A tale of three managers.

The Scottish title race is entering its decisive phase and Celtic are back in it. But the most interesting part of it right now may not actually be the points on the board. It may be the men in the dugouts.

At the moment the league table has Hearts sitting two points clear of Celtic, with Celtic one point ahead of the club from Ibrox. Three managers therefore sit right at the centre of everything that is about to happen.

Derek McInnes. Martin O’Neill and Danny Rohl.

All three are under pressure. But the pressure on each of them is completely different.

Derek McInnes is the man under the most obvious pressure right now.

That might sound harsh and even a little ridiculous because at the beginning of the season nobody expected Hearts to win the title. Their realistic target was third place. Perhaps they might push the Glasgow clubs occasionally. Perhaps they might stay in contention longer than usual.

Nobody imagined them leading the league this deep into the campaign.

But football seasons are not judged by expectations in August. They are judged by the opportunities that emerge as the season unfolds.

Hearts have been in front for months. At one stage they had a double digit lead at the top of the table. That is not a brief flirtation with success. That is sustained control of the championship race.

They have also enjoyed two advantages that neither Celtic nor the club from Ibrox have had. The first is stability. While both Glasgow clubs spent much of the season tying themselves in knots with managerial upheaval, boardroom tension and ongoing crises, Hearts have been comparatively calm. McInnes has been able to focus almost entirely on the football.

The second advantage has been the absence of European football. Celtic and the Ibrox side have both had to juggle league fixtures with midweek European games and all the fatigue and disruption that brings.

They didn’t even get very far in the cup competitions.

Hearts have had one job. The league.

When a team is given that level of advantage and finds itself leading the table for months, the expectations inevitably change.

So, if Hearts lose the title from here the questions will come.

Finishing second would be a disappointment after the position they have held. Finishing third would be an outright disaster.

McInnes deserves enormous credit for getting Hearts into this position in the first place. But the reality of football management is brutally simple. Opportunity creates pressure.

And right now he is carrying more of it than anyone else in the league.

Curiously, the manager under the least traditional pressure in this race might actually be Martin O’Neill.

That sounds counterintuitive because Celtic are, on paper, the favourites. They have the strongest squad and the deepest resources.

But context matters.

O’Neill was handed a dreadful situation twice in the space of a few months.

First, he arrived to clean up the splatter left behind by the Rodgers assassination, a moment that sent shockwaves through the club and destabilised everything around it. Then he found himself dealing with the mess created by the Nancy episode, which left the squad and the club’s internal structure in an even more chaotic state.

In other words, he inherited problems rather than creating them.

Supporters understand that.

If O’Neill wins the title this season it will be seen as something approaching a personal miracle. He will have taken a club in crisis and dragged it back into contention through sheer force of personality and experience.

That changes the emotional dynamic around him.

There is pressure of course. Celtic always carries pressure. But it is not the same kind of pressure that sits on McInnes or Rohl.

Celtic supporters are carrying hope more than expectation.

They look at O’Neill and see the most impressive manager in the league. They know he has the best resources available.

Many of us believe he is capable of pulling it off.

But they also recognise the structural weaknesses that still exist within the team and the off field problems which have not magically disappeared.

Those issues remain real.

So, the expectation is softer. The mood is more patient. He is the one manager who is going at the end of the season and that gives him yet another psychological edge.

Danny Rohl, meanwhile, may be dealing with the most volatile situation of the three.

He is managing a club whose supporters have the least tolerance for failure and the most unrealistic expectations. Second place will be treated as a disaster. Third place could easily become a catastrophe for him personally.

It’s as I’ve said before; had he come in and made steady improvements and Celtic and Hearts just been better, he’d have been fine. But we’ve been a slapstick mess and Hearts have started to wilt under the strain. Rohl was believed to have a chance, and there are a lot of folks in the stands who will hold it against him if he fails.

Anyone who has watched the atmosphere around Ibrox in recent years understands how quickly that pressure can turn toxic.

The demands from the stands are relentless. The ultras movement has grown louder and more influential. The media narrative around the club swings wildly between hysteria and crisis from one week to the next.

In that environment even small setbacks become enormous events.

I have written about Rohl before and the context around his job matters. This is not a calm footballing environment where a manager is allowed time to build something carefully.

It is a place where the mood can change overnight. If Rohl fails to deliver the title the consequences will not arrive gently. They will arrive hard.

And they may arrive fast.

So, the title race we are watching now is not simply about points on a table. It is also about three managers carrying three very different burdens.

McInnes carries the pressure of opportunity. His team has been in front for months and the question hanging over him is brutally simple. Can he finish the job?

O’Neill carries the pressure of hope. He arrived in chaos and has somehow dragged Celtic back into contention.

Rohl carries the pressure of expectation. His supporters demand success and have very little patience when they do not get it.

All three of them are walking the same tightrope over the final weeks of the season. Only one of them is going to make it to the other side. The ways they handle the pressures they face might well be critical to who does.

Choose The CelticBlog as a ‘Preferred Source’ on Google News for quick access to the news you value.