| Matches: 1977 – 1978 | 1977-1978 Pictures | League Table | Statistics |
A Poor Season and the reins change hands
- League Position – 5th. Finished 19 points behind champions Rangers
- League Cup – Losing Finalist
- Scottish Cup – 4th Round
- European Cup – Second Round
The events of this season were dominated at the beginning by the sale of Dalglish to Liverpool for £440,000 in August before the season had really begun. Dalglish was irreplaceable. There was, however, no keeping him. The money that the sale brought in had to be used to raise the team to compete in the face of that loss. But the loss of one player was compounded through immediate injury and the loss of other key players. The very first game of the season against Dundee Utd saw the unfurling of the previous season's title flag – a season which had seen Celtic gain a domestic Double – the mourning of the loss of Dalglish who had departed two days previously, and the loss during the game through injury of Alfie Conn and the key to defensive stability, Pat Stanton. Both went out to knee injuries. Conn would come back and play a part in the season but would be prone to knee trouble throughout and was never able to step up as had been expected. The situation with Stanton was even worse. Complications following knee surgery meant that he never played another game for the first team and in August 1978 he chose to retire.
If that was not enough then the one true world-class player at the club, Danny McGrain, was injured in the game against Hibernian on the 1st October and he too was out for the whole of the season and it would not be till March 1979 that he would make a come back. McGrain along with Dalglish had been the creme de la creme of the Quality Street Gang. His defensive ability and his ability to overlap and turn defense into attack from the wings as well as his leadership and poise under pressure were assets that Celtic could not do without.
The final key to understanding the poor season is to realise that the players that were brought in just did not measure up and basically they were not good enough to make up the deficit of what had been lost. Add to that the underperformance of those that should have been expected to take on the responsibility and further injuries then the elements were there for the perfect storm and a disastrous season. No domestic silverware, no qualification for any level of European participation in the next season, poor results and a lack of focus meant a different Celtic and that a change was necessary.
The details of the handover by Jock Stein to Billy McNeill are covered extremely well in the article on Jock Stein's Directorship. In a Directors Meeting in early March Desmond White suggested that changes would be needed. Jock Stein offered to stand down to the Reserves and this was rejected but by the 20th April he himself was recommending to the Board that Billy McNeill be approached to take over as manager at the end of the season. Jock Stein was to be offered an executive directorship of the club effectively moving upstairs. The way that was portrayed by the media and the way it has come to be accepted (largely down in no small measure to one photograph) is in a far blacker light than it should have been – but where Celtic and the Scottish media were and are concerned, this is no great revelation.
There were without doubt mistakes made. It was a disastrous season given the heights that the club had been under the leadership of one of the most influential managers and tacticians in football in the world. But Celtic as a club had missed golden opportunities in the fat years to become the greatest British sporting institution. The lack of modernity was beginning to show and would become apparent in successive years.