Livvy job won’t faze Hartson... and he’s got the scars to prove it
JOHN HartsON is performing a guided tour of the wounds on his head. the medals acquired during three decades in football, a life-threatening cancer fight and last week’s terrifying tumble from a runaway golf cart.
Currently auditioning to become the next manager of Livingston, the former Celtic striker can’t be certain yet if a role as the King of the Livvy Lions is for him. Yet, in a side room of Glasgow’s children’s hospital, he presents convincing evidence that he’d make an excellent Uncle scar.
‘this is the sixth scar on my head,’ he says pointing to a bandage obscuring 48 stitches from the near-death buggy crash in Peebles.
‘I also have one from Bonfire night when I was a teenager and fell into a hole and hit a wheel rim.
‘I’ve got two from the cancer, one in my gum from football and now this one...’
It’s hard to know if all this is indicative of a man with terrible luck. Or a footballing survivor with all the good fortune in the world.
Either way the Welshman remains shaken by last week’s freak incident when a golf cart he was travelling in struck a tree head-on at 25 miles per hour.
‘I thought I was dead,’ he admits. ‘It happened as we were coming down the hill at Peebles golf club, not even on the first tee.
‘I jumped in the buggy, I was the passenger and we headed towards a tree and the driver of the buggy went to put his foot on the brake and hit the accelerator instead, so we hit the tree head-on.
‘I fell out to the left and sliced my head open on the metal bar holding the Perspex glass windscreen in place.
‘It could have been across my face, had my eye out or killed me.
‘the saving grace is it didn’t hit my brain. It was just a laceration of the skin, so never actually went through to the skull, which was a big plus point. It only slashed the skin.
‘But there was so much blood — as there’s more blood in your head than anywhere else in your body. I was wiping the blood out of my eyes.’
all of this sounds like a scene from the latest Quentin tarantino movie. Yet the banality of the circumstances — a routine game of golf on a pleasant Wednesday afternoon — made it a slightly surreal experience.
‘You go for a game of golf and expect to go home with a bit of a tan after a round and a sandwich for lunch and a chat with friends,’ adds Hartson.
‘I’ve just had a bit of a shock. a big shock, to be honest.’
Usefully, he was no stranger to death’s menacing embrace. In 2009, he sought treatment for a lump on his testicles fastidiously ignored for four years. Catastrophically, the tumour spread to his lungs and brain and he was diagnosed with stage four cancer. He had 67 sessions of chemotherapy in three months, yet lived to tell the tale.
Cliche or otherwise, an incidentpacked adult life has bred a desire for new experiences. to pack as much as he can into an existence which could have finished up diabolically brief.
that explains why he has thrown his hat into the ring — with former rangers striker Kenny Miller — for the Livingston vacancy created by David Hopkin’s departure from the tony Macaroni arena.
the danger of placing his head above the parapet at a club with the kind of budget former club Celtic spend on their weekly canteen bill is obvious.
as Hartson points out: ‘If you lose your first four games, then you’re sacked. It isn’t as easy as it is to step back into the media because you have made the decision to step out.
‘there are thousands of ex-players wanting my job. How many players retire every year? Hundreds, thousands. all want my job.
‘so I am in the position where I will work with Bt next season, with the BBC and I have a newspaper column — but all of that would have to go. so I have a lot of thinking to do and also Livingston have a lot of thinking to do.’
the money won’t be much and, not for the first time, people will ask why he would risk a perch on the lucrative and unchallenging punditry circuit for a precarious and perilous job managing a club expected to go straight back to the sPFL Championship.
‘It never leaves you, does it, the smell of the grass in the morning?’ he added.
‘You have to remember I’ve done the media for ten years. I’ve done very big shows: I did setanta with terry Butcher for two or three years when we travelled all around scotland doing all the sPL.
‘then I did s4C, the Welsh-speaking channel, when I was in Wales, then I did the BBC, I did Match of the Day, I’ve done cup finals, I’ve done some really big shows sitting alongside some really experienced football men.
‘I was the assistant manager of Wales for 18 months and covered eight games under Chris Coleman but I never enjoyed it. I never enjoyed being an assistant.
‘I didn’t enjoy standing around listening and watching. I wanted a bit more involvement.
‘Whether it is at Livingston or somewhere else, I am actively looking to become a coach or manager.’
He would hardly be the only rookie manager in the sPFL Premiership next term. Describing steven Gerrard as a ‘class act’, Hartson expects the new rangers to raise standards, but remains blunt on their chances of snatching his old club’s title.
‘there’s not a cat in hell’s chance that rangers will catch Celtic as they are a million miles away, on and off the park,’ insisted Hartson.
‘If Brendan rodgers let that happen, it would be a travesty in my opinion. Celtic are double treble winners, with £50million of Champions League money and they have assets.
‘I’m intrigued how it will play out — the Celtic fans are waiting on signings.
‘the rangers fans are excited with the feel-good factor around the club, which they haven’t had for a while.
‘they have a class act in Gerrard coming into the club and this will raise the level of everyone’s game when he walks into the dressing room.
‘He’s a magnificent person and knows what he wants, he’s very focused. But if he loses to Hamilton in the second game, what will the reaction be? It will be interesting.’
Like everyone Hartson accepts Gerrard is a gamble. But he welcomes the willingness of football clubs to take a punt on young managers. Men, in fact, not unlike himself.
‘Everybody is sick of the sam allardyces, alan Pardews and Peter reids — it used to be Bryan robson and Micky adams and these guys,’ noted Hartson.
‘they get four or five different jobs, get sacked then go to another job.
‘Iain Dowie has been sacked from eight clubs. He’s made more money from getting the sack than he has made from being in employment.
‘It’s ridiculous. appoint young, fresh people who want to get in and want to learn.
‘You see allardyce on the touchline like that... (mimics a man chewing gum)...’ saying: “sack me if you want”.
‘Do me a favour. What chairman appoints these guys?
‘But personally I think Celtic will step up to the challenge.
‘Brendan will get them in and say: “Look, last two years we’ve been up against a poor rangers. stevie will improve them, now is the acid test and we need to go again”.’
John Hartson was donating a £20,000 cheque from his Foundation to the Glasgow Children’s Hospital Charity’s Schiehallion Appeal. The appeal has now gone through the £1million barrier.
The buggy hit a tree and sliced my head open. I could have died Whether it’s at Livingston or not, I want to be a manager