Forty years ago today Celtic fans woke up to dreadful news- Kenny Dalglish had been sold to Liverpool.
The figure £440,000 will never be forgotten by fans of a certain age with Liverpool hanging on to £60,000 of the fee that they received from Hamburg for Kevin Keegan.
There was to be no big investment from Celtic from the windfall as they plunged into the worst season in 50 years.
Dalglish’s transfer had long been rumoured. Despite winning the double in season 76/77 he was left out of the close season trip to Singapore and Australia.
Jock Stein was trying everything to hold on to his captain having watched Lou Macari and Davie Hay being sold in the previous couple of years.
Dalglish had been with Celtic for ten years but the club’s power to compete in Europe was on the wane while English football offered more money and a bigger challenge.
On this day in 1977, Kenny Dalglish leaves Celtic and signs for Liverpool in a £440,000 deal. A great player. pic.twitter.com/IgYfOd1bTn
— CelticLisboa (@CelticLisboa) August 9, 2017
In his first season with Bob Paisley Dalglish scored the winning goal in the 1978 European Cup Final against Bruges at Wembley.
Celtic suffered a nightmare season with serious injuries to Pat Stanton, Danny McGrain and Alfie Conn among others.
Of the half dozen players brought in to replace Dalglish only Tom McAdam made a success of his Celtic career as the club finished fifth in the Premier Division, crashed out of the Scottish Cup to Kilmarnock and lost to SSW Insbruck in the European Cup.
It would be 25 years before Celtic were making an impact again in Europe, it wasn’t all down to the transfer of Dalglish but if one incident highlighted the downward spiral post Lisbon it was that cheque for £440,000 from Liverpool.
