Celtic’s Twelfth Manager – John Barnes, lost the dressing room

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The Celtic Star

·3 December 2025

Celtic’s Twelfth Manager – John Barnes, lost the dressing room

Celtic’s 12th Manager (1999-2000) – John Barnes, his feet barely touched the ground on the way out…

Not for the first time were Celtic forced to realise that a good player, no matter how good, does not necessarily make a good Manager. They made a similar mistake in 1991 with Liam Brady. John Barnes had been a great player for Liverpool and England, but Manager, he was not.

John Barnes Celtic Manager 30 October 1999 Photo Mary Evans

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From an early stage criticisms were made of his team formation and his team selection, but fate dealt him a bad blow in Lyon in October when Henrik Larsson broke his leg. The misfortune was twofold. One was the loss a great player, but the other was the loss of a stable influence which could have counteracted the crazy things that happened in the Celtic dressing room on that fateful night in February.

July 1999: Celtic Manager John Barnes and Terry McDermott during their pre-season tour of Norway. Photo: Stu Forster /Allsport

Even before the Inverness game, storm clouds were gathering. The first game back after the midseason break was against Kilmarnock at Rugby Park and it was an appalling bore, then the Saturday before Inverness game saw a game against Hearts thrown away.

24 Jul 1999: Celtic Manager John Barnes signs autographs before the pre-season friendly against Leeds United at Celtic Park . Leeds won 2-1. Photo Chris Lobina /Allsport

The players took the field against Inverness with a mixture of arrogance about their lower League opponents, and opposition to their Manager. He had probably “lost the dressing room” long before, and his feet barely touched the ground on the way out after that humiliation which I hope, affected him in the same way as it affected us.

As Rudyard Kipling once said about the Boer War “it was no end of a lesson, but it will do us no end of good”.

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Celtic in the Eighties and Willie Fernie – Putting on the Style both by David Potter. Photo The Celtic Star