Celtic’s next manager should be free of all this Old Firm Inc. rubbish.

At Friday’s press conference Martin O’Neill spoke about the Glasgow derby and expressed the view that he would like to see a return to the old away allocations and everything that once surrounded those games.

It was a comment that clearly came from a place of nostalgia, from someone who experienced those fixtures in their most intense form and who understands how emotionally charged they can be.

But hearing that sentiment expressed so soon after the events at Ibrox last weekend left me feeling something closer to regret than agreement.

Because it is increasingly difficult to accept the idea that a derby built as much on bigotry and hatred as on football is something we should be eager to restore or promote.

I wrote earlier this week about the toxicity that continues to surround this fixture and about how that culture shapes the behaviour we saw last weekend. Those issues have not disappeared. If anything, they have become even more obvious.

Yet what O’Neill’s comments also reminded me of is something else entirely.

Life at Celtic has a strange habit of revolving in circles.

The club moves forward in some ways, but in others it feels as though we constantly return to the same people, the same assumptions and the same habits. If, as some people suspect, the club is seriously considering appointing Robbie Keane as the next manager, then that sense of circular thinking becomes even more obvious.

Because that would represent another step back into the same familiar orbit.

We would see the same themes emerge again. The same narratives about the derby. The same emphasis on tradition and rivalry. We get the same romanticisation of a fixture that, in truth, has too often been defined by hostility rather than sporting excellence.

What this club needs now is something very different.

It needs a clean break.

There is, of course, a case for having people at the club who understand the particular culture surrounding Scottish football. Those who have experienced the rivalry firsthand know the pressure it brings and the expectations it creates. That experience can be valuable.

But it is not essential.

Ange Postecoglou arrived at Celtic knowing almost nothing about the rivalry or its history.

He did not grow up inside it and he had not played in it. He had not absorbed the mythology that surrounds it in Scotland. Yet he understood the club immediately. He understood what Celtic represents and what supporters expect.

He fitted in as though he had always been here.

The success he achieved had nothing to do with an intimate knowledge of the derby. It came from clarity of thinking, strong leadership and a clear football philosophy.

And one of the most memorable derby atmospheres I have ever experienced happened during his tenure, when Celtic Park hosted the match with no away supporters present. Sixty thousand Celtic supporters filled the stadium, the atmosphere was electric and the team delivered the kind of performance that sent us top of the league.

It was unforgettable.

What made it unforgettable had nothing to do with the presence of the opposition’s supporters.

That moment illustrated something important. The fixture does not need to be framed as a shared spectacle in order to matter to Celtic supporters. It does not need the mythology of the “Old Firm” in order to produce drama.

If anything, continuing to treat it that way only traps the club inside a narrative we have been trying to escape for years.

When a manager comes from within the circle of people who played in the old version of this derby, there is a tendency to romanticise it. The fixture becomes something sacred, something special, something that must be preserved in its traditional form.

Sometimes it even becomes fetishised.

I do not want that from the next Celtic manager.

I want someone who sees the fixture as exactly what it should be: another football match.

A difficult match, certainly. A high-pressure match, of course. But still just another game that needs to be prepared for and won.

I want someone who does not feel compelled to argue for larger away allocations. I want someone who is capable of speaking honestly about the toxic elements that continue to surround the fixture. We need someone who is detached enough from the mythology to recognise the damage that mythology has done.

Martin O’Neill was never likely to adopt that perspective. His experience of the rivalry shaped his understanding of it. He deplored many of the ugly aspects of the fixture, but he also understood the emotional satisfaction that came from winning within that environment.

In that sense he remains part of the same culture.

And that culture is not going to disappear while an entire generation continues to treat this derby as the defining feature of Scottish football.

For too long broadcasters and commentators have marketed this fixture as the ultimate spectacle of the Scottish game. They promote it through the lens of rivalry and hostility. Even now, when people try to rebrand it as something else, the underlying narrative still drives the discussion.

The truth is simple. The so-called “Old Firm” mentality still shapes how people talk about this match.

Celtic FC has spent years trying to distance itself from that label.

The club has made its position clear and has said repeatedly that it does not want to be associated with the term.

However, every time commentators frame the derby as the centrepiece of Scottish football, they tighten that chain around the club again. Every time promoters present it as the defining rivalry of the sport in this country, they reinforce the same narrative.

We cannot claim to want freedom from that identity while continuing to reinforce it.

That is why the next Celtic manager should be someone completely new to this environment. Someone with no experience of the rivalry at all. Someone who approaches the fixture without the emotional baggage that surrounds it.

An outsider might see things more clearly.

Imagine a new Celtic manager experiencing his first match at Ibrox, witnessing the atmosphere and the behaviour that accompanies it, and then sitting down in front of the media afterwards and asking the obvious question.

What exactly was that?

Why does Scottish football accept its showpiece fixture descending into scenes like the ones we saw last weekend? Why are those conditions tolerated?

Those are questions that insiders rarely ask because they have become too accustomed to the culture surrounding the fixture.

An outsider might not be so willing to accept it.

Perhaps that idea is unrealistic. Perhaps it will never happen. Football clubs are often conservative institutions and Celtic is no exception. The temptation to appoint someone who already understands the rivalry will always exist.

But if last weekend proved anything, it is that the culture surrounding this fixture is not something to be celebrated.

It is something to move beyond.

The club across the city may never change the record.

But Celtic can change the tune.

And after what we witnessed last weekend, it is difficult to argue that the time for doing so has not already arrived.

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