CELTIC had launched into the 1999/2000 season with high hopes with the so-called Dream Team of Kenny Dalglish and John Barnes in control of team matters.
A year later, both had departed Parkhead.
Barnes was sacked in the immediate aftermath of the most humiliating result in the club’s history – the 3-1 Scottish Cup loss to Inverness Caley Thistle on February 8 2000 – and Dalglish was handed the managerial role in a caretaker capacity. At the conclusion of a woeful campaign, the club legend was also on his way.
In another CQN EXCLUSIVE series, we focus on how the Parkhead club recovered from the catastrophic loss to the Highlanders to rise from the debris as they were propelled into a new era.
Here is Part Fourteen of edited extracts from Celtic author Alex Gordon’s tribute book, ‘The Winds of Change‘, which was published by CQN in 2015.
Please enjoy.
IT WAS time for what was becoming an annual routine – who would be in the Celtic dug-out for the 2000/01 campaign?
As usual, the names tumbled forth hither and yon. One of the first to emerge was that of Co Adriaanse, of Dutch outfit Willem II. The speculation didn’t last long, though, as he agreed to join Ajax for the new season.
Another Dutch coach reported to be in the mix was Leo Beenhakker, who was on the verge of leaving Feyenoord. Ironically, he went to the Amsterdam giants, too, as Director of Technical Affairs. After a year, he fired Adriaanse and brought in Ronald Koeman.
Berti Vogts, who had quit as manager of Germany in 1998, was another to get a mention. The man who would one day became the Scotland international coach put an end to that particular guessing game by joining Bayer Leverkusen.
Luis Fernandez, coach at Athletic Bilbao, stepped onto the managerial merry-go-round, but he was another who was destined for a place elsewhere when he took over at Paris Saint Germain in the summer of 2000. Peter Reid, then manager at Sunderland, threw his hat into the ring, too.
