Manager 1999 - 2000

John Barnes was announced as Head Coach of Celtic on 10th June 1999. The story of his impending appointment had been reported in the press, but it still came as a considerable surprise given that it was the former England international winger's first managerial job in football. Kenny Dalglish was already in place as Director of Football, and the choice of Barnes was clearly his, the two having been team-mates at Liverpool.

By July, new signings Olivier Tebily, Stilian Petrov, Eyal Berkovic, Dmitri Kharine, and Bobby Petta had been secured. Berkovic's signing from West Ham broke the Scottish transfer fee record, at 5.75m. Early results, despite a loss at Tannadice in the third league game, were promising, but there were some misgivings about the new coach's 4-2-2-2 formation, as well as murmurings about the role that Craig Burley could be expected to play in the new system. Both the misgivings and murmurings proved well-founded when the team lost key matches to Motherwell, Lyon and Rangers in the autumn, and Burley was sold to Derby County.

Compounding the gloom was the loss of Henrik Larsson due to a severe leg break in the first leg match in Lyon, an injury which was to keep him out for the rest of the season. Barnes moved quickly to secure Ian Wright as a short-term replacement, but it was a measure which did not really pay off, as the ageing Wright struggled to cope with the pace of the Scottish game.

However, Celtic maintained interest in the league championship race with a 1-1 draw at Parkhead against Rangers just prior to the winter break. During that break, Barnes made another big money signing, Rafael Scheidt from Brazil. But the player would not really feature much due first to a sudden bout of appendicitis and then later an injury. The other signings Barnes had made were none of them unqualified successes either.

Celtic returned from the winter break with hopes high that they could push Rangers for the league title. But those hopes suffered major set-backs with dropped points at Kilmarnock in the first league match after the shutdown, followed by a very discouraging loss at home to Hearts after Celtic had led 2-0.

Three days later Barnes' team crashed disastrously at home against First Division Inverness Caledonian Thistle (8th February 2000), one of if not the worst cup result in the club's history. Rumours of dressing room strife were rife. The following day, Barnes was summarily fired (along with Eric Black and Terry McDermott), despite assurances earlier in the season from senior management that he would be given plenty of time to become successful.

Kenny Dalglish stepped in as interim boss.

Pictures

• Picture Gallery

Major buys:
Eyal Berkovic (West Ham £5.75m);
Stilian Petrov (CSKA Sofia £2m);
Dmitri Kharine (Chelsea free);
Olivier Tebily (Sheff Utd £1.25m);
Bobby Petta (Ipswich free)

Major sales:
Simon Donnelly and Phil O'Donnell (Sheffield Wed, both free)

Quotes

'It was just an accident waiting to happen.'
John Barnes on the 3-1 defeat to ICT in 2000, speaking in 2002