2000–01 Celtic F.C. season
# 2000–01 Celtic F.C. season

Celtic played the 2000–01 season in the Scottish Premier League. Martin O'Neill became manager and Celtic won a domestic treble of the three major Scottish trophies: the Scottish League Cup, the Scottish Premier League trophy and the Scottish Cup.

## Review and events

### Management

Following the departure of John Barnes in February 2000, Martin O'Neill was appointed as manager of Celtic in June 2000. Kenny Dalglish, who was director of football at Celtic, left the club soon after. John Robertson and Steve Walford followed O'Neill from Leicester City to be assistant manager and coach.

### Transfers

O'Neill's first signing was striker Chris Sutton from Chelsea for a Scottish record transfer of £6 million in July 2000, followed by Belgian international defender Joos Valgaeren from Roda JC for a fee of £3.8 million. Alan Thompson and Didier Agathe joined Celtic in September. Thompson joined from Aston Villa for a fee of £2.75 million while Agathe joined from Hibernian for a nominal fee. Goalkeeper Rab Douglas was brought in from Dundee in October for £1.2 million and Neil Lennon joined in December 2000 from Leicester City for £5.75 million. Mark Viduka was transferred out to Leeds United in July 2000 for a fee of £6 million.

### League campaign

Celtic started their league campaign by going undefeated in 16 games until a heavy defeat to Rangers in November 2000. They lost only two more games, both in May after the league title had been secured. They won the Scottish Premier League with a victory over St Mirren in April, receiving the trophy two weeks later after a 1–0 home win over Hearts, having finished 15 points clear of the runner-up, Rangers, with 97 points.

Striker Henrik Larsson scored 53 goals to set a new Scottish scoring record for a single season.

Key games were:

* Dundee United 1-2 Celtic (30 July) - The opening game of the season which set the standard for the rest of the season
* Celtic 6-2 Rangers (27 August) - The biggest win over rivals Rangers since the Scottish League Cup Final in 1957
* Aberdeen 1-1 Celtic (1 October) - An eight-match winning start to the season ended at Aberdeen but a late equaliser secured a point for Celtic
* Hibernian 0-0 Celtic (29 November) - Celtic ground out a draw after a heavy defeat to Rangers the previous week threatened to derail their season
* Dundee 1-2 Celtic (10 December) - Celtic snatched all the points with a last minute winner despite being out-played for much of the match
* Celtic 1-0 Rangers (11 February) - A narrow win for Celtic was enough to prevent Rangers from resurrecting their title challenge
* Rangers 0-3 Celtic (29 April) - Celtic's first win at Ibrox for six and a half years

### Cup competitions

Celtic beat Raith Rovers, Hearts and Rangers on the way to the Scottish League Cup final at Hampden Park in March 2001. They won the trophy, beating Kilmarnock 3-0 through a second-half hat-trick by Henrik Larsson despite going down to ten men after Chris Sutton was sent off.

In the Scottish Cup, Celtic beat Stranraer, Dunfermline after a replay, Hearts and Dundee United to reach the final in May 2001, where they beat Hibernian 3–0 with a goal from Jackie McNamara and two goals from Henrik Larsson to complete a domestic treble.

### European campaign

Celtic had qualified for the UEFA Cup and began their campaign with an 11-0 aggregate win over Jeunesse Esch from Luxembourg in August 2000. A Chris Sutton goal in extra-time in the away leg was enough to see Celtic through the next round 3–2 on aggregate against HJK Helsinki the following month. They were knocked out in the third round of the competition by Girondins de Bordeaux 2–3 on aggregate despite dominating the second leg in Bordeaux.

