Football: Euro dreams buoy Burns

Simon Turnbull says Newcastle's new coach is ready for a quick reunion

One Celt, at least, will be planning for a European Cup campaign when Sky raises the curtain to the beckoning season in Dublin on Tuesday night. Tommy Burns did not quite make it to the Continent's big league with his beloved Bhouys. Having failed to halt the Ibrox juggernaut short of a ninth successive Scottish title, he will not be in the Celtic dug- out for the opening match of the Irish International Tournament.

Instead, a Dutchman will be carrying the eternal hopes and fears of Glasgow's green half when Burns' erstwhile charges line up to face Derry City. Wim Jansen has little more than a week left to prepare his team to face the might of Inter Cable-Tel in the Uefa Cup - and to bring the absent legionnaires Paolo Di Canio and Jorge Cadette back into the Celtic Park fold.

Burns seemed to spend as much time last season chasing the disaffected Pierre Van Hooijdonk as the disappearing Rangers, but the perennial Parkhead troubles are no longer his professional concern, lifelong Celt though he is. As the new first-team coach in Kenny Dalglish's new-look backroom team, Burns has slipped into Europe's premier club competition with England's back-door boys. And Newcastle United will be champion-less members of the Champions' League if they overcome Partizan Belgrade or Croatia Zagreb in the European Cup's preliminary round next month.

It is the second time Burns has worked under Dalglish. On the first occasion he was an overawed apprentice at Celtic Park. As a 15-year-old he used to boast to his pals that he cleaned King Kenny's boots. Burns' task now, at 39, is to help Dalglish calculate a prize-winning sum from Newcastle's multifarious parts. In contrast to the puzzle facing Jansen at Parkhead, the equation happens to be overloaded by fit and willing foreign bodies. In Newcastle's case, the intrigue is not who will bother to turn up in Dublin but who will be chosen to turn out.

Tuesday night's engagement with PSV Eindhoven, Dick Advocaat's champion Dutch blend, will be their first since snatching that European Cup passport with a 5-0 beating of Nottingham Forest on the final day of last season. Des Hamilton, a pounds 1.25m wing-back from Bradford, was already waiting in the Magpies' wings and he has since been joined by the one-time Celt Shay Given - the Republic of Ireland goalkeeper restricted to reserve-team duty by Tim Flowers at Blackburn - plus a trio of imports. Jon Dahl Tomasson, a 20-year-old Danish international who was fourth top scorer in the Dutch first division last season, the seasoned Georgian Temur Ketsbaia and Bjarni Gudjonsson, an Icelandic teenager, all happen to be attacking-midfielders- cum-forwards.

Even allowing for David Ginola's imminent departure and Faustino Asprilla's temporary absence on international duty, Dalglish has a fair array of offensive talent to take to Ireland's fair city. Indeed, only Alan Shearer - health willing - can now be sure of a permanent place in the attacking scheme of things at St James' Park.

Dalglish has Les Ferdinand and Peter Beardsley to consider too. He also has Rob Lee and David Batty as his midfield axis and Steve Howey fit to return to the centre of defence.

The new coach at St James' is grateful for that strength. "It's great to get the opportunity to work with the quality of player there is at Newcastle now," Tommy Burns said. "In fact, these players hardly need coaching."

Meanwhile, at Celtic's pre- season training camp in Holland, the buzz word was coaxing, not coaching. In the wake of a 3-0 defeat against Groningen, Tom Boyd, the new Parkhead captain, ventured: "If Paolo Di Canio and Jorge Cadette don't come back we could need as many as seven players to give us the strength and depth required." If the Celts meet the Dalglish and Burns boys in the Dublin final on Wednesday it could be a compelling trial of strength.