Barnes claims that stint as Celtic boss was doomed to fail

JOHN BARNES has revealed he knew his tenure as Celtic head coach was doomed to be a failure from week one in the job.

The former Liverpool and England winger believes he was undermined by the boardroom then disrespected in the dressing room right from the start of his time at Parkhead.

Barnes lasted just eight months of the 1999/2000 season after being recruited on a dream-team ticket with former Hoops hero Kenny Dalglish as his director of football operations.

Comments about his appointment by chief executive Allan MacDonald and the attitude towards him and his signings by established players sabotaged any chance of the rookie succeeding.

In the past week Barnes has been at the forefront of discussions about unconscious racism at play in football that he insists is hindering the job prospects of black bosses.

However, he stressed that his dismissal from Celtic Park, which came as an almighty relief to him, had nothing to do with race.

He explained: ‘From my first week at Celtic, I lost the dressing-room. In fact, I never had it from the first day.

‘That had nothing to do with my colour. There were other dynamics and narratives about my capabilities as a manager.

‘I was undermined straight away. Fans asked whether I should have been given the job.

‘The chief executive said: “Okay, it’s a risk we’re taking — but we’ve got Kenny Dalglish here anyway”. So he completely undermined me right away.

‘He basically said: “It doesn’t matter what happens, we don’t really have faith in him”. I knew when I came that the hierarchy didn’t really want me.

‘But Kenny insisted and I’ll thank him for that to my dying day. I wanted to be a coach and Kenny had faith in me. He stuck his neck out.

‘But from the first day, I was having problems in the dressing room and boardroom because people didn’t have faith in me.

‘I was criticised from start to finish, I knew it wouldn’t last. I had been looking at houses in Stirling and schools for the kids.

‘But after a week I said to my wife: “I’ll be back soon, don’t move up, this isn’t going to work”.

‘And that was when things were going well for seven or eight games. I knew, all of a sudden that if I lost a few, I wouldn’t last.

‘The club had previously been sending me houses to look at but for the last three months, they didn’t even bother to ask if I’d got one or not.

‘They knew it wasn’t going to last and I knew it wasn’t going to last. I was waiting for the inevitable and that was one of the biggest feelings of relief I’ve had.’

Bobby Petta and Stiliyan Petrov would go on to play their part in Celtic success under Martin O’Neill. But Barnes revealed that the pair were reduced to emotional wrecks by their treatment at the hands of first-team colleagues in a divided dressing room.

‘We had a big split in the dressing room because there were players who were bigger than others,’ said Barnes, speaking to BBC Radio Scotland.

‘We had new players who signed, like Petta and Petrov, and even in training sessions you could see the disrespect some of the others had for them.

‘At the time I signed them, it was obvious the other players didn’t respect them and didn’t feel they should be there.

‘You could see the outcome of that. I had Stiliyan crying in my office and I had Bobby crying in my office.

‘During my five months at the club, every time Petrov or Petta got the ball, they were getting booed by big sections of the crowd because I had signed them.

‘But people forget about that because they became heroes. Petta did well and Petrov went on to become a Celtic legend. People said they weren’t good enough to play for the club but they were.

‘As soon as Martin O’Neill came in and rehabilitated the crowd, in terms of them supporting everyone, because he was picking them — everybody loved them.

‘Why were they booing them before? If they wanted to boo at someone then they should have booed me. It was because I had signed them.’