Alan Stubbs became the third Celtic player this week to break ranks and criticise the club for selling Craig Burley to Derby County for Stg£3 million. His decision to go public yesterday suggests the dressing-room is unhappy and places the tenure of head coach John Barnes in jeopardy.

The English defender joined Jackie McNamara and Morten Wieghorst, who have also expressed their displeasure at the transfer in what increasingly seems like mutiny by a group of players who had previously kept their disquiet at the tactics and personality of Barnes private.

All three are unhappy about the hints emerging from Celtic that Burley was a bad influence in the dressing-room. There are also fears that the championship could be lost before the mid-winter break.

"Craig is actually a great guy to have in the dressing-room, especially when things are not going well and he's the type you need at a football club," Stubbs said. "None of the players wanted to see him go."

Yesterday Burley admitted that his decision to leave Celtic Park had meant a lot of soul searching.

"Celtic is a massive club, but I was sad to leave Chelsea when I did. But things worked out fantastically well for me and I had a magnificent couple of years up there," Burley said.

"But things move on and it was totally my decision to move on. And I felt it was the right time for me, at 28, to try a new challenge back in England.

"At no point did John Barnes say I wouldn't play. As far as I was concerned, I would play away until I was told otherwise," Burley said.

"I never asked to leave the club but things progressed over the last couple of weeks.

"It is not up to me to tell John Barnes what he's doing. The club decided to accept the bid for me and then I had to make the decision from there.

"As I said, it was totally my decision."

Neil Warnock yesterday became Sheffield United's sixth manager in four years. Warnock, a lifelong supporter of the club, left Bury for Bramall Lane to take charge of the seventh club in his managerial career.