Putting them in their place
Celtic and their huge support had endured a torrid time in
the 1990s with their main rivals across the city sweeping all before them.
There were mitigating circumstances to Celtic’s serial failure in that era,
such as the need to rebuild the stadium in the light of the Taylor Report. The
disasters at Hillsborough, Heysel and Bradford meant that the days of the big
open terraces of British football stadiums were numbered. Rangers, having
rebuilt Ibrox in the years after the disaster there in 1971, could concentrate
their considerable financial muscle on building a team. Celtic, on the other
hand, faced huge financial challenges to rebuild their stadium whilst
simultaneously trying to put a team on the park which could compete with free
spending Rangers.
That being said, the club didn’t always spend what money they
had wisely. In late 1999 Celtic paid £4.8m for Brazilian defender Rafael
Scheidt. He was a complete mystery to the fans and in truth his purchase seemed
to have been based on a highlights video put together by his agent and his
rather murky record of Brazilian caps. He won three caps for Brazil, amid
rumours that clubs paid for players to be capped in friendly matches so that
they could sell them to European clubs at inflated prices. The unfortunately
named player lived up to his name and barely played for the club. One teammate
of the era said caustically of him, ‘the guy couldn't trap a bag of
cement.’
The promise of the Barnes-Dalglish era faded quickly after an
encouraging start. As the cold January of 2000 started, Celtic were already
slipping behind Rangers in the league. After the winter break, the team drew
with Kilmarnock, lost to Hearts after being 2-0 up and then faced up to
Inverness Caledonian Thistle in a Scottish cup tie at Celtic Park. For Celtic
fans in the 34,000 crowd, it was obvious that the team was lacking in intensity
as the game unfolded. The lower league side played well, sensing that their
opponents were not at their best, and led 2-1 at half time. What occurred in
the Celtic dressing room though sealed the fate of John Barnes as Manager. It
has emerged since that Mark Viduka took exception to being criticised for his
lacklustre performance in the first half by assistant manager Eric Black and
had to be physically restrained from attacking him. Ian Wright, a sub that
night, said...
‘Mark Viduka refused to play in the second half. It’s a
nightmare that one and one I’m not comfortable with. I remember at half time;
everybody was getting a lot of stick. He came in at half time, took his boots
off and said, ‘fuck this,’ and threw them down. We couldn’t believe it. He
refused to play. It was the first time I’d ever seen that and I thought it was
a disgrace.’
The game ended in a deserved win for the lower league side
and John Barnes was subsequently fired. In more recent times, Barnes has raised
the issue of race in his sacking; arguing that black managers are given less
time. In truth, he had lost control of some of his players and the disharmony
in the group was hampering the team. He was a very inexperienced manager for
whom the Celtic job was perhaps too much, too soon. Players like Viduka needed
to have a long hard look at their attitude too, but in football, the manager
carries the can.
Kenny Dalglish took over as interim manager and guided the
side for the remainder of the season. In March of 2000 he led the side to a
league cup final win over Aberdeen, but a 4-0 trouncing at Ibrox the following
week reminded the fans of the gulf between Glasgow’s big two. Celtic would
finish 21 points behind Rangers in the league and after the failure of the
Barnes-Dalglish ‘dream team,’ the fans and the club knew that the next
managerial appointment had to be right. There could be no rookie appointment.
Celtic needed an experienced manager who knew the pressure and demands of a
club like Celtic. Such managers were rare and often costly to hire. Whoever was
to take over would inherit a club considerable turmoil. Mark Viduka was angling
for a move and other players were restless. The return of Henrik Larsson from a
long-term injury during the last game of the season was one ray of light, but
the squad lacked real depth and quality. It was clear that a major rebuild was
required if season 2000-2001 was to be any better.
Celtic fans watched with interest as coaches like Gus Hiddink
were linked with the job. In the end it was a phone call from former Rangers’
striker and then Manchester United manager, Alex Ferguson, which helped Celtic
secure the manager who would lead the club into the new century. Ferguson, a
friend of Celtic’s biggest shareholder, Dermot Desmond had been consulted by
the Irish businessman about his recommendations for the vacant manager’s
job at Celtic. Ferguson said, ‘listen, would you have any interest in managing
Celtic? Would you take a call from Dermot Desmond in half an hour?’ For Martin
O’Neill there could only be one answer.
Those of you familiar with the north of Ireland will
perhaps know the village of Kilrea. It sits close to the River Bann which marks
the boundary between Counties Derry and Antrim and is a fairly quiet home to
around 1700 people. It was not untouched by the troubles but the local
population is robust, friendly and for the most part get along well. It can
boast a few notable inhabitants such as Hannah Shields who was only the second
Irish woman to scale Mount Everest. The local Gaelic athletic club, the ‘Padraig
Pearse’s GAC’ have had mixed fortunes over the years. Their under 16 team won
the inaugural Championship in 1966 and the team contained a skinny lad who was
to be a major figure in modern Celtic history. Coming from a family of nine was
perhaps the initial grounding in teamwork which taught him that the whole is
often more than the sum of its parts. Having four brothers and four sisters
might also have taught him the skills required to get on with a group of
diverse people. I speak of course of Martin Hugh Michael O’Neil.
