When Celtic dressing room was 'difficult to control' as club favourite lifts lid on dark days

The John Barnes era may not have been a memorable one for Celtic but it did produce of the club's most popular players of the modern era.

Barnes departed in February 2000 after just seven sorry months in charge, but his first signing – a 19-year-old Bulgarian by the name of Stiliyan Petrov – became a mainstay of the Celtic midfield across the next seven seasons. Petrov lifted 10 domestic trophies during his time at Parkhead as well as earning a UEFA Cup runners-up medal following the famous run to the final in Seville in 2003, which Celtic lost 3-2 to Porto.

The £2.8million capture from CSKA Sofia overcame a difficult start to his Celtic career to become a fan favourite, while fellow Barnes signings such as Rafael Scheidt and Eyal Berkovic flopped. Petrov admitted that he found his opening months tough after joining a “difficult” dressing room, but things improved markedly following the arrival of Barnes' successor, Martin O'Neill.

“It was difficult for John because it was his first job – and turned out to be his only job. There was a lot of expectation," Petrov told Grosvener Sport. "It was difficult for me too because I was just 19. I was a boy with no word of English, the culture was different, my family was not with me so I had no one to guide me over what was right and what was wrong.

Stiliyan Petrov (left) was John Barnes' first signng as Celtic manager in the summer of 1999.

"As a young player you think you know everything and you think you should be in the starting XI every time. When I look back I think it was tough for me. It was a really strong dressing room and a difficult dressing room to control, especially when you have the competition between Celtic and Rangers and you are not at the top. You are the ones chasing.

"That makes it harder and then if you get bad results it leads to one problem after another, fans on your back. So what had been a positive start for John and Kenny Dalglish went from bad to worse. Maybe it was the timing for him, his first job, you could pick so many things. He tried and maybe he didn’t like it because John never coached again. He’s gone in another direction and it’s worked for him."

Things changed for Celtic and Petrov following the arrival of O’Neill from Leicester in the summer of 2000. “It’s the man himself," Petrov explained. "I had the opportunity to work with other managers in my career but he stood out. He was exceptional. "The simplicity of it all was really good.

"He knew what he wanted from you as a player and I knew what to expect and what the demands were – what he expected of me on and off the pitch so for me it was a simple decision. "I knew that if I didn’t do what he wanted then I would not be playing so that gave me the challenge to get better."

Celtic defeated Rangers 6-2 in O’Neill’s first Old Firm match in charge and went on to claim a domestic treble – the first time the club had achieved the feat since 1968-69 – with Petrov at the heart of the midfield.

"We knew something special would happen during the treble-winning season - it was fantastic," Petrov added. “It was a fantastic time. The change from the season before was incredible. We could feel the sharpness in pre-season and of course we started to change the squad.

"All of sudden the size of the squad was changed dramatically. We had big defenders, we had big attackers and more speed in the team. We felt something special was coming up and it didn’t take long. We scored three goals in 15 minutes against Rangers and went on to win 6-2.”

Petrov went on to make 309 appearances for Celtic, scoring 64 goals, before eventually following O’Neill to Aston Villa in a £6.5million deal in 2006.