CELTIC MANAGER Tommy Burns was prepared to quit last week. Burns decided he should step down after his side were beaten by first division Falkirk in the Scottish Cup last Wednesday.
But a half hour chat with a life long Celtic supporter on the steps of Parkhead changed his mind.
Burns, writing yesterday in the club newspaper, admitted: "Basically I made up my mind to resign on Thursday. But I met a man I have known since my days as a boy and he gave me new inspiration.
The news comes after a boardroom row which led to director Willie Haughey leaving the club with a volley of criticism aimed at managing director Fergus McCann.
Meanwhile, Fabio Capello, who is quitting as coach of Real Madrid at the end of the season, said yesterday that he had decided to leave because he was fed up with the behaviour of the Spanish club's bosses.
Capello accused Real president Lorenzo Sanz of leaking information to the Spanish press. "Every conversation we had, even between just the two of us, I found in the papers the next day," he told the Gazzetta dello Sport.
"And the same thing happened with other bosses, not to mention the publication of confidential documents. If you have these indiscretions, it means that the club does not want you, that the president hopes you will leave.
Wimbledon owner Sam Hammam yesterday maintained he was fighting Vinnie Jones's bid to get freedom of movement for out of contract players in England for the sake of the little clubs.
The Welsh skipper, out of contract at the end of this season, has issued a writ against Wimbledon and the Premier League arguing restraint of trade.
At the moment, the Bosman ruling on free transfers only applies to players moving across European Union boundaries, but Jones argues that it should apply to domestic moves as well. And leading football agent, Jon Smith, said yesterday that there was no question in his mind that Jones would win.
Hammam seemed to accept that as he outlined his reasons for trying to prevent Jones winning his freedom: "I could stop this in two seconds by allowing him to go," said Hammam.
"In fact it would not harm Wimbledon. We would lose one 32 and a half year old player of a certain ability but there will be 500 other players we could pick up on a free transfer during the summer as a result.
"In some ways it's in my interest to let him go and free myself. I win either way. But I'm not thinking about Wimbledon. My interest is in the future of the game and the smaller clubs.
"If this goes through then who will look after clubs like Chester, Darlington, Torquay and Exeter?"
Hammam hinted that Jones himself was reluctantly setting a precedent by standing up for his individual rights as a player. "I know Vinny very well, and we still go shooting together and I know that he is aware of what the impact might be on the smaller clubs. But he also feels that it's a matter of time, that if he doesn't stand up somebody else will and will be successful. In that way Vinnie himself would be missing out."