As Martin O’Neill stood on the steps of Celtic Park in
the bright June sunshine in the year 2000, the watching throng of Celtic fans
could have been forgiven for thinking that the troubles of the 1990s might at
last be receding into the past. Here was a manager at the peak of his powers
and who had brought success to unfashionable Leicester City. The fans
were euphoric but O’Neill would have known even on that first day that the
weight of expectation had crushed the previous incumbent. He said to the watching
supporters...
“It's an absolute honour for me to be the manager here, an
absolute honour,” Martin O’Neill said. “I will do everything I possibly can to
bring some success to this club.”
As the cheers echoed around him, O’Neill would have realised
the scale of Celtic football club and the scale of the task required to turn
the club around and give the fans the success they craved. He spoke some years
later of that first day and said rather poignantly...
‘I’ll never forget that evening when everything had all died
down and the crowd had dispersed. I walked to the top of the Jock Stein
stand just have a look at the empty stadium and thought wow, this is something
really special. Obviously, the stadium had changed greatly since Jock Stein’s
days and I remember the old truck coming in when they won the European cup. The
stadium at Celtic Park is pretty special.’
O’Neill’s first task was to assemble a squad which could
compete for the title again. The Rangers squad in 2000-01 contained players who
brought experience, skill and considerable physicality onto the field. They had
players such as Frank De Boer, Barry Ferguson, Michael Mols, Lorenzo Amoruso,
Jorge Albertz and Andre Kanchelskis. To this they added the likes of Peter
Lovenkrands, Ronald De Boer, Fernando Ricksen and Tore Andre Flo. O’Neill joked
years later that had he known the quality in the Rangers squad, he might not
have taken the Celtic job.
As the summer of 2000 unfolded, he began the reconstruction
of the Celtic squad which was sorely needed. Viduka was sold to Leeds United,
Vidar Riseth, Regi Blinker and Rafael Scheidt were also moved on. The
unfortunate Marc Rieper was forced to retire due to a toe injury. Chris Sutton
was signed from Chelsea with the funds raised by selling Viduka. Soon to join
him were Joos Valgaeren, Alan Thompson, Didier Agathe and Rab Douglas. As the
season progressed, Neill Lennon and Ramon Vega also arrived at Celtic Park.
Celtic’s squad now looked more robust and the dressing room contained the sort
of strong characters who would not shirk a fight on or off the field. The Celtic
board had backed the manager and O’Neill was now tasked with blending these
undoubtedly talented players into a winning team.
Competitive football began for Martin O’Neill’s Celtic at
Tannadice stadium in Dundee on a sunny July day. Dundee United, remembering
their roots by wearing a green shirt in their centenary year, gave Celtic a
stern test, but goals from Sutton and Larsson saw Celtic emerge with the
points. There was a determination about the side and none of the mental
sluggishness which marked the closing months of the previous season.
Motherwell, Kilmarnock and Hearts were swept aside as Celtic approached what
many considered to be the acid test; the first derby of the season with
Rangers.
Some games live long in the memory, be it because of a
wonderful goal, a fine team performance of the atmosphere it engendered.
The Celtic v Rangers game played at Celtic Park on the 27th August 2000 had all
of that but in retrospect it marked a turning point in Scottish football.
Rangers had won 11 of the previous 12 titles and had defeated Celtic 4-0 in the
previous fixture just three months before. They rolled up to Celtic Park on the
back of four straight league wins and fully expected to dampen the enthusiasm
felt by Celtic supporters and their emerging team. For Celtic, Chris Sutton
summed it up by suggesting that if Celtic wanted to be successful, they had to
‘put Rangers in their place.’ That game lives in Celtic folklore as Celtic
smashed Advocaat’s expensive side by 6 goals to 2. Celtic announced that they
were back and that the new century would see a new Celtic.
For many, the next few years convinced them that Martin O’Neill’s
Celtic were indeed the most effective side the club has fielded since the Lisbon
Lions era. There have been Celtic sides since which played prettier football or
won more honours; but O’Neill’s side faced a peak Rangers, spending tens of
millions on players, and put them in their place. They restored Celtic’s
reputation in Europe and built their success on sound financial planning. Rangers
would respond by buying players they couldn’t afford and luring them to
Scotland by promising them tax free remuneration. The EBT scheme was designed
to make payments to players, managers, and directors in a way that avoided
paying income tax and national insurance contributions. HMRC challenged this
arrangement, arguing that the payments were disguised remuneration and should
be taxable. The Supreme Court ultimately sided with HMRC, ruling that the
payments made under the EBTs were indeed taxable earnings. This episode
eventually brought the whole house of cards tumbling down at Ibrox.
Celtic’s success in the 20 years since the O’Neill era has
seen them become the most successful Scottish club of all time. Fans today
recognise the debt owed to O’Neill’s side in re-establishing Celtic as Scotland’s
premier club. They set out to put their great rivals in their place and by God
they did just that.
