On 14 March 1999 Celtic travelled north to face Aberdeen at Pittodrie and came away with one of the biggest wins our club have ever achieved at Pittodrie. And after both Mark Viduka and Henrik Larsson both grabbed doubles in the 5-1 win, the Celtic support was thinking that we’d discovered a lethal new striking partnership.
In the build-up to this game Celtic confirmed the appointment of Allan MacDonald as the new CEO and with Kenny Dalglish being linked with a return to the club as the Director of Football, to seemed likely that Dr Josef Venglos would be replaced in the summer after failing to get the better of Rangers in the SPL.
In a pre-match interview the Celtic manager admitted that he wouldn’t be surprised if he was sacked at the end of the season.
“I will not be surprised if I am replaced in the summer as this is the normal situation nowadays. I have been through the situation of new owners coming in to take over a club. It happened at Fenerbache but I was kept on for one more season. I am doing my best here and will continue to fulfil my duties as I am a professional man. I have identified players I want to bring here to make sure things run in the normal way now and in the future. There will not be the same situation here as when I arrived.”
The Celtic team that Dr Joe Venglos picked on this day in 1999 was Gould, Boyd, McNamara, Larsson, Burley, Lambert, McKinlay, Blinker, Riseth, Mjallby, Viduka (Burchill 82). Subs Not Used: Brattbakk, Healy, Keogh, Corr.
Attendance was 16,825.
Here are the highlights…
Looking back, Viduka’s loss was Chris Sutton’s gain.