Incredible confession and regret of £6m Celtic striker

John Hartson loved being known as Big Bad John.

The Welshman is fondly remembered at Arsenal, West Ham, Wimbledon and Celtic as someone that the fans could identify with.

Many of the punters that saw Hartson smash in the goals knew someone that looked like or acted like the striker off the park.

One Celtic fan commenting on the £6m striker’s debut said that he looked like someone that had been dragged off a building site and thrown a jersey.

Injuries early in his career played a part but Hartson admits that he never lived the life of an athlete off the park as he enjoyed his grub and bevvy.

At the weekend Brendan Rodgers revealed that if a player reports back for pre-season training 2.5 kilo overweight they are forced to train with the kids.

Just over a decade ago Hartson enjoyed a different regime at Celtic under two managers who were prepared to indulge him- as long as he kept on firing in the goals.

Speaking to the Evening Times he revealed:

First things first. I got away with murder with some of the managers that I worked under. I’ll be honest about that. When I was at Celtic, Martin O’Neill told the physios that I was to be weighed first thing on a Monday and again on a Friday. I used to tell the physios myself what my ‘weight’ was, once I’d knocked a few pounds off. I’d tell them and they’d scribble it down on a note to the gaffer and that would be that.

Martin was old school. He knew if he got me to a certain level of fitness I’d get 25 goals every season for him and so we’d a wee bit of give and take there.

I’ll be honest with another one. Gordon Strachan was more in Brendan’s mould. He was keen to embrace the sports science element and we wore the heart monitors and all the rest of it although to be fair to Gordon, like Martin, he knew that as long as I could get about the pitch I’d get the goals for him.

But I remember one day walking through the front doors at Celtic for one of the opening days of pre-season training, whistling away to myself and in a fine mood. And then I heard that they’d set the bleep tests up. My heart sank.

So by the time I got to the dressing room I’d a bit of a limp. I hobbled into the physio with a really tight hamstring – no point in aggravating it before the season had started, was there? And so I got a wee rub down and skipped the bleep test.

Then, one unsuspecting day about six weeks later there I am, sauntering out to training when I spy the cones set up in the far corner of the training pitch. The music box for the bleep test is there. Waiting. And I know, I just know. Gordon put his arm around me. “Right, big man, off you go now….you’re the only one who’s missed it.”

I’ll be honest, I don’t look back with any regrets about my career. I had a great time at every club I was at, I love the goals I scored and I had a fabulous career. But I do look back and think what it would have been like if I had been a stone lighter. What else could I have brought to my game if I played under a manager like Brendan who is an absolute stickler for fitness? He demands a certain level no matter who you are or what else you bring and that ruthlessness is what makes him so successful. Any player that plays for him needs to adhere to that strict code. You need to work your backside off for him but he gets the best out of you in return.

And I do think to myself that if I had that little bit more discipline, if I knew I simply had to keep the weight off I think I probably could have gone to another level again. I’ll never know and I don’t have any regrets about my career because I had some super times but you do wonder if you could have pushed it another bit.