Celtic bowed to the inevitable last night and parted company with John Barnes. The move came just eight months after the new Parkhead hierarchy gambled the club's immediate future on the 36-year-old's lack of experience being less relevant than his prestige and intelligence. It was always going to be a risky bet. By midnight on Tuesday it was a beaten docket.
Barnes was sacked yesterday morning, less than 48 hours after Celtic's embarrassing exit from the Scottish Cup at the hands of Inverness Caledonian Thistle. His assistants Eric Black and Terry McDermott went with him. Kenny Dalglish, Celtic's director of football and the man who appointed both Barnes and McDermott, steps into the vacuum temporarily but is reluctant to take on the role permanently. Dalglish becomes Celtic's seventh manager in the past decade but said that the search for a "suitable replacement" for Barnes would begin at once. The eighth should be in place by the start of next season with two former post-holders, Wim Jansen and Tommy Burns, being the names filling the fan phone-ins in Glasgow last night.
That is for the future. Yesterday Dalglish and Celtic chief executive Allan MacDonald wore bleak expressions as they faced up to the present malaise. MacDonald spoke of "a difficult time for us all" and of "sad decisions", but that the dismissals were "in the best interests of Celtic Football Club".
Out of Europe and the Scottish Cup, 10 points behind Rangers in the league, beaten at home twice in the space of four days by Hearts and Inverness and with dressing-room friction eating away the remaining spirit amongst his squad, Barnes had lost credibility with the vast Celtic support and also with the financial institutions. The latter represent a major force today at any club which is a plc. Shareholders can tolerate a plummeting share price for a limited period only. Over the course of this season Celtic's has fallen from 320 pence in August to a low of 197.5 on Wednesday morning. The importance of their input, on a day when Celtic revealed that profits are down 63 per cent, should not be understated.
If that provides the economic background to the dismal situation at Parkhead, it is, nevertheless, secondary to events on the pitch. Those have deteriorated alarmingly, though judging by Dalglish's words yesterday there is not much question in his mind that Barnes has been let down by the players, rather than the other way round.
"I believe there are many people who have to look in the mirror when a situation such as this arises," Dalglish said. "Undoubtedly I will be asking the players to look at their contribution. When a manager is sacked from a position there is a lot to it, but obviously results are the biggest component. The people most responsible for results are the players. We can accept bad results or bad performances but we cannot accept less than 100 per cent commitment."
Presumably one of Dalglish's first tasks will be to restore some desire and pride among an alienated group of players, beginning at Dens Park, Dundee tomorrow. Mark Viduka, believed to be the central figure in Tuesday night's dressing-room squabble, will be an interesting inclusion or absentee. How the team reacts to Dalglish's call for renewed commitment will largely determine their success and, just as significantly, their continued appearance in green and white hoops.
Dalglish's own disenchantment was undisguised yesterday. He prefaced his remarks by saying: "It certainly gives me no pleasure in any shape or form to be sitting here today," and later said: "As for myself, I don't feel too comfortable." He then mounted a defence of his three dismissed colleagues. "I think the three lads are tremendous fellows. John Barnes is someone who I think will go on to establish himself as a successful coach. Unfortunately it won't be at Celtic."
He then defended the appointment of McDermott, to whom Barnes gave the unflattering title "social convener". The perception was of jobs for the boys - McDermott had been with Dalglish and Barnes at Newcastle United. It backfired. "For people to suggest Terry McDermott was a cone-carrier or runner for Kenny Dalglish is absolute rubbish."
Ultimately Dalglish was left regretting the fact that he had not spent more time with Barnes on the coaching side. Instead Dalglish has filled his time scouting for new talent and organising the new youth academy facility Celtic are constructing. This morning, however, Dalglish will be back on the training pitch and from there he will select his first 11 since August 22nd, 1998. Newcastle drew 1-1 at Chelsea that day. It was a respectable result but five days later Dalglish was ousted by the arrival of Ruud Gullit on Tyneside. That night as Dalglish sat in the Duke of Wellington pub in Durham he said his surprise at the bad news was such: "I thought someone was winding me up." Eighteen months on, it is what he must now do to Celtic's under-achieving team.
