Football: Jansen lets fire final broadside at Brown

WIM JANSEN, the departing Celtic manager, has launched into another tirade against the club's general manager, Jock Brown, after revealing his attempts to bring John Collins back to Parkhead were blocked.

"Jock Brown is the wrong man for the job," said the Dutchman, who resigned on Monday after leading the club to their first title in 10 years.

"I don't think he can gel teams in the way he should. He also likes people to say `yes' to him. There was always a problem with Jock Brown, even in the first week. You need to be able to work with the staff around you and I couldn't do that with him."

The situation was further inflamed on Monday when McCann said Jansen would have been sacked if he had not resigned. Jansen said yesterday: "I was very surprised to hear that remark. But sometimes I felt I was fighting more against my own people than our opponents on the pitch."

Jansen was anxious to build a team around Collins, who is held in high regard by Celtic supporters despite leaving the club two years ago for Monaco.

He said: "John Collins was our No 1 target from day one. He was someone I saw as one for the future. I spoke to Jock Brown about the situation but nothing happened. I don't know why, it could have been the money. I can't answer that question.

"Yesterday was my last day at the club and today I am a free man. It has been a very hard season and I have to think about what to do next. I have loved being here, my wife and I have been very happy and it's going to be hard to say goodbye for the last time to some people.

"Of course there was pressure in the job, but that is normal and it was really exciting. The Celtic supporters helped to drive me on."

Martin O'Neill, the Leicester manager linked with the vacancy at Celtic, has expressed concern over this week's boardroom shake-up which saw chairman Tom Smeaton leave the club.

O'Neill said: "I read on Teletext the proposed changes and had to ring the chairman to get it confirmed. I told him that, obviously, I have serious concerns about it. I am not happy and it is a situation I am giving a lot of thought to."

O'Neill is also worried that his position as team manager appears to have been changed to that of a football committee member. "I thought this was a football club but I'm now a member of a committee. I don't know whether that sounds as if it's a change of position."

The new Stoke manager, Brian Little, yesterday told former coaches Chic Bates and Alan Durban they are no longer wanted. The duo, who both had spells in charge last season when the club were relegated, have left "by mutual consent".

Allan Evans, Little's No 2 at both Aston Villa and Leicester, is now expected to rejoin him at the Britannia Stadium.

Manchester City will get first refusal if Georgi Kinkladze wants to return to Britain.

The Maine Road club, now relegated to the Second Division, have officially confirmed Kinkladze's pounds 5m sale to Ajax after the Georgian agreed personal terms - believed to be around pounds 40,000 a week - and signed a four-year contract.