GLASGOW, SCOTLAND - DECEMBER 03: Celtic players with Interim Manager Martin O'Neill (L) and Interim Coach Shaun Maloney at full time during a William Hill Premiership match between Celtic and Dundee at Cetlic Park, on December 03, 2025, in Glasgow, Scotland. (Photo by Craig Foy/SNS Group via Getty Images)
So, our old friend Ryan Stevenson is making headlines tonight by claiming that Martin O’Neill could quit Celtic due to a lack of support from the boardroom, and that Hearts will win the title because he can apparently sense and feel these things.
I do not even know where to begin with analysis this shallow.
The idea that O’Neill would walk away now is preposterous. It is the one thing that will not happen. O’Neill is not about to plunge this club into even deeper darkness. He spoke today about players needing stability, normality, and consistency. That does not sound like a man preparing to throw them to the wolves by giving them further upheaval.
O’Neill is too connected to the club. He knew what he was coming back to, and I am sure he has fought his corner behind the scenes. Even if he gets nothing more in this window, he will not walk. He will fight on with what he has before doing further harm to Celtic.
Others may not feel the same imperative; he won’t damage what he loves.
What I loved most about his comments was the bit where he claimed to know what O’Neill was thinking.
“He tried to say all the right things (after the weekend’s game). He tried to crack a few gags as if he was trying to laugh it all off. But what I saw underneath was a man who was saying, as politely as he possibly could during his interviews on TV and radio, ‘I’m f****** raging and I’m not having this!”
So he’s yet another body language expert. Or a mind reader.
What a dickhead.
And of course Stevenson thinks Hearts will win the league.
He is a former Hearts player and has never presented himself as a Celtic supporter. (Which doesn’t make him a Hearts fan if you get my drift.)
What I find remarkable is that he seems to believe he is carving out a serious media career. He is not. He never will be. This is the same individual whose contribution to the Wilfred Nancy debate had nothing to do with tactics, structure, or game management, and everything to do with the man’s shoes.
That, I’m afraid, is where he will live forever in our memories.
This is not analysis. It is trivia masquerading as insight. It is surface noise dressed up as opinion. This is the level at which Stevenson operates.
The day Celtic supporters take someone like this seriously will be a cold day in hell. He is a clown pundit, minus even the novelty value. He probably turns up for work in one of those cartoon cars with a nose on the front that squirts water when you honk the horn.
Scottish football media has its fair share of fools, and some who operate several levels beyond that, but even figures like Kris Boyd, The Village Idiot himself, managed to criticise Nancy on things that actually mattered.
When you enter any profession, your early work defines you. That first impression sticks. If you get it wrong, you spend years trying to repair the damage. Stevenson’s problem is that he did not just get it wrong, he made himself a caricature. No serious journalist or analyst builds credibility by obsessing over footwear.
Other commentators criticised Nancy for his press conferences, his in-game management, his tactical rigidity, and whether players responded to his ideas. Those were legitimate lines of criticism. They spoke to competence and professionalism.
Stevenson talked about shoes. That is who he is now. That is who he will always be. The “Wilfred Nancy shoes” guy. You do not come back from that.
Any outlet that employs him will eventually have to justify why it pays someone whose defining contribution to football discourse involved trainers.
I have listened to him for months now, in case there might be something more there. There is not.
No insight and no depth. No meaningful engagement with the game.
Every time you try to judge his comments on their own merits, you end up remembering why his name first stuck.
The green trainers. The shoes.
It is the moment your brain switches off, because you realise his never switched on in the first place.
That is why his views on O’Neill, on Celtic, or on the title race do not matter.
That is why they never will.
Yes. We should all trust the opinions and judgement of a man with tattoos on his face.
Well said.
The minute this man opens his mouth, someone should say, ” I have to stop you there. You woke up one morning and said I think I’ll get my face tattooed so what could you possibly say that would have any value?”
The fact he has face tattoos irelivent ,he is a dickhead giving people with tattoos a bad name
Nothing to do with the fact he has tattoos and everything to do with the fact he has them
ON HIS FACE!
I have to respectfully disagree James…
His anti Celtic diatribe actually WILL see him shoot rapidly up the ladder in the media…
The Scummy Scottish Football Media of course…
He knows what side his bread is buttered on !
And to be fair to Ryan Stevenson this is the second article in a matter of weeks that JF has dedicated to him. So on the basis of the old saying that no publicity is bad publicity, you’re doing a pretty good job of keeping him relevant James…
Although I will agree with TonyB’s rule of thumb!
A guy who thinks a tattooed face is “cool” slags a guy for wearing green sport trainers. Stevenson is a scruffy c@nt who looks more like a criminal on the buckie. He has found his station in life at The Daily Record. A low-level rag employing gutter level duds.
James, you mention ‘The Village Idiot’. Boyd achieved things in his career. Stevensons greatest achievement was to be a part of a Hearts team who reached a Scottish Cup Final. A game they lost. He was a rank average player. His “journalism” is even worse.