JOHN BARNES says he knew his managerial stint at Celtic wouldn’t last after just one week after he lost the dressing room on his first day in the job.
The 56-year-old insisted there was a split amongst the players from the get-go that made life difficult for him, as did the fact that he was ‘undermined’ during his unveiling as Parkhead boss.
And the former Liverpool player reckons that Stilyan Petrov and Bobby Petta – two players he signed for Celtic – were singled out by team-mates and fans alike because he had recruited them.
He told BBC Sportsound: “From the first week I lost the dressing room - I never had the dressing room, I lost it on the first day. I never had it. But that had nothing to do with my colour. It's not like, 'There's a black man here and we don't like him'.
"I was undermined straight away when the fans asked if I should have been given the job [due to his inexperience] and the chief executive said, ‘It’s a risk we’re taking but Kenny Dalglish is here'. That completely undermined me straight away, as if it doesn’t really matter what happens, we don’t have any faith in him.
"That’s the only reason I came. I know the hierarchy there didn’t want me but Kenny insisted and I’ll thank him for that until my dying day because I wanted to be a coach and he stuck his neck out.
"From the first day I was having problems with people in the dressing room and in the boardroom because people didn’t have faith in me before we had even kicked a ball. I saw on Twitter that people were asking, ‘When did we ever boo Bobby Petta or Stilyan Petrov?’.
"In my five months at the club, every time they got the ball they were getting boos because I had signed them. But people forget that because they became heroes. They are now saying how Petta was great and Petrov is a Celtic legend, as he is because of what happened, but his first two or three months there, when I played them and they got the ball, a large section of the crowd used to boo.
"They said they were not good enough for Celtic and should have never been signed – but they were. As soon as Martin O’Neill came and rehabilitated the crowd in terms of supporting everybody because he had picked them, everybody loved Petta and Petrov. So why were they booing them before? If they were going to boo anyone, they should be booing me. It was because I had signed them.
"In Celtic you had a big split in the dressing room. There were players who were bigger than others. When other players had signed, particularly Petta and Petrov, it was very obvious, even in training.
"In the dressing room you could see the disrespect they had for Stilyan Petrov and Bobby Petta. Never mind when Martin O’Neill came and everything was fine and we’re all friends, at the time when I signed them it was obvious that they didn’t respect them, they didn’t feel they should be there and I could see the outcome of that.
"I had Stilyan Petrov crying in my office. Bobby Petta cried in the office. This is the split that was there.
"Every time we played against a club they [the media] were asking them, ‘What do you think about John Barnes, what do you think about Celtic?’ and I was just getting criticised from start to finish. I knew it wouldn’t last.
"I said to my wife after one week: ‘I’ll be back soon. Don’t move up because this is not going to work.’"
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