GLASGOW, SCOTLAND - MAY 10: A general view of Celtic Park before a William Hill Premiership match between Celtic and Rangers at Celtic Park, on May 10, 2026, in Glasgow, Scotland. (Photo by Alan Harvey/SNS Group via Getty Images)
I think all of us are expecting a Celtic managerial announcement this week.
It pretty much has to happen, doesn’t it?
If it doesn’t, what in God’s name have these people spent the last few months doing? We know what Martin O’Neill has been doing. We know what the players have been doing. They have been doing their jobs.
What about the rest of this club?
Why the hell do some of these people think they can get away with this?
There are two possibilities here. We are either in a farcical situation where this club genuinely has not done a single serious thing in terms of finding our next boss, or they know who the next manager is, have known for months, and are stringing us all along.
I would almost rather believe the second option, because at least that would suggest some of the crazy stuff that has happened, including the giving of new deals to certain players, forms part of an actual plan.
I would hate to think we are about to go into talks with Martin O’Neill and that this is the first real discussion about the role we have had.
Listen, I have already written thousands of words on what I think of the Ibrox plan and their proposed so-called transfer strategy. But let’s be blunt about something: they at least have a strategy.
They have started work on their rebuild. They have gone out and made moves. Yes, these moves are for players on free contracts, but if they are already working on next season’s team and we have not started working on next season’s management team, that is a problem.
I’m going to go out on a limb.
It is going to be O’Neill.
I think we have been led up the garden path for months on this subject. I think that is what has been going on behind the scenes. I think it will be O’Neill, and that it will be announced at some point this week.
It will then be presented as some kind of grand strategy, when in fact, as I have already written, it will not be any such thing. It will be a holding-pattern move, and one that is fundamentally lazy at its core.
It does not matter that O’Neill can do the job.
He clearly can.
But if that is the best they can come up with, if that is the limit of their imagination, that says it all.
The Shankland situation forces Hearts to be proactive.
I have little doubt they already have a list of players they want to sign and that some of those moves are already in motion. I have no doubt the Ibrox club will be three or four signings to the good by the time the window formally opens, with pre-contract deals already done.
Because we do not have to play an early qualifier, some people are going to make the mistake of thinking we have more time than we actually do.
We don’t.
This is a World Cup year, and we are facing a lot of uncertainty about top players in this squad.
It is blatantly obvious that if we go out there after selling key players, before bringing any in, every club in football will know exactly what positions we need to fill. They will also know we have a pocket full of cash.
They will bleed us.
This is what happens every year. We say this every year. Every year, this club blunders into the same damned mistake.
At some point, we have to do things differently.
As fans, we have a responsibility this summer not to allow this club to drift.
The people currently in charge should not expect to return to Celtic Park in six weeks’ time to applause if we are in the same situation. If we are still scrambling around looking for a manager and looking for our first signings, they are going to walk back into hell on earth.
They will deserve to.
Frankly, they deserve to anyway.
But this is the week where they have to start turning this thing around. Everyone knows this title was won in spite of them. Everyone knows they did nothing to help. Everyone knows they did nothing to make Martin O’Neill’s job easier.
They owe him.
If he is going to be in the dugout, they need to start backing him right away. Immediately. Without hesitation.
If this has been going on for weeks, and everyone at Celtic Park already knows who the manager is going to be, then that man already knows his own mind. He will already know what he wants. He will already know his targets.
We cannot be messing around.
We have to go out and get them at once.
If we do not yet know who the manager is going to be, then we had better get moving. And if this is us only getting started, that is all the more reason to run these people out of Celtic Park on a rail.
I cannot say this enough.
They are done.
They have no moral right to run this club any longer.
But the club still has to be run.
That is the contradiction we are stuck with right now. The people who failed the manager, failed the squad, failed the support and almost failed the season are still the people tasked with shaping the next one.
That means the pressure cannot stop just because a double has been won.
The trophies are glorious. The achievement is enormous. Martin O’Neill and the players deserve every bit of praise coming their way.
But nobody should mistake celebration for forgiveness.
Nobody should mistake relief for trust.
Nobody should mistake survival for a plan.
Celtic need a manager. Celtic need signings. Celtic need a strategy. Celtic need urgency.
This week should be the start of that.
If it is not, then the board will have proved, once again, that they learned absolutely nothing from the chaos they helped create.
