| Season Review | Matches: 1977 – 1978 | 1977-1978 Pictures |
Appearances (Goals in brackets)'
+' sign indicates the number of substitute appearances by that player
* – left Celtic during season 1977/78
† – left Celtic at the end of season 1977/78
| League | League Cup | Scottish Cup | European Cup | Total | |
| Latchford | 36 | 8 | 3 | 4 | 51 |
| Baines | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| McGrain | 7 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 11 |
| Munro † | 14+1 | 5 | 2 | 0 | 21+1 |
| Lynch | 26+1 (3) | 4 | 0 | 3 | 33+1 (3) |
| Filippi | 11+1 | 0 | 1+1 | 0 | 12+2 |
| Sneddon | 15 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 20 |
| Kay † | 5 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 10 |
| Casey | 2+2 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 9+2 |
| Stanton † | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| McWilliam † | 1 | 1+1 | 0 | 1 | 3+1 |
| MacDonald | 36 (7) | 8 | 3 (2) | 4 (1) | 51 (10) |
| McLaughlin * | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0+1 (1) | 1+1 (1) |
| Edvaldsson | 33+3 (10) | 6+1 (2) | 3 | 4 (2) | 46+4 (14) |
| Aitken | 33 (2) | 6 (1) | 3 | 4 | 46 (3) |
| Conroy | 5 (2) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 (2) |
| Dowie | 12+2 | 2+1 | 1 | 0 | 15+3 |
| Glavin | 28 (9) | 5+1 | 1 | 4 (2) | 38+1 (11) |
| Mackie | 1+1 | 1+1 | 0 | 0 | 2+2 |
| Doyle | 20+6 (2) | 6+2 (2) | 0 | 3 | 29+8 (4) |
| Craig | 19+1 (8) | 5+2 (4) | 0+1 | 4 (4) | 28+4 (16) |
| J McCluskey | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0+1 | 0+1 |
| McAdam | 32+1 (8) | 0 | 3 (2) | 0 | 35+1 (10) |
| G McCluskey | 12+3 (6) | 2+1 (1) | 3 (3) | 0 | 17+4 (10) |
| Coyne | 0+1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0+1 |
| Burns | 22+2 (3) | 6 (1) | 3 (1) | 3 (1) | 34+2 (6) |
| Wilson | 15+6 (1) | 6+1 (2) | 1 | 4 (1) | 26+7 (4) |
| Gibson † | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Conn | 9+1 | 3+1 | 2 | 0+1 | 14+3 |
| Lennox | 1+2 | 3+1 | 0 | 1+2 (1) | 5+5 (1) |
| P McCluskey * | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Dalglish * | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| own goals | (2) | (2) | (4) |
Most Appearances – Peter Latchford and Roddy MacDonald jointly with 51 appearances – appearing in every game
Top Scorer – Joe Craig with 16 goals
New Arrivals, debuts and Departures.
The biggest departure which affected the whole season was the selling of Dalglish to Liverpool for £440,000 on the 10th August 1977 having played in two friendlies this season. This was not a failure of the club or the manager or anything. Dalglish was determined to leave and that's all there was to it. There was no keeping him as a Celtic player. His mind was made up that his future lay south of the border.
The other two departures pale into insignificance along side that of Dalglish. Pat McCluskey, who had been on the transfer list at the end of the previous season, was sold to Dumbarton for £15,000 two days after Dalglish departed. On 4th November Brian McLaughlin was traded to Ayr Utd for Joe Filippi plus £15,000. Both McLaughlin and McCluskey had been peripheral to plans for the team and in the case of McLaughlin it was essential to bring in another right back with the loss of Danny McGrain.
If you take the cost of Filippi as cancelled out in the selling of McCluskey then you still have £440,000 income from the Dalglish sale. Jock Stein would not be rushed in to the market and would only acquire players that were available at prices the club could afford, that wanted to come and would do a job for the team. In any case replacing somebody like Dalglish would have been a nigh-on impossible task. The job for the season was further complicated by the injuries that occurred right at the start of the season losing Alfie Conn, Pat Stanton and Danny McGrain, who had all been important players the previous season and in McGrain, Celtic possessed a world class player who was lost for the season along with the consumate reader of the game, Pat Stanton.
The nature of the arrivals therefore was that of availability at price and the ability to fit in to the team. These were:-
Roy Kay – 1st July, '77 – free transfer from Hearts, full back, left or right side.
Ian McWilliam – 2nd August '77, nominal and retained amateur status, from Queen's Park; centre forward or centre half.
John Dowie – 6th September '77, £25,000 from Fulham, full back or midfield.
Tom McAdam – 6th September '77, £65,000 from Dundee Utd, forward.
Frank Munro – 14th October '77, initially a loan from Wolverhampton Wanderers – centre half – full time from 30/12/77 at £20,000
Joe Filippi – 4th November '77, traded with Ayr Utd at £15,000 plus Brian McLaughlin – right back
Alan Sneddon – 29th January '78, from Larkhall Thistle – unknown fee but he had been signed in August '77 with a view to coming at the end of the season but was brought in early.
Mike Conroy – 10th April, '78; nominal fee from Port Glasgow Juniors, midfield.
There were also important debuts from Peter Mackie, John McCluskey and Brian Coyne who had all worked their way up through the youth and Reserve path.
At the end of the season Frank Munro, Roy Kay and Ian McWilliam – all new signings – were released on frees. And from the Reserves John Clifford and Willie Temperley were released. Johnny Gibson who did not play for the first team this season was also released.
The biggest losses for the season however were Danny McGrain and Pat Stanton. The importance of their loss through injury cannot be underestimated. When the loss of Alfie Conn to a knee injury and then poor recovery from surgery is added in (and much had been expected of Conn stepping up into Dalglish's boots!), then this was a very young, depleted and under-performing Celtic team after a season when the Double had been won.
The greatest loss however was left till after the season ended.