2000–01 Celtic F.C. season

Following the departure of John Barnes in February 2000,[4] Martin O'Neill was appointed as manager of Celtic in June 2000.[5] Kenny Dalglish, who was director of football at Celtic, left the club soon after.[6] John Robertson and Steve Walford followed O'Neill from Leicester City to be assistant manager and coach.[7]

O'Neill's first signing was striker Chris Sutton from Chelsea for a Scottish record transfer of £6 million in July 2000,[8] followed by Belgian international defender Joos Valgaeren from Roda JC for a fee of £3.8 million.[9] 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.[10] Goalkeeper Rab Douglas was brought in from Dundee in October for £1.2 million[11] and Neil Lennon joined in December 2000 from Leicester City for £5.75 million.[12] Mark Viduka was transferred out to Leeds United in July 2000 for a fee of £6 million.[13]

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,[14] receiving the trophy two weeks later after a 1–0 home win over Hearts,[2] having finished 15 points clear of the runner-up, Rangers, with 97 points.[15]

Striker Henrik Larsson scored 53 goals to set a new Scottish scoring record for a single season.[16]

Key games were:[17]

• 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

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.[1]

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.[3]

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.[18] 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.[19] 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.[20]

List of squad players, including number of appearances by competition

No.	Pos	Nat	Player	Total		Premier League		Scottish Cup		League Cup		UEFA Cup
				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	Stilian 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	EIR	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	EIR	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