Stiliyan Petrov struggled to settle into life at Celtic due to the dressing room chaos that reigned under John Barnes.
The Bulgarian arrived at Parkhead as a fresh faced 19-year-old under the Liverpool legend, but his time in charge was a turbulent one that ended after a shock Scottish Cup defeat to Inverness Caledonian Thistle. As a young recent arrival who spoke little English, Petrov struggled to make much sense of what was going on.
But he knew enough to realise that all was not well, with fights breaking out regularly and clear cliques forming amongst the squad and Barnes had little control over the big characters. He 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 improved for the club and Petrov himself after Martin O’Neill came in, leading the Hoops to a Treble in his first season. Petrov added: “He was clear about what he wanted. He took the players he needed from the previous era - the ones with character, fire and quality - and built his own team.
"He brought in Alan Thompson, Chris Sutton, Neil Lennon, Bobo Balde, Joos Valgaeren - huge players for us. Martin knew how to build a team of warriors. We didn't fear anyone; we played Barcelona, Lyon and Liverpool, and we weren't scared. Teams feared us when they came to Celtic Park. We had such togetherness and we had winners, and we were hungry for success."
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