Can Ange adapt and thrive in the Old Firm cauldron like Wim did?

WIM JANSEN should have been the ultimate purist. A coach so unyielding in his commitment to Total Football he would think twice about bending to tie his own shoe lace.

His first impact on Celtic’s history was a midfield role in the Feyenoord team which trumped Jock Stein in the European Cup final of 1970 in Milan. He went on to play in two World Cup finals for Holland, in 1974 and 1978.

When he teamed up with his great friend Johan Cruyff at Ajax, Cruyff famously said that Jansen was ‘one of only four men worth listening to when talking about football’.

With a background like that, you’d expect to find a footballing idealist.

A hard task master who expected his strikers to defend like Beckenbauer and his defenders to pass the ball like Pirlo.

Yet, during his season in charge of Celtic, Jansen proved to be something else. A pragmatist.

His team lined up in a 4-4-2 formation. Goalkeeper Jonathan Gould was instructed to shell his goal kicks as far into enemy territory as possible.

When Jansen was asked by a colleague why he never told defenders like Marc Rieper or Alan Stubbs to pass and carry the ball out like Frank Rijkaard, he said there was no point asking players to do something they were uncomfortable with.

After a tense, epic finale to season 1997/98, Celtic went on to deny Rangers a tenth straight league title.

That — and the capture of Henrik Larsson — guaranteed a place in Parkhead folklore even before his death at the age of 75 earlier this week. Some of the warmest words of tribute came from Ange Postecoglou. If anyone can relate to what the Dutchman achieved in Glasgow, it’s the current manager.

Both arrived as unheralded outsiders to Scottish football. They both worked in Japan’s J-League before pitching up in Glasgow.

Inheriting teams in a state of flux, they made signings quickly and found a way to win their first trophy.

Where Jansen adopted a pragmatic approach to winning, however, Postecoglou is an unshakable idealist.

His team plays in his favoured 4-3-3 formation, regardless of opposition or circumstance.

The football is fast, ferocious and attacking. The ball is played to feet and played out from the back while the pressing starts from the front.

The philosophy is one of high risk, high reward. And for the players asked to train as they play, it must be exhausting.

Like Jurgen Klopp’s first season at Liverpool, soft-tissue injuries have become a recurring issue. Top scorer Kyogo Furuhashi has succumbed to persistent hamstring problems and will be lucky to kick another ball before April.

If games lasted 60 minutes, Celtic would win most matches comfortably. The trouble is that they actually last for 90 minutes and in the last half hour of games, Postecoglou’s side sometimes seem dead on their feet.

Of the 13 goals lost in the Scottish Premiership this season, seven have come after the 55th minute of a game.

Criticised for a passive, conservative start to the most recent matches against Celtic this season, you can almost see what Robbie Neilson is up to. His side scored a late winner in the first game of the season.

In a League Cup tie at Parkhead the next month, Hearts scored two goals in the final 30 minutes or so.

But for the width of a post on Wednesday night, they’d have repeated the feat.

League One Alloa, meanwhile, made a recent Scottish Cup game closer than it might have been when Conor Sammon headed one in with 12 minutes to play.

Celtic can point to a record of 20 games unbeaten in domestic competition.

Despite losing key players, they boast the best defensive record in the Scottish Premiership and, if they’re having a wobble or two late in games, it’s not doing them any real harm. The win at Tynecastle in midweek showed a level of resilience nobody realised they had.

Come Wednesday night, however, the idealism of Angeball will be put to the test against Rangers. And, with £30million on the line for this season’s Premiership champions, Celtic really need to be at it for 90 minutes. Like his former Feyenoord mentor Wim Jansen, Giovanni van Bronckhorst has pitched up in Scotland with a streak of tactical pragmatism. So far, the attacking instincts of full-backs James Tavernier and Borna Barisic have been carefully controlled. If Wednesday night is nip and tuck heading into the last half hour, it’s hard to think of a more opportune time for the Rangers boss to cut the ropes and set them free.