Paul Lambert spent a day with Ange Postecoglou and felt Celtic would win.
Now the former Parkhead hero reckons the Aussie boss might be about to emulate Wim.
Postecoglou’ s outstanding work has taken Celtic to the brink of title glory.
The Hoops are six points clear with six games to go in a remarkable turnaround having lost the Premiership to Rangers by a whopping 25 points last term.
Lambert was part of Martin O’Neill’s 2001 Treble-winning outfit who turned a 21-point deficit around from the previous campaign to grab the flag.
But the ex-midfield ace says a championship success for Postecoglou would be more akin to Wim Jansen’s magnificent league triumph of 1998.
Just like Jansen, Postecoglou arrived from a previous spell in the J-League into a chaotic scene.
Just like Jansen, he had to deal with the loss of hugely-influential players and mould virtually an entire new team.
Postecoglou hasn’t emulated Jansen yet as he isn’t over the line. But if he gets there, Lambert will see the similarities.
He explained: “I just had a feeling he was right for the club with his demeanour.
"The way he went in and was really calm. He would have realised he needed to win games due to the size of the club.
“But, without pre-empting anything, if they can keep doing what they are doing and manage to get over the line, it’d right up there with that achievement of Wim.
“I'd compare it to that Wim era. He took Celtic over at an incredibly tough time and I’ve said before it was a genius stroke that he pulled off.
“Paul McStay, who in my opinion is one of Celtic’s greatest ever players, had left. Paolo Di Canio had left, Pierre van Hooijdonk had left, Jorge Cadete had left.
“Andy Thom stayed, but for Wim to get the better of that Rangers side of that time which was really good was an incredible achievement.
“A top Rangers side with Gazza and Brian Laudrup, Richard Gough, Andy Goram. What Wim did was incredible and I’d put Ange’s achievement up with that.
“Martin took over when Celtic had finished 21 points behind, but we still had some top players. Jackie McNamara, Tom Boyd, Tosh McKinlay, myself, Henrik Larsson.
“We still had a right good side, but we just needed a manager like Martin to guide us and give us a hand. We needed Martin at that time, without a shadow of a doubt.
“But how Wim did it was phenomenal. And he lost his first couple of games. Pretty similar with Ange losing some games early on.
“The great thing is that he brought the three or four Japanese lads into the club and he knew exactly what he was going to get.
“He knows what type of guys they were, what type of ability they have and the probably best of those lads hasn’t even played recently in Kyogo.
“Reo Hatate, who looked tired at Ibrox, he’d been in Japan the week before, but he worked his backside off and Daizen Maeda was even more so. Just runs and runs.
“Ange knew what he was getting and that was similar to Wim when he took Henrik. He knew what he was getting.
“Jozef (Venglos) with Lubo Moravcik. When you go down that road and know what you are getting, it makes your job a little bit easier.
“The thing Wim has is that he HAD to stop Ten in a Row. That’s the only difference I see.
“But what Ange has done with the start he had, the turnover of players and his demeanor, it’s been magnificent.
“The club has always been good structure wise. Obviously, Peter Lawwell did an incredible job and Michael Nicholson is now in and taken it on.
“It’s always been in a brilliant place, it just needed a manager with calm to turn it over and they have done great.”
Celtic have just six matches to negotiate to finish their title job with St Johnstone next up on Saturday in the final game before the end-of-term split.
Postecoglou’s men have given themselves breathing space in the title fight ahead of that Saints clash with their success at Ibrox.
Lambert spent time with the manager last week during a visit to Lennoxtown and it gave him a sense his old club might do the business.
He said: “I was just having a watch for a day or so and, coming from that, I had a feeling Celtic would win as there was a great atmosphere.
“I’d met Ange before. I was doing a game for Celtic TV at one stage and we had a brief meeting. He invited me up to go and see him.
“I felt he had a good persona about him and the way he comes across, even with media, he seems pretty calm.
“You can just tell. Even when you watched the training, the tempo was good.
“Many of the guys weren’t there as they were away with their national teams at the time, but it was still strong and, as I said, the atmosphere was terrific.
“I think Celtic have the best team this year and now it’s just down to finishing off the great work that has already been done.”
