FERGUS McCANN'S acquisition of Celtic is shaping as the most spectacularly successful purchase since Peter Minuit took Manhattan off the Indians' hands for $24 and a flagon of firewater.

Allowing for inflation since 1626, the little Scots Canadian businessman's personal investment of £10 million in 1994 was still, of course, worth a great deal more than the old Dutch trader's trinkets.

But not even that 22 square miles of prime real estate at the mouth of the Hudson appreciated as swiftly and dramatically as the football club at the east end of the Clyde.

On Monday of this week, just over two years after McCann saved them from bankruptcy, Celtic's shares closed at a price which valued the company at £179 million.

It is a staggering reformation at a place which had been sliding towards calamity under the management of the previous board of directors.

Even the most carping sceptics at the time of McCann's takeover - those who perceived him as an entrepreneur entering the business solely in pursuit of a healthy profit - would have to modify their view of a man whose leadership has been so dynamic.

Celtic may now have a workforce of almost 300 - more than any club outside Manchester United - but the extraordinary progress in such a short time derives directly from the energy and drive of the bespectacled little fellow in the cloth cap.

McCann appointed and oversees the team who seem to improve Celtic's fortunes by the week. The evidence of the transformation is everywhere; two colossal new stands have given Celtic Park a look that justifies its old nickname of Paradise, season ticket sales are up from 7,000 to more than 40,000 and the Celtic away shirt sells more than any Premiership club's home jersey apart from Manchester United.

The first two phases of the rebuilding of the decrepit old stadium have been completed at a cost of £26 million without a mortgage, although there are short term borrowings.

Millions have also been spent on improving the team under manager Tommy Burns, although they still have ground to make up on Rangers.

But those supporters who subscribed to McCann's share issue in January, 1995 - 10,000 of them raising a total of almost £14 million - discovered at the start of this week that shares for which they had paid £60 each had rocketed to £385.

Even the minimum purchase of 10 shares would yield a profit of more than £3,000. McCann's holding of 145,000 ordinary shares makes his personal investment now worth almost £56 million, but there will be no rush to sell.

He will remain in charge until the summer of 1999, when he completes his promised five year plan and leaves the club on a sound footing.

"There is still a great deal to be done," said McCann. "We are still catching up on our major competitors. For example, we have yet to start exploiting the commercial prospects of our support on a global scale. Celtic are officially the best supported club in North America and there is interest all over the world, but those area remain untapped."

McCann's plans also include the building of a Celtic megastore near the ground, with a total of 10,000 square feet of space - "5,000 of ground floor space and 5,000 for mail order," said McCann. Yet his ambition extends beyond Celtic to Scottish football in general.

It is a subject which tarts up his conversation, exposing the hard edge which made him a successful businessman long before he took the plunge into the club he had supported as a boy in the Stirlingshire village of Kilsyth, on the outskirts of Glasgow.

"The SFA have a lot to answer for in the matter of financing the professional game," said McCann.

There is money there that is not properly channelled. And the £45 million being spent on the renovation of Hampden Park is ridiculous. It's not needed.

"Jim Farry, the SFA secretary, told me himself that the hardcore, club supporter no longer goes to international matches. Yet they are contributing millions to a stadium that isn't needed. They also have £6.5 million tied up in the Football Trust, money which could be helping the clubs.

"I know the association's remit includes all of football, from the schools up, but what have they done? Very little from what I can see. It's really time the clubs started telling Farry that we employ him and not the other way around.

"Anybody can see the danger of Celtic and Rangers becoming so big that the competitive element is lost to the league. But other clubs can do a similar job, with proper investment and management. Aberdeen, for example, is similar in size to Newcastle, but look at the difference in the respective football clubs. I know the English club are in a better league and are more marketable.

"But that wasn't always the case. It's been achieved on Tyneside through hard work and proper management. There is plenty of money in Aberdeen and people ready to put it into football if it's properly promoted. Edinburgh is twice the size of either of them, yet Hearts and Hibs struggle.

"The money at the SFA has to be used properly and that means the leading clubs - there should no more than ten professional clubs in this small country have to do their own deal with television and flourish. Pay per view will arrive and we should be part of it. There's no reason why others shouldn't and why we shouldn't have a strong professional league."