo,” the former Celtic manager was just a few weeks short of his 85th birthday when he died in his native Slovakia. Whilst Jozef was only in the Parkhead dugout for the single season of 1998/99, he did have a connection with the club which spanned four decades before that.
Born in the then eastern Czechoslovakian city of Ruzomberok, near the Polish border, on 18 February 1936, the 18-year-old Venglos would commence his football career some 150 miles south-west in Bratislava with First League outfit Slovan, in 1954. The Sky Blues would win the national title the following year to become the first Czechoslovakian side to compete in the new European Cup, in the summer of 1956, Slovan eliminating Legia Warsaw 4-2 on aggregate before losing out to Swiss champions Grasshopper Club Zurich by the odd goal.
The early 1960’s would trigger a golden era in Czech football, and whilst midfielder Jozef Venglos would face stiff competition from players such as Dukla Prague’s legendary Josef Masopust, restricting his appearances for his country to ‘B’ matches, several of his Slovan teammates would be part of the full international side who played against a Scotland team, including Celts Billy McNeill, Paddy Crerand and Dunky MacKay, in 1961 for the right to qualify for the World Cup finals in Chile the following year. With one win apiece, it took extra-time in the Brussels play-off to send the Czechs through at Scotland’s expense. They would then go all the way to the World Cup final, before losing 3-1 to holders Brazil in Santiago, as Masopust was named European Footballer of the Year, the predecessor to the Ballon D’Or award.
Back in domestic football, the Czech Army side Dukla had been the dominant force as the 1950’s rolled into the 1960’s, however, the month of July 1963 would witness something quite unique, as Jozef Venglos and his Slovan Bratislava colleagues won the Czechoslovak Cup for the first time, then repeated the feat two weeks later! Confused? The 1961/62 final between Slovan and holders Dukla had finished in a 1-1 draw in December 1962, with the replay not taking place until 17 July the following year, Slovan winning 4-1. Just seven days later, the Sky Blues faced Dukla’s city rivals Dynamo in the 1962/63 final, that match ending goalless. The third cup final in a fortnight was then decided on Slovan’s home ground, Tehelne Pole, and there would no threat of a third match, as Jo’s boys won 9-0 to retain their trophy.
Those successes had given Slovan two entries into European football’s latest competition, the Cup Winners’ Cup. In autumn 1962, ahead of the national cup final with champions Dukla, they would take a degree of revenge for the defeat by Grasshopper six years earlier by knocking out Swiss Cup-winners Lausanne as Tottenham Hotspur were taking six off Rangers over two legs in another first-round tie. The clubs would then meet in the quarter-final, and it was advantage Slovan after a 2-0 first-leg victory in Bratislava. Spurs would then score six without reply at White Hart Lane on their way to becoming the first side from this island to win a European trophy, after their 5-1 win over Atletico Madrid in Rotterdam in May 1963.
The next season would see Slovan Bratislava meet Celtic for the first time. The first round of the 1963/64 European Cup Winners’ Cup saw both sides record double-digit aggregate wins, Celts beating Basel 10-1 whilst Slovan added another two as they eliminated Finland’s HPS Helsinki 12-2, eight of those goals scored in Bratislava.
The second round saw much tougher opposition for Celtic, Jimmy McGrory’s Hoops beating Dinamo Zagreb, whilst Slovan enjoyed a more comfortable tie against Welsh Cup-winners, Borough United, a 1-0 win in Wrexham followed by a 3-0 home victory. The quarter-final draw threw up the prospect of a reunion with Paddy Crerand and his new Manchester United teammates for Celtic, as well as other western European powerhouses Sporting Lisbon, SV Hamburg or Lyon, however, it would be Jozef’s Slovan Bratislava who would travel to Celtic Park on the evening of Wednesday, 26 February 1964.
Although listed in the match programme at right-half, Venglos did not feature in Glasgow, his number four jersey going to young defender Alexander Horvath, more on him later. An all-out attacking performance from Celts saw John Hughes crash a header off the bar in the opening minute, then narrowly miss the target seconds after the restart.
