Stiliyan Petrov Opens up about Period under John Barnes

One of the few successes in John Barnes time at Celtic was the signing of Stiliyan Petrov. Stan arrived as a 19 year old into a dressing room divided that Barnes seemed to have little control over.

Barnes recently blamed racism on his Celtic sacking but he was out of his depth at Celtic and we made a mistake appointing an untested coach.

One of the things Barnes points to was his treatment by the Scottish media but every Celtic supporter knows no matter who Celtic appoint they will get the same treatment (Look at what big Ange went through when he first took over)

Petrov told FourFourTwo: “I couldn't understand much of what was going on, due to the language barrier, but there was always fighting I could see little cliques and problems. He couldn't control the powerful characters. It was John's first job since retiring as a player, and a big one for him.”

"The team was winning, but we had many internal issues. The players weren't giving everything for him. Sometimes a job can come a bit too early for someone, but that doesn't mean they're a bad manager."

Things looked up for Petrov and Celtic the following season when Martin O’Neil was appointed and won a treble in his first season as Celtic boss.