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I agree James that we need an announcement for the managerial post right away, no messing about, we need to get next season going as quickly as possible. I am fully expecting it to be Robbie Keane, as he is DD’s likeliest chosen one, and it was an obvious telling sign when he resigned his post at Ferencvaros. No matter his politics and what any of us think of him, it is what DD thinks and decides that will define our next manager. I just hope they get it done quickly and decisively.
Here we go again. Can’t help feeling they will delay until after the World Cup to save money and the same with any incoming transfers. A competent board would know already who they want and want him in as quickly as possible to prepare for the new season. Who here thinks that’s the “one we are getting”?
If it is going to be O’Neill, why wasn’t he offered the job in the the usual post-match Scottish Cup Final fashion; i.e. in the shower?
I heard he fooled them and took a bath.
James, we need a manager who has a long term plan of at least 3 or maybe 5 years. MON who is a hero cannot sustain that for more than one season. By his own admission he does not fully understand the modern game and has had to rely on SM. Maybe a position as football director with SM helping the new manager. Like others Robbie Keane will be top of DD’s list.
I totally agree, James. However, more than this, the scouting and recruitment staff should have lists of players that they can present to the new man. If it is MON, then this should be at an advanced stage! If it is Keane or anyone else then options should be available. MON or the new guy will know what the transfer budget is and they should decide which players are moved on and which ones are brought in. You asked what the board do all day but I think we can also ask this same question to all the others tasked with moving the club forward.
If this board allow things to drag on, if they sign 3 players around the £3 million price range, if they bolster the squad with loans and if they appoint a manager after the World Cup then the new season must begin with massive fan boycotts. We cannot allow these bean counters to continue to reduce quality on the park at the expense of maintaining a healthy bank balance and substantial bonuses to the board.
We are all hoping they have learned from past mistakes. I was sure they would help MON in the January window but they reverted to type and spent the grand sum of duck all. Yes, they had wages to pay but even the money spent on most of the new faces went to people that were not part of the team winning the Double.
So, let’s hope the people that work for us are awake and ready to give us confidence going forward. If not, we must all be ready to protest byl not attending any of the games.
“So, let’s hope the people that work for us are awake and ready to give us confidence going forward. If not, we must all be ready to protest byl not attending any of the games.”
If we have to wait to the first game of next season before we take protest action then we have been defeated. The time to hit them is NOW, while they beg for season ticket money etc. These parasites have to be driven out. They do not understand football.
Any new manager should signed already and going to the world cup to absorb any new ideas or tactics and perhaps getting some inspiration for the season ahead.
DD should create an airline and call it “Fly By The Seat of your Pants”
If it is Robbie Keane, and since he is between jobs, there is absolutely no reason to delay the announcement….. unless of course he is on his way elsewhere?
It’s the same people making the decisions so why would anything change? They’ll wait until they’ve banked the fees for Engels, Maeda and Hatate and spend less than half of what we bring in. And they’ll complete most of the signings in the final days/hours of the window. Why would we expect anything different if it’s still Nicholson and McKay in charge?
MON, Maloney or Keane, or a variation of them in different positions seem to be the favourites, Desmond is the guy who’ll make the decisions, there’s no doubt about that. Nothing seems to get done at Celtic Park without his say so.
Surely even he realises that there can’t be a repeat of last summer’s disastrous lack of signings pre season, which helped to throw away around thirty million pounds of CL money, with the Almaty debacle.
The tension between the support and this Board is still there under the surface, MON, his staff plus the players have helped to get an uneasy peace, but Desmond and his Board had better get off their arses or off the Golf course and start managing our club in a proper fashion.
I honestly think it’s going to be Shaun Maloney. If it is then I, and I’m sure all of us, will get behind him 100%, regardless of what we think of the decision. I think this is why they don’t have to rush out and tell us. They can wait till next week or whenever, and SM will probably be identifying targets in the meantime behind the scenes. I remain hopeful, however, that I’m completely wrong and we’ve got a top notch experienced European coach lined up and just dotting I’s and crossing t’s……aye, right.
I think there’s a form of acceptance subconscious acceptance from Celtic fans that we wont receive any updates or communication from the Celtic board (with a small “b”) regarding future plans, imminent managerial appointments or recruitment of players.
It’s an absolute scandal and needs to be addressed as a completely individual issue, outwith their incompetence in their specific strategic responsibilities.
I fervently hope that the collective can step up, hold the board to account and force the required response. This will never succeed by throwing tennis balls on the pitch as Martin so eloquently put it on Saturday, it will take a different set of balls to make the difference that we all require!
Today should’ve been the day that Lucan booted seven bells of verbals outta The Scummy’s…
Then I woke up and had ma fuckin cornflakes !