Bobby Murdoch would miss the best chance of the night soon afterwards, before making amends by blasting his penalty past legendary Czech international keeper Vilian Scrojf, with 20 minutes remaining, after Stevie Chalmers had been brought down in the box, to give Celtic the narrowest of leads to take to Bratislava seven days later.
Horvath would retain his place as an excellent defensive performance by Celtic in the Tehelne Pole saw the match remain goalless until the 85th minute. At that point, John Hughes picked up the ball on the halfway line and drove for goal, leaving Slovan’s Anton Moravcik in his wake before beating Scrojf for an incredible winning goal.
I have tried and failed previously to establish if the multi-capped Anton was related to Lubomir, our very own Slovakian Gift from God. As an aside, that stadium would be the location for a much more disappointing night, some 41 years later, as Celtic lost 5-0 to Artmedia Bratislava in Gordon Strachan’s first match in charge of the Hoops. It was demolished in 2013, although there is no suggestion that anyone with a Celtic connection was responsible.
Jozef’s final season at Slovan Bratislava would see his side finish in a disappointing seventh place in the Czechoslovak First League. The title race would have the tightest of finishes with future implications on Celtic. Defending champions Sparta Prague finished with an identical record to that of city rivals Dukla, both enjoying a positive goal difference of 17. Sparta had scored and conceded seven more goals than Dukla, and the modern-day goal difference would have seen them win the League on the basis of goals scored, however, as in Scotland at that time, it was ‘goal average’ which was used to determine the outcome, a system which favoured teams who conceded fewer goals. Thus, Dukla rather than Sparta would enter the 1966/67 European Cup, and their dates of destiny with Celtic, such a crucial part of our own club history.
The 30-year-old Venglos was forced to call a halt to his playing career after contracting hepatitis, Jozef moving to Australia to commence a coaching role with the aptly-named FC Prague Sydney. By May 1967 he was in charge of their national team, leading his men in a triple-header against a Scotland touring party which included our own Harry Hood – then with Clyde – Tom Callaghan’s brother Willie and his Dunfermline Athletic teammate Alex Ferguson.
Following his spell Down Under, Venglos would return to Bratislava in 1968 to continue his coaching development with his first love, Slovan, under former colleague Michal Vican. They would finish runner’s up in that year’s title race to Dukla Prague, whilst beating their rivals in the Czechoslovak Cup final to enter the European Cup Winners’ Cup for the first time since the defeat by Celts five years earlier. Slovan would beat Yugoslavs FK Bor, heavyweights Porto and Torino, then Scottish Cup-holders Dunfermline Athletic in the semi-final, to reach the final in Basel against Barcelona. His side captained by Alexander Horvath – remember him – would then beat the favourites 3-2 in the St Jakob Stadium to become the first – and to date only – team from Czechoslovakia or any of its successor nations to win a major European trophy.
Jozef would then take charge of his own side again by moving to Kosice, in the south-east periphery of the country. He would enjoy remarkable success there, taking them to a runner’s up spot in the Czechoslovak First League in 1970/71, thus qualifying the club for European competition for the first time in its history, co-incidentally also the inaugural UEFA Cup tournament. They would lose out to the powerful Russians Spartak Moscow by the odd goal.
By now, Venglos was involved in a coaching position with the Czech international team, looking after their Under 23 squad, and he would continue in that role after leaving Kosice to take over as the manager of Slovan Bratislava in 1973. His first season there would bring the Czech title back to the club and entry to the European Cup, where a last-minute goal in Brussels would see them knocked out by Anderlecht on away goals in the first round. Jozef would retain the First League in 1974/75, giving Slovan another stab at European football’s showpiece event. This time, another tough draw saw them take just a single-goal lead to the Baseball Ground, where a late Francis Lee double took English champions Derby County through as 3-1 winners.
