Scotland ace Murdo MacLeod recalls Rod Stewart "welling up" after song played at Wim Jansen funeral
In a excerpt from his new autobiography, Scotland ace Murdo MacLeod recalls memories of his time working with former Hoops manager Wim Jansen and the Rod Stewart song that reduced him to tears at his funeral.
Wim Jansen was the best I ever worked with, yet he arrived in Scotland to be faced with a tidal wave of apathy and downright hostility. But Wim somehow managed to rise above it all. One day when we were at Celtic together, Wim said to me: “Do you like Rod Stewart?” I replied: “Yes, of course.”
Wim asked me if I liked Rod’s recording of a song called For the First Time. I had to admit I had never heard of it and he nearly exploded. When Wim’s funeral took place on January 29, 2022, my wife Mhairi and I attended the service in Rotterdam. We went to pieces when they played it at the funeral as the coffin was brought into the room.
READ MORE:King Charles hugged by guest at event marking 25 years of Scottish Parliament
It carried a strong emotional attachment for Wim and his beloved wife, Coby, dating from the first time they had met. When they played You’ll Never Walk Alone, the emotional dam burst for us. As the funeral cortege passed by outside the Feyenoord Stadium where Wim had been a player, red flares flew through the sky, propelled there by the fans. And, at that moment, we were hugged by Celtic fans who had come to pay their last respects.
It made Rod Stewart well up, too, when I told him in the boardroom at Celtic Park some time afterwards. I didn’t recount the story with the intention of making him cry but he was visibly moved by what I had to tell him. He was in an emotional state in any case because we had just watched Ange Postecoglou’s Celtic win an Old Firm game.
I had been working at an SFA coaching course when I was approached by Celtic and asked if I would join them on an unspecified basis. Tommy Burns had gone and Wim had to follow a much-loved and idolised figure. The threat of Rangers creating an all-time record for 10 consecutive league title wins hung in the air.
Every day from then on we would spend two hours after our coaching work had ended talking about Celtic’s next opponent. The players had the utmost respect for Wim and he would have done anything for them. When Henrik Larsson’s wife wanted to tend to her horses in the countryside where they lived, Wim’s wife would babysit their young son, Jordan. There was a post-match ritual which had to be observed after every home game in the season.
Wim’s wife Coby, and Mhairi, would come in with Wim junior, his daughter Petra, and our three girls, Mhairi junior, Gilan and Marina. A song had to be sung before we went our separate ways on a Saturday night: “There’s only one Wim Jansen. Only one Wim Jansen. “He’s got curly hair. We don’t care. Walking in a Jansen wonderland.”
Wim, with me as his assistant manager, stopped Rangers from winning 10 league titles in a row by beating St Johnstone 2–0 on May 9, 1998. A tense, highly charged afternoon turned into bedlam and pandemonium and that’s a barely adequate description to sum up the outpouring of raw emotion and uninhibited joy.
I knew Wim was triggering a release clause in his contract which allowed him to go at the end of his one and only season with the club. So there, in the midst of the euphoria, the deafening noise, the tears and the antics of the people and the players who were cavorting for all they were worth, I thought I would give it one last try. A final tug at the heartstrings.
I said to Wim: “Look at all of this. Don’t go. Change your mind and stay. ”He put his arms around my shoulders, flashed that terrific smile of his and pointed to the fans. “Murdo, what a way to go.”
And we were done. If the fans could have heard that exchange, it would have made the mood even more intense than it was. We had to fly to Portugal for a friendly match with Sporting Lisbon two days after that game. It was an occasion as sombre as it deserved to be while we came to terms with losing the manager who had taken just 10 months to become a Celtic icon. A legend for all time.
In the quiet of the dressing room that night, I could hear Wim hum one of football’s anthems. The song on his lips was Stand up for the Champions. One by one, the players got up and feet started to be stomped on the dressing-room floor while arms were linked. We were the champions. Wim Jansen’s champions.
I’ve never heard that anthem sung with greater depth of feeling than it was that night. The shivers still run down my spine just thinking about it. When Wim had his 75th birthday in 2021, Mhairi and I were honoured to be the only two non-family members to be invited to his celebratory meal in Rotterdam.
Wim was not in the best of health by that stage but he enjoyed his evening and we spoke about that incredible time in Glasgow with a mixture of emotion and affection. A man who spent so little time at one club but cast a giant shadow because of what he achieved there.
When I came out of unconsciousness in hospital after surviving the complications caused by heart surgery in 2022, there was a card on my bedside table. It was signed by Coby and all the members of the Jansen family. On the front of the card it said, You’ll Never Walk Alone.
When they compile the list of immortal figures to have managed Celtic, Wim’s name will be there on merit, and deservedly so. Gone but never to be forgotten by anyone associated with Celtic. We were all part of that Jansen wonderland.
● MURDO, MURDO: From the 4-2 Game to Stopping the Ten is published by Black and White and on sale from October 3.
Don't miss the latest news from around Scotland and beyond. Sign up to our daily newsletter.