Jackson reveals the Celtic player who was 'out of this world'

At 31 years of age that call finally came. It was 26 years ago this week that he made the switch from Hibs to Celtic. Eyebrows were raised when Jackson became then manager Wim Jansen's first signing at £1.25 million but the truth is that the striker could have been at Parkhead a lot sooner.

He said: "Tommy Burns had come in for me the season before and Hibs were bottom of the league and we ended up in the Premiership playoffs so for that reason they turned Celtic's offer down. Tommy then got sacked by Celtic and the new manager Wim Jansen came in and Murdo MacLeod was his assistant. The new kitman was John Clarke who had also tried to sign me for Cowdenbeath before I went to Meadowbank Thistle.

"I also knew the chief executive Jock Brown, so I think they were all big admirers. I believed that helped seal the deal and I'm sure they had looked at a few videos of my performances with Hibs. I knew Murdo from his playing days at Hibs and I had a good relationship with him and he would have played a big part in my move to Celtic.

"I can remember it as clear as day that Hibs were down at Gullane Beach doing pre-season training and getting absolutely hammered. I mean, I've just been destroyed and I was actually walking back to the bus with my strike partner Keith Wright. I had my mobile with me and I got a call from the club saying that they had accepted a bid from Celtic. I signed for Celtic on a Saturday and we were going to Dublin on Sunday and I did not want to miss a day's training.

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"So my pre-season consisted of running up every step of the stand opposite the main stand. I ran up every step. Let me tell you that is a lot of steps. I can remember a game Hibs played against Celtic and Tommy Johnson and I indulged in a wee bit of a set-to.

"I came down from running up all those steps and I was walking around the Parkhead track and Johnson was the first Celtic player I met. We have been great mates ever since that day."

Jackson made the Dublin trip and he was rooming with the mercurial talent that was fiery Paolo di Canio. The former Scotland striker insists that he tried his best but failed to convince the Italian to remain at Celtic before he was infamously traded to Sheffield Wednesday for Regi Blinker in early August 1997.

"Di Canio was at loggerheads with Fergus McCann at the time," he continued. "He would come into the room and be stomping around all over the place, shouting and bawling. Paolo was a typical demonstrative and volatile Italian. I was pleading with Paolo to please stay at Celtic as I was desperate to play alongside him.

"It was an amazing experience. He was an unbelievable professional. We would be in our hotel room and Paolo would be doing press-ups and sit-ups. He had incredible strength and he was a wonderful trainer. He was the consummate professional that way and he was great entertainment for the week that Celtic were there.

"He was the real deal in terms of being a player he was that good. You know how people talk that this player or that player is a flawed genius well that description fits Paolo di Canio. I was in awe of Di Canio, I was really starstruck around him."

Jackson had joined Celtic in the mother of all seasons as Walter Smith's Rangers were homing in on ten-in-a-row. The message to the Hoops players was a simple one. They couldn't allow that to happen. They had to win the title but matters were not helped when Celtic slumped to two defeats in their opening two league matches.

He said: "The pressure was ramped up after the first two games when we lost to Hibs and Dunfermline. I think the players and the fans felt it most then but Wim didn't get carried away or excited. In the dressing room, Wim didn't give much away. He never got too down despite the first couple of results. He was always very calm whilst everyone around him was losing their head a bit.

"That probably was a good thing as the players realised exactly what was at stake. Wim didn't show his emotions that is not to say that he didn't feel the pressure because we all did. Wim didn't show his emotions to the players and he certainly didn't show them to the press but he knew it was totally unacceptable for 60,000 fans inside the stadium and millions watching all around the world for Celtic to concede a tenth successive title to Rangers.

"In my first year, I was seen as Pierre van Hooijdonk's replacement. That was probably unfair to me because there is no way I could compete with Pierre. He was a top player. I am not putting myself down but that was just the perception that was out there at the time. The Celtic supporters would have been worried that Pierre had left and the club signed me and I totally understand that.

"Rangers had the likes of Paul Gascoigne and Brian Laudrup in their team and in my time in football that is arguably the best era and best side that they have ever had. That is what Celtic were competing against. This wasn't just any title that was at stake, it was history.

Little did Jackson know though that he was walking into a cracking Celtic team in the making. Jansen would spend £650,000 on recruiting Henrik Larsson from Feyenoord, as well as many other top talents.