Dr Jo’s third season in charge at Slovan Bratislava involved a four-way fight for the 1975/76 Czech crown, Banik Ostrava eventually pipping the reigning champions by one point. During this time, he had combined his club duties with those of assistant manager of the full national team, Venglos on the visiting bench at Hampden for Scotland’s crucial World Cup qualifying victory of September 1973.
Under Head Coach Vaclav Jezek, the Czechs had topped a tough European Championship qualifying group ahead of England and Portugal before knocking Russia out in the two-legged quarter-final in the spring of 1976. That set up a four-team Finals tournament in Yugoslavia two months later, with Czechoslovakia joining the hosts, holders West Germany, and beaten World Cup finalists Netherlands in the fight for the trophy. The Czechs would beat the Dutch in extra-time in the Zagreb semi-final and would be seconds away from victory over the West Germans in Belgrade before a last-gasp Bernd Holzenbein equaliser took the final into extra-time. With no further scoring, it would take the cheekiest – or perhaps the most disrespectful – penalty kick of all-time from Antonin Panenka to make Jezek and Venglos’ Czechoslovakia the new European Champions.
Despite that crown, they would suffer World Cup elimination again at the hands of Scotland the following year, failure to qualify for the Argentina finals seeing Jezek hand over the reins to his assistant Venglos.
He would lead his country through qualification at the expense of France and Sweden to the Euro 1980 finals in Italy, where his side edged out the Netherlands once again to finish behind West Germany in Group 1 and reach a Third Place Play-off with the hosts in Naples. After a 1-1 draw, Italian defender Fulvio Collovati would become the first man to miss a shootout kick at the 18th attempt, Czech manager Jozef Venglos thus adding a European Championship bronze medal to his gold of four years earlier.
Dr Jo’s final tournament with the Czech national team would be the 1982 World Cup, his team qualifying for the finals in Spain behind the Soviet Union. There, they would be drawn with France, England and Kuwait, a costly draw with the Middle Eastern underdogs followed by defeat to Ron Greenwood’s England in Bilbao meaning that a win would be required against the French in Valladolid. Panenka’s late penalty equaliser would be too little, too late, the Czechs eliminated at the first hurdle, bringing the first Venglos reign to a sad end.
In April 1983, Jozef Venglos was appointed manager of Portuguese giants, Sporting Club, the club finishing in third spot in the Primeira Divisao to enter the following season’s UEFA Cup. A late Oliveira goal in Lisbon would see Sporting edge out future tournament specialists Sevilla in the first round, setting up a meeting with David Hay’s Celtic. Jordao’s double in the Estadio Jose Alvalade gave Celts a mountain to climb in the second leg, however, Jo’s return to Glasgow would end in defeat, as it had with Slovan Bratislava all those years earlier.
On one of the most memorable European nights of my lifetime, Hay’s lime-clad Celts destroyed Venglos’ Hoops by 5-0 to reach the third round and a date with Clough’s Nottingham Forest.
Venglos would again claim third place in the Portuguese title race in his second and final season in Lisbon, before moving to Malaysia for a two-year spell. In 1988, he was invited to return to the Czechoslovakian national team role to work towards qualification for Italia90.
His Czech team would eliminate a Portugal side no doubt featuring some of his former players as they qualified with an identical record to Belgium, his finals squad including a 24-year-old midfielder from FC Nitra called Lubomir Moravcik. Lubo would play for 80 minutes of their opening day 5-1 victory over the USA in Florence, before being replaced by Vladimir Weiss, who would later be the manager of Artmedia Bratislava in that game we don’t talk about. Moravcik would also play the entirety of the crucial 1-0 win over Austria at the same venue, which meant their final day defeat by the hosts in Rome’s Stadio Olimpico would not prevent the Czechs from progressing to the round of 16.
