Paul Lambert was constantly in awe of the exploits and expertise of Wim Jansen.
As a footballer, Johan Cruyff stated he’d never have been the same player were it not for his Dutch team-mate.
As a manager, Lambert knew Jansen had protected a cherished record of greats such as Jock Stein and Billy McNeill.
As a man, he just savoured time spent with him.
Lambert was devastated by the news of Jansen’s sad passing. Tributes poured in for the former Celtic manager when another of his former clubs, Feyenoord, confirmed the painful news.
Jansen only had one season at Parkhead but it will never be forgotten.
In grabbing the Scottish Premier Division title in 1997-98, the Dutchman and his No.2 Murdo MacLeod staved off the threat of Rangers winning 10 in a row and delivered heroes such as Henrik Larsson and Lambert to the Hoops support.
It was an honour for Lambert to be involved with such footballing inspiration during his first year at Parkhead after joining from Borussia Dortmund.
On matchdays, he would use the calm air exuded by his boss to perform within a cauldron of pressure during such a monumental season.
Away from the games, he’d sit with him and soak up the knowledge, listening to every single word from a humble individual who had some of the greatest among his admirers.
Lambert said: “I always got on unbelievably with him. I used to go into the club on Sundays, the day after a match, for a cool down and he would be there working.
“We would just talk about football and his time playing in a great Dutch team.
“The biggest accolade he could have had as a player is Johan Cruyff said that he would never have been the same player if Wim Jansen had not played behind him.
“Just speaking to him about his career was amazing.
“He had played in World Cup Finals and done so many things. I would just listen.
“But when you hear about those things said by Cruyff, that puts him on a pedestal, which is incredible. You had the biggest respect for what Wim did as a player himself and then what he did as a manager at Celtic.
“He preserved the great Jock Stein’s nine-in-a-row record. Stein and all of those great players who set that mark, we were protecting what those greats had done.
“Billy McNeill, Bertie Auld, Stevie Chalmers, Bobby Lennox, he preserved the record they set by winning that title, which was amazing.
“The thing I always say is for Wim to stop the 10 in a row when he did was without a doubt the biggest title I ever won at Celtic and the hardest one to win.
“To do it in just the one season when he absolutely had to do it and produce it was genius.”
Lambert recalls the first day he encountered Jansen in the strangest of settings.
In the lead-up to an international appearance, the midfielder – still a Dortmund hero at the time – was approached by the Celtic manager about making the switch back to Glasgow.
Lambert said: “He came into the boot room at Aberdeen when I was playing for Scotland. The game against Belarus was at Pittodrie because Hampden was being renovated.
“Wim came in, spoke to me and asked if I would join Celtic. At that time I didn’t really know who he was and I just got up and said I had a game to play.
“It went from there but the time I had with him after that was great. Wim was so good to me.” Lambert had reached the pinnacle of the game just months before he signed for Jansen when he lifted the European Cup.
The famous evening when he marked Zinedine Zidane out of the game to help his German side defeat Juventus was still fresh in the memory.
After the Jansen era at Parkhead, he’d accumulate three more league titles, two Scottish Cups and two League Cups during his Celtic career.
Yet for all the successes that followed under the guidance of Martin O’Neill, that first championship triumph at Celtic under the severest of scrutiny stands out.
And Lambert reiterated the importance of what his Dutch boss had achieved in the history of the club.
He said: “When I go back to Celtic sometimes, you don’t really see as much of Wim as some others in terms of photos and those things.
“The club should look at that. To stop that 10 in a row in that situation was one of the biggest achievements ever for the club in the circumstances, the way he kept everyone calm throughout that season given the situation and pressure everyone was under. We faced a strong Rangers team that season.We didn’t have that big a squad either.
“The way Wim did it was a phenomenal achievement.
“He was an absolute genius to do that.”
