A ceasefire was called at Celtic Park yesterday. After talks between players and management it was announced that the team had decided to comply with all aspects of their contracts, including talking to the media, and that a further meeting would be held next week.

It seems certain that the first-team squad's industrial action, called because of their dissatisfaction with the bonus that was on offer for qualifying for the Champions' League, will be ended. It does not mean that the ill-feeling at the club will evaporate. On the contrary, it is believed that several Celtic players are seeking transfers.

Jozef Venglos, the head coach, denied that players wanted to leave, saying that the reserve goalkeeper Stewart Kerr was the only one to have intimated a desire for a transfer.

The 3-0 defeat by Croatia Zagreb in the Champions' League qualifier has left supporters seething over the attitude of the players. Neither the managing director Fergus McCann nor the general manager Jock Brown has commented since the debacle.

Since the players declared their dissatisfaction with McCann's original offer of a bonus payment of £280,000, Celtic have lost to Aberdeen in the league and Airdrie in the League Cup as well as to the Croatians.

They now travel to meet the Premier League's bottom side, newly promoted Dundee who are pointless and goalless after three outings. Anything less than victory today would be regarded as the ultimate humiliation.