## Competitions

### Legend

| Win | Draw | Loss |
| - | - | - |

## Statistics

### Appearances and goals

List of squad players, including number of appearances by competition

| No. | Pos | Nat | Player | Total | Total | Premier League | Premier League | Scottish Cup | Scottish Cup | League Cup | League Cup | UEFA Cup | UEFA Cup |
| - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| No. | Pos | Nat | Player | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals |
| 1 | GK | SCO | Jonathan Gould | 24 | 0 | 15 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 6 | 0 |
| 2 | DF | SCO | Thomas Boyd | 44 | 0 | 21+9 | 0 | 2+3 | 0 | 2+2 | 0 | 4+1 | 0 |
| 3 | DF | FRA | Stéphane Mahé | 13 | 0 | 7+3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| 4 | DF | SCO | Jackie McNamara | 42 | 7 | 18+12 | 3 | 2+2 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 5 | 0 |
| 5 | DF | BEL | Joos Valgaeren | 49 | 4 | 35 | 3 | 6 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 5 | 0 |
| 6 | DF | ENG | Alan Stubbs | 12 | 1 | 7+4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 7 | FW | SWE | Henrik Larsson | 50 | 53 | 37 | 35 | 6 | 9 | 2 | 5 | 5 | 4 |
| 8 | MF | ENG | Alan Thompson | 32 | 3 | 29+1 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 9 | FW | ENG | Chris Sutton | 35 | 14 | 24 | 11 | 4 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 4 | 1 |
| 10 | MF | ISR | Eyal Berkovic | 9 | 3 | 2+2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0+1 | 0 | 2+2 | 3 |
| 12 | FW | ENG | Tommy Johnson | 25 | 7 | 9+7 | 5 | 1+3 | 0 | 2+1 | 2 | 0+2 | 0 |
| 14 | MF | SCO | Paul Lambert | 40 | 1 | 27 | 1 | 4+2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 5 | 0 |
| 15 | MF | NED | Bobby Petta | 31 | 1 | 20 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 2+2 | 0 | 5 | 1 |
| 16 | DF | CIV | Olivier Tébily | 7 | 0 | 2+2 | 0 | 0+1 | 0 | 0+1 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| 17 | MF | FRA | Didier Agathe | 35 | 3 | 26+1 | 3 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| 18 | MF | NIR | Neil Lennon | 25 | 1 | 17 | 1 | 6 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 19 | MF | BUL | Stiliyan Petrov | 38 | 7 | 27+1 | 7 | 1+2 | 0 | 1+1 | 0 | 4+1 | 0 |
| 20 | GK | SCO | Rab Douglas | 28 | 0 | 22 | 0 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 21 | GK | SCO | Stewart Kerr | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 23 | GK | RUS | Dmitri Kharine | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 24 | MF | IRL | Colin Healy | 21 | 1 | 4+8 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 1+5 | 0 |
| 25 | MF | SVK | Ľubomír Moravčík | 40 | 14 | 16+11 | 9 | 4+1 | 1 | 2+1 | 1 | 4+1 | 3 |
| 26 | MF | SCO | Paul Shields | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 27 | FW | SCO | Mark Burchill | 4 | 4 | 0+2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 3 |
| 29 | FW | SCO | Shaun Maloney | 5 | 0 | 1+3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 30 | MF | NOR | Vidar Riseth | 5 | 1 | 0+1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2+1 | 1 |
| 31 | DF | BRA | Rafael Scheidt | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0+1 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| 32 | FW | SCO | Simon Lynch | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| 34 | MF | SCO | Mark Fotheringham | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 35 | DF | SWE | Johan Mjällby | 48 | 4 | 30+5 | 4 | 4+1 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 6 | 0 |
| 36 | DF | SUI | Ramon Vega | 26 | 4 | 18 | 2 | 6 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 38 | GK | SCO | Barry John Corr | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 39 | MF | SCO | Jamie Smith | 9 | 2 | 2+5 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1+1 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| 40 | DF | SCO | Stephen Crainey | 5 | 1 | 0+2 | 0 | 0+1 | 0 | 1+1 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| 43 | MF | IRL | Liam Miller | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0+1 | 0 |

NB: Players with a zero in every column only appeared as unused substitutes

## Team statistics

### League table

| Pos | Teamvte | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification or relegation |
| - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| 1 | Celtic | 38 | 31 | 4 | 3 | 90 | 29 | +61 | 97 | Qualification for the Champions League third qualifying round |
| 2 | Rangers | 38 | 26 | 4 | 8 | 76 | 36 | +40 | 82 | Qualification for the Champions League second qualifying round |
| 3 | Hibernian | 38 | 18 | 12 | 8 | 57 | 35 | +22 | 66 | Qualification for the UEFA Cup first round |
| 4 | Kilmarnock | 38 | 15 | 9 | 14 | 44 | 53 | −9 | 54 | Qualification for the UEFA Cup qualifying round |
| 5 | Heart of Midlothian | 38 | 14 | 10 | 14 | 56 | 50 | +6 | 52 | |

* ↑ Teams played each other three times (33 matches), before the league split into two groups (the top six and the bottom six) for the last five matches.
* ↑ As both finalists of the 2000–01 Scottish Cup, Celtic and Hibernian, qualified for European competition via their league position, the cup berth for 2001–02 UEFA Cup was passed to the next-placed team in the league, fourth-placed Kilmarnock.

## Transfers

### Players in

| Player | From | Fee |
| - | - | - |
| Chris Sutton | Chelsea | £6,000,000 |
| Joos Valgaeren | Roda JC | £4,800,000 |
| Alan Thompson | Aston Villa | £2,750,000 |
| Didier Agathe | Hibernian | £50,000 |
| Rab Douglas | Dundee | £1,200,000 |
| Neil Lennon | Leicester City | £5,750,000 |
| Ramon Vega | Tottenham Hotspur | Loan |
| Troy Douglin | Torquay United | Loan |

### Players out

| Player | To | Fee |
| - | - | - |
| Mark Viduka | Leeds United | £6,000,000 |
| Vidar Riseth | 1860 Munich | Loan £975,000 |
| Rafael Scheidt | Corinthians | Loan |
| Mark Burchill | Birmingham City Ipswich Town | Loan Loan |
| Paul Shields | Albion Rovers | Loan |
| Eyal Berkovic | Blackburn Rovers | Loan |
| Brian McColligan | Stenhousemuir | Loan |
| Barry John Corr | Queen's Park | Loan |
| Liam Keogh | Forfar Athletic | Loan |
| Marc Rieper | − | Released |
