Details
Reference to: Pierre Van Hooijdonk, Jorge Cadette and Paulo Di Canio
Derivations: –
Started: Season 1996-97
Background
The wonderful moniker was delivered in a sarcastic manner by Celtic chief executive Fergus McCann in reference to the forward line triumvirate of Cadette, Van Hooijdonk and Di Canio.
Individually they were exceptionally talented footballers and collectively a dream forward line. Personally they were very flawed characters and that’s where the problem majorly lay.
The biggest problem was financial, with money underlying the problems that each ‘Amigo‘ caused:
(1) McCann described Cadette as a financial basket case, in time to be proven to be the case in later years as Cadette went broke living off state benefits after having earned millions during his football career,
(2) van Hooijdonk believed what he was earning was derisory (disgustingly paralleling it to a homeless person’s worth), and
(3) Di Canio stated that McCann had broken his word on a pay rise, an allegation that led to a court case and out of court settlement in favour of McCann.
McCann wasn’t exactly the easiest person to deal with, and in retrospect his handling of people was his weak point. Yet in the case of the Three Amigos he can fairly argue to now be vindicated in his stance against all three. It was a caustic relationship and something had to give, but nothing ever did, so the Three Amigos departed.
McCann may not have been noted for his humour but he did have a dry wit, and in this case his nickname for the trio of ‘The Three Amigos‘ was one that stuck and made everyone chuckle.
The Celtic support are unlikely to ever again see such a curious relationship again between chairman and a set of players. There will be problems as always in future between individual players and the club chairman, but with The Three Amigos it was very unique & apt in its own way. As McCann was to summarise the situation in his own inimitable way later on:
“I’m not surprised by what’s happened to any of them [The Three Amigos]. What DOES surprise me is someone is willing to pay to take trouble off your hands.”
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Articles
THE THREE AMIGOS AND CELTIC’S D’ARTAGNAN
St Anthony recalls the famous three foreign signings of the late 90s
THE CELTIC UNDERGROUND
JAN 6 2025
Fergus McCann once famously labelled the Celtic trio of Pierre Van Hooydonk, Jorge Cadete, and Paolo Di Canio, as ‘The Three Amigos.’ This wasn’t a complimentary term but a disparaging one which Fergus used to offload the frustrations which he suffered in his dealings with all three individuals who very demanding personalities.
Van Hooydonk had arrived first. A relative unknown, signed from NAC Breda in Holland, he exploded on to the Scottish football scene with a stunning goal against Hearts on his debut, on a cold bleak night at Hampden in January 1995. Despite such a fine start, he struggled to make an impression in the early months, but the turning point for him came when he scored the vital winning goal against Airdrie in the Scottish Cup final in May 1995, with a glorious header. This gave Celtic their first silverware in six long years and the fans were hopeful it would be the start of something big. Celtic fans were absolutely desperate for a new hero to revive their fortunes and the big Dutch striker fitted the bill.
In the 1995-96 season, Van Hooydonk became a Celtic superstar and created a huge profile for himself not only in Scotland, but across the UK. He became a coveted asset not only due to his volume of goals, 32 for the season, but also for the variety of the goals he scored. He was a big man and was good in the air as was expected, but he also possessed great technique and had a terrific record of scoring from free kicks, which was an unusual but highly effective combination.
Enormously popular with the Celtic supporters, he began to show signs of unrest in the autumn of 1996. Frustrated by the paucity of his weekly wage, estimated to be £7,000 per week, he was now well aware that a move to England could increase his income significantly. In a newspaper article, he had crassly commented that his wage may be okay for the homeless, but not for the international striker which he now was. He had also claimed that Fergus McCann had verbally agreed to renegotiate his contract, should he do well, something which Fergus had strongly denied. With Celtic desperate to prevent Rangers equalling their nine successive leagues in a row record, there was much frustration that ‘Big Pierre’ was causing great disharmony in the ranks.
Fergus was to receive support from the most unlikely of sources. After a Celtic home game, the Radio Clyde phone in was full of Celtic fans taking Van Hooydonk’s side in the dispute. The next caller was Bill McMurdo, famed football agent and someone who was well known for his allegiance to Rangers and all things related to Unionism. McMurdo stated that he had dealt with Fergus McCann on several occasions regarding transfers, and Fergus had been totally professional in his dealings and was a pleasure to do business with. McMurdo went on to amusingly comment that Van Hooydonk’s claim of a verbal agreement wasn’t worth the paper it was written on and that no agent worth their salt would ever verbally agree to anything but demand every clause be put in writing. This was seen as a barbed comment against Van Hooydonk’s agent, Rob Jansen, and from that moment the tide of public opinion turned against Van Hooydonk.
By March 1997, Celtic’s title bid was hanging by a thread. Van Hooydonk was eventually offloaded to Nottingham Forest on the eve of Celtic’s visit to Rugby Park, in a £3.5m deal. He had been the spearhead of the Celtic attack, and without him, Celtic slumped to a 0-2 reverse against Kilmarnock and a 0-1 defeat to Rangers in their next game. The title, as well as Van Hooydonk, had both gone in just a matter of days.