Next up for Jo, Lubo and Czechoslovakia was Scotland’s shock conquerors, Costa Rica, the Central Americans comfortably dispatched by four goals to one in Bari. The quarter-final would see the Czechs paired with the eventual winners, West Germany, a first-half penalty from Lothar Matthaus, playing in his home San Siro stadium, the only goal of the game. Lubo’s tournament would end 20 minutes earlier than that of his teammates, the Slovakian genius dismissed for a second yellow card.
That would not put off the scouts from Saint Etienne, who then clinched a deal to take him to play his club football in France, whilst his manager and mentor would now ply his trade across the English Channel, becoming the first manager from outwith these islands to manage a top-flight English side in July 1990 when he succeeded new national team boss Graham Taylor at Aston Villa. Taylor had taken over from Billy McNeill.
Jozef’s single season in the English Midlands would not go so well. Taylor had taken Villa to second place behind champions Liverpool, before replacing Bobby Robson at the FA. They would struggle badly under Venglos, finishing just above the relegation dogfight in 17th spot. That record would see the proud Slovakian move on in May 1991, Ron Atkinson coming in.
Venglos would not be out of work for long, an offer to manage Fenerbahce accepted for the 1991/92 season. Another successful campaign followed, the Istanbul club finishing second behind local rivals Besiktas to qualify for the UEFA Cup. Perhaps ironically, they would be knocked out of that competition by Czech side Sigma Olomouc after a horrendous 7-1 loss at the first stage. The next campaign would see Fenerbahce miss out on Europe by a solitary point, a fifth-place finish enough to see club and manager part company.
Jozef would then head home to manage Slovakia, his newly-independent country of birth, the first man to do so. His first qualifying campaign would see the Slovaks finish a creditable third behind Romania and France in the fight to reach the Euro96 finals in England, ahead of established nations Poland and Israel. Having coached the national teams of Australia, Czechoslovakia, Malaysia and Slovakia, his fifth and final international gig took him to the Arabian Peninsula to manage Oman in 1996.
On 17 July 1998, Jozef Venglos was appointed as the new Head Coach of Scottish champions, Celtic, replacing Wim Jansen. I recall being on holiday with my kids in Spain and picking up a redtop from back home to read some disgraceful and disrespectful headlines, the most infamous being the “Dr Who?” cheap jibe.
The irony of those words being written by someone who depends on the existence of people like Dr Jo – who have actually achieved something in life – for their livelihood, is probably somewhat lost on the author.
The aftermath of Jansen’s departure had created a poisonous atmosphere at the club, with unpopular General Manager, Jock Brown, and even Celtic owner and previous saviour Fergus McCann widely vilified. A tough Champions League Play-off with Croatia Zagreb ended in defeat and this was followed by a UEFA Cup loss to FC Zurich in early November.
Brown was then sacked, whilst Venglos signed a number of key players, his old protégé Lubo Moravcik from German outfit MSV Duisburg, Swedish international midfielder Johan Mjallby from AIK Solna and Marko Viduka from Champions League conquerors Croatia Zagreb. The players would have mixed starts, Moravcik – immediately written off in the mainstream Scottish media using terms such as “Slovakian dud” – and Mjallby were instant hits, both starring in the 5-1 win over League leaders Rangers at the end of November, the first five-goal display in this fixture since January 1966, whilst Viduka disappeared back to Australia after signing his contract, citing psychological issues.
He would not make his debut until the last day of February the following year, by which time the hard-won title had been thrown away with a single-goal defeat to the Treble-winning Ibrox side in the Scottish Cup final the last game in charge for Jo Venglos. He moved to a new position as European Technical Advisor for Celtic upon the installation of the Kenny Dalglish/John Barnes ‘Dream Team’ in June 1999.
The final management job in football for Dr Jozef Venglos involved a brief spell with Japanese outfit JEF United Ichihara in their World Cup year of 2002, bringing to an end an illustrious 50-year career during which he had made his mark all across the globe, winning honours at both club and international level and the respect of millions who love the beautiful game.
Rest in peace, Dr Jo. We knew who and what you were.
Matt Corr
