Celtic have finally closed the chapter on the calamitous Kenny Dalglish era at the club with the award of more than £600,000 to the former director of football operations.

The former Parkhead hero and Newcastle boss re-joined the club along with head coach John Barnes in the summer of last year.

But the pair failed to inspire the Hoops and Barnes was axed after the humiliating home Scottish Cup defeat by Inverness before Dalglish was sacked in the summer.

To compound the injury to Celtic fans' pride, the club finished 21 points behind arch-rivals Rangers in the title race.

But a club spokesman insisted that the club would readily pay up the award, which was heard at a five-minute hearing in the Court of Session in Edinburgh.

Dalglish's lawyers accepted the payout and the club agreed to drop a counter claim against him.

A spokesperson for Celtic said: '' Kenny Dalglish obtained a judgment against Celtic for £612,522 plus interest and expenses.

''Celtic will comply with the terms of the court order and now consider the matter closed.''

Dalglish had originally been seeking £950,000, along with £35,163 worth of pension contributions from Celtic.

The £950,000 claim was made up of a payment of £750,000 the club was obliged to pay on termination of his contract plus £200,000 in share options.

The £750,000 comprised payment of an after tax year's salary of £371,880, loss of company car, and loss of health, disability and life insurance benefits, and pension contributions made by Celtic in the notice period.

It also included loss of an opportunity to earn an ''executive performance incentive bonus'' of £144,000 and a ''football achievement bonus'' of £60,000.

But the former Celtic, Liverpool and Scotland legend agreed to take £585,000 and £27,522 along with interest payments.

l Bradford manager Jim Jefferies has told his players they can leave Valley Parade if they are becoming fed up waiting for their chance under his reign.

Jefferies promised everyone in the squad a fair crack of the whip upon his arrival three weeks ago, vowing any player who did not immediately shape up would be shipped out.

With City on a roll, Jefferies is refusing to chop and change the team just to appease a number of players still awaiting their opportunity.

Going into today's clash with Newcastle at St James' Park, Jefferies can sense a growing unease.

He said: ''I'm still learning about the players. Look at last week when all three subs contributed to the fightback (in the 3-3 draw with Spurs). I learned a lot that day, and they gave me food for thought.

''People have to be patient, wait for the chance and when it comes then grab it - and there might be one or two who will get that chance this weekend.''

One of those could be Robbie Blake, who finally made his first appearance of the season as a substitute last Saturday, and Dan Petrescu could also come into the reckoning.