Jorge Cadete’s arrival had been a long time coming. Originally presented to the Parkhead crowd during a game against Partick Thistle on 24 February, he had to wait until 1 April to make his Celtic debut due to some malfeasance within the SFA, which was eventually to cost the SFA Chief Executive, Jim Farry, his job, in a highly publicised court case. Cadete’s debut was as stunning as Van Hooydonk’s had been a year earlier. Appearing as a substitute against Aberdeen at Parkhead with Celtic winning comfortably, he latched on to Peter Grant’s through ball to beat the Aberdeen goalkeeper and send the fans delirious with delight. So loud had the noise been following the goal, it had actually blown the microphones of BBC 5 Live, who had been covering the game. Sadly, Cadete’s arrival could not prevent another Rangers title win and we will never know if he had not been delayed, what impact this could have had. Celtic drew too many games that season and had Cadete played when he should have, then it’s entirely reasonable to presume some of those draws would have been converted to wins.
Cadete was another who was enormously popular with the supporters. Just two years earlier, Celtic had fielded the likes of Wayne Biggins and Willie Falconer in their attack, and now they were able to parade such quality as of Cadete and Van Hooydonk. Celtic had come a long way in a short time, however the fans had created a couple of monsters with their adulation of both players, who now thought they were bigger than the club.
As if things were not already mad enough in the football quarter of Glasgow’s East End, Paolo Di Canio arrived in a blaze of publicity in July 1996. To put it mildly, Di Canio was a huge character but was reputed to be highly eccentric. He was reckoned to be the missing piece in Tommy Burns’ Celtic jigsaw, and whilst no one could ever deny his flair and football genius, Celtic were about to discover that the Italian came with a somewhat suspect temperament.
Di Canio’s first league game came at Rugby Park in August 1996. Celtic were 1-0 down on a bleak Ayrshire afternoon with their performance matching the inclement weather. This was until Di Canio appeared as a football version of a cyclone. Never in all my years have I seen a Celtic substitute make such an impression in a game. He danced around Kilmarnock defenders to make an immediate impression which raised the morale of the fans in the stands. He scored the equaliser, set up two other goals for a 3-1 win, in a game when Celtic could have scored six goals alone in just the final half hour. Another paladin had arrived for the fans to hero-worship and there were prolonged scenes of celebration at the final whistle.
There was never a dull moment when Paolo was around. Off the pitch he was highly visible, posing for mad photographs (think of the motor bike and the golden boots) and making funny faces for the media, which they happily lapped up. On the park he could be awesome. The winning goal in his golden boots at Pittodrie in December 1996, had to be seen to be believed, such was the skill and execution he had shown in scoring it. However, a month previously he had been sent off against Hearts at Parkhead after he had actually equalised from a penalty kick to make it 2-2. With Celtic now looking set to push on and take all three points, the red mist descended and after an altercation with the referee, he was sent off, with the game ending level and two important points dropped.
By April 1997 it appeared that Di Canio was now playing for himself. On a desperate night at Ibrox in the Scottish Cup semi-final replay against Falkirk, Di Canio had tried everything to unlock a tight Falkirk defence. As the game wore on he became frustrated and selfishly tried to beat player after player when a pass would have been a better option. The other Celtic players then stopped running into space, realising that it was pointless as he would not pass to them. The result was an embarrassing 0-1 defeat which spelt the end for Tommy Burns’ tenure as Celtic manager.
After Rangers had won their nine in a row in May 1997, there was great trepidation amongst the Celtic support that it was inevitable that they would proceed to make it 10. That summer both Cadete and Di Canio made it abundantly clear that they wanted to leave the club. This was Celtic’s greatest time of need and their two biggest assets were bailing out at a time when they were needed most. Fergus McCann took a hard line with them and sold them for big fees. That money was wisely reinvested in such talents as Marc Rieper, Craig Burley, Paul Lambert, and a wee guy from Sweden with big dreadlocks, who went on to eclipse all of the ‘Three Amigos’ with his skill and enthusiasm, and he also had a touch of modesty. It’s funny how things work out in the end. Rangers never did get to make it 10 in a row.
The Three Amigos could have easily have been described as the Three Musketeers, such was the swashbuckling talents which each brought to the Celtic table. Celtic also had their own version of d’Artagnan. Just like the character in the Alexandre Dumas novels, Andreas Thom was different from his three more flamboyant team mates. Thom was a big signing for Celtic, a record signing at £2.2m from Bayer Leverkusen, and proved that the club were now in the market for top class quality players from abroad. He was a thorough professional with the only down side being he was prone to injury. Capable of flashes of brilliance, he is perhaps best remembered for his stunning shot at Ibrox in November 1995 in a memorable 3-3 draw.
When Wim Jansen took over as Celtic manager in the summer of 1997, he had leaned heavily on Thom’s experience. In November 1997 Celtic beat Dundee United 3-0 in the League Cup final, a win which should never be underestimated, as it gave Celtic the platform and confidence to mount an effective league challenge. Andy Thom was arguably playing his best football for Celtic during this period, but with his contract due to end in a few months, Fergus McCann insisted on selling him to Hertha Berlin for £275,000 in January 1998, rather than lose him for nothing in the summer under freedom of contract.
Fergus took a massive gamble. Losing such a quality player represented a huge risk in the closest league race for many years, which went to the very last game before Celtic eventually prevailed. Had Andy Thom stayed to the season’s end then many believe the league would have been won with games to spare and would have avoided Celtic fans suffering from a huge levels of stress and anxiety in those closing weeks of the season. Andy was due a medal when the league was won, due to the number of games he played. It’s unlikely that he actually received one but the hope is that he did, as he definitely deserved it, as he was the main one of those four big foreign acquisitions who actually made a contribution which would see Celtic become winners.
In football terms, it seemed like the end of the world when the Three Amigos left in 1997. For that reason, they do not deserve to be remembered fondly. However, it was a reminder of the old adage that it is always darkest before the dawn.
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