Jackson said: "Wim also brought in the King of Kings aka Henrik Larsson that year and he didn't do too badly for Celtic. Henrik wasn't the King of Kings back then but he certainly showed what he could do that season for Celtic and gave them a real glimpse into the future.

"I only played with Henrik the first year before he went on to be the King. He was brilliant then. His goal against St Johnstone the day we won the title was first class. He was physically strong and he could hold the ball up and play in others. He was calm and he possessed every attribute of a top player and top striker.

"There were so many top performers that year. Marc Rieper and Alan Stubbs were immense. Craig Burley was out of this world. Burley as a midfield player people nowadays talk about midfielders being a six, an eight or a 10. Burley was all three. He could score goals, he could head the ball, he could defend and attack corners, and he could tackle. Burley had everything in his locker."

If Jackson had a fight to get into Jansen's League and League Cup winning side it was nothing compared to the battle he had to save his career after he was diagnosed with hydrocephalus which was a fluid build-up in the brain and needed immediate surgery. Jackson was left in no uncertain terms and told that his career could well be over.

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He insists that he may not have been a superstar signing but he was treated like one by Celtic during the whole process. He said: "I woke up in the morning of the Tirol Innsbruck UEFA Cup game at home and I had a slight headache and what you would normally do in that situation is to take a couple of paracetamol to treat it.

"I had a sleep and I woke up pre-match and Wim had named the team and I was actually playing. On the way up on the team bus, I just didn't feel right and I went up the front and told the physio Brian Scott (Scotty).

"He actually phoned ahead to club doctor Jack Mulhearn who was at the stadium. I went into the physio's room and they put all the lights out and I just lay there. Wim came in and said he was going to have to name the team and I was struggling. Amazingly Celtic had actually invited people from Ross Hall to the game that night. The club booked a scan for me the next day just as a precaution. I had an MRI scan and unbeknown to me the doctor Jack Mulhearn had the exact same thing. So anything to do with your head he knew what it was right away.

"I had the scan the next day and left for home. I was all set to train with Celtic the next day. Then I got a call from Scotty to tell me that they had found something and they were not very sure what it was but I needed to go back tomorrow. I knew it was quite serious because Jock (Brown) and Scotty both went with me.

"I had hydrocephalus which is basically water in the brain. There was a build-up of fluid in my brain and I was told that they thought my career could be over. Scotty and Jock were trying to calm me down and I went back to Glasgow to tell my now ex-wife and my family the bad news.

"There were a lot of tears as you can imagine and because I had got a lift back and had left my car in Glasgow to go to Ross Hall. My car had been lifted and put into the pound. It cost me £130 to get it back. I had to go back at 2 pm the next day and Scotty and Jock came with me again. The doctor told me that he had taken a second opinion and that if I had the operation then I would be able to play again.

"Basically, you have a shunt put in your head. There are two valves in your head and one hadn't opened, so the water couldn't circulate properly and it was causing a block hence the headaches. So they drilled a hole in my head and lasered another passageway, to let the water circulate.

"Jock and Scotty even told me that I didn't need to have the operation as Celtic would look after me. I told them I has waited 31 years to join one of the biggest clubs in the world. I wasn't giving that up and I told them to go ahead with the operation. "The surgeon was incredible at his job and Jack, Jock and Brian were just absolutely sensational."

"I have said on the record before that I could have been at any club in the world and I wouldn’t have been treated better. I remember going in on a Tuesday and coming out the following Tuesday. I was out for nine weeks in total. Some players are out for longer than that with a hamstring strain.

"When I had the headache against Tirol, the Celtic boys in the dressing room thought I'd fucking shat myself and I didn't want to play in the big European game. They only realised the next day that it was a bit more serious than that."

Jackson may claim that he is a mere footnote in Celtic's history-making season under Jansen and MacLeod but he fully deserves to be remembered as one of the men who stopped the ten.

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Nowadays, Jackson is a scout for Blackpool. He looks back on it all with inner satisfaction but it is tinged with some personal disappointment.

 "I do feel proud. Some people say, do you think you had a good career?" he said. "As a young kid, I always wanted to play at a World Cup for your country. I did that. I also wanted to play for one of the biggest clubs in the world and I did that as well. I won the league with Celtic, so that's what makes me proud.

"If I could sum up my spell at Celtic I would probably say I was disappointed. When people  ask if I was a success at Celtic I always say no. However, if someone asks if was a failure at the club I would say no because I never really got the chance to be a success.

"Celtic won the league and that's all that mattered. It wasn't about Darren Jackson it was about Celtic stopping the 10."