DAILY RECORD 🔵 Kenny Dalglish slams ‘disgraceful’ Celtic stars who cost manager his job as he reveals one regret over John Barnes flop
Dalglish returned to Celtic as director of football in 1999 after turning down the chance to become manager
Kenny Dalglish and John Barnes back in 1999
Kenny Dalglish has slammed former Celtic players for downing tools during John Barnes’ ill-fated tenure as boss at the turn of the century.
And the Hoops legend admits he regrets not doing more to help his former player try and become a success at Parkhead. After a glorious spell as a player with Celts between 1969-77, Dalglish returned to the club when he accepted the position of director of football in the summer of 1999, with Barnes being installed as manager despite having no previous dugout experience.
Barnes – who was signed for Liverpool by Dalglish 12 years prior – made an impressive start to life as Hoops manager by winning nine of his first 11 league matches, including two thumping 5-0 and 7-0 victories over Aberdeen. However, things quickly unravelled and Celtic fell way off the pace in the title race with arch-rivals Rangers, also suffering an early UEFA Cup exit to Lyon. Anfield hero Barnes was then given his marching orders just two days after an infamous 3-1 loss to lower league side Inverness Caledonian Thistle in February 2000 that saw one newspaper coin the famous headline ‘Super Caley go ballistic, Celtic are atrocious’.
Dalglish – who won four top-flight English titles across spells as boss of Liverpool and Blackburn Rovers – took over as manager for the remainder of the campaign and while Celtic finished a staggering 21 points behind league winners’ Rangers, guided them to glory in the League Cup.
He then left the club for a second time to allow Martin O’Neill to take up the reins that summer. Barnes’ short tenure at Celtic is one that many fans try to forget but Dalglish insists that some of the players who were at his disposal at the time should have a long, hard look at themselves.
Speaking on William Hill’s The Warm-Up Podcast, he said: « Digger (Barnes) had the second-best start of any Celtic manager at that time. They went up to Aberdeen in the first game and won 5-0. I didn’t know when to help him. I could have maybe helped him but I didn’t want him to feel like I was trying to undermine him. I think that was my mistake and my fault.
« But some of them in there (players), by the way, were disgraceful. Here’s an example, we are at home on the last day of the season against Dundee United and there were eight or nine boys making their debuts.
« Out of the players I worked with, I thought he (Barnes) would have a good chance. He picked it up from Graham Taylor (at Waford) before he came to us so he must have some experience and knowledge of football.
« We looked good enough in pre-season to me and I thought it was an even money chance that he would be relatively successful.
« I didn’t regret not going back, I regretted not helping more than I could of. I was trying to do it with John’s best interests (in mind).
« When he left, I think they (players) knew in that dressing room what they had done. If they had never, they got told that anyway. We won the League Cup by beating Aberdeen.
« I might have been the manager but it was mostly from the work that John did from getting us that far. »
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