Everyone at Celtic should be ashamed, and determined, after the last fortnight.
Martin O’Neill is probably my favourite Celtic manager of all time.
That makes this difficult to write.
There is no enjoyment in it. No satisfaction. Certainly no pride in watching a Celtic legend being questioned by supporters who once viewed him as virtually untouchable.
But my task when writing about Celtic isn’t to protect my own memories. It is to be honest about what is happening in front of me.
And right now, I am extremely concerned.
After being dismantled 3-0 at Ibrox on Sunday, Celtic responded by losing 3-1 at home to Ferencváros in the Europa League. Mika Baur briefly dragged us level, but within minutes Celtic were behind again and Daniel Arzani had made it three shortly after half-time.
Six goals conceded in two games. Two major fixtures. Two comprehensive defeats.
Yet somehow, the results aren’t even the thing worrying me most.
I Don’t Like What I’m Seeing Happen To Martin O’Neill.
Before Thursday’s game, O’Neill had an unnecessarily awkward exchange with TNT Sports when asked about his team selection and change of goalkeeper.
He was perfectly entitled to make the changes. Managers don’t need permission from broadcasters to pick their teams.
But that’s not really the point.
This is a good guy becoming increasingly nippy with reporters over perfectly ordinary questions. Similar tension was evident when he faced questions about his tactics following Ibrox.
I know the Martin O’Neill we’ve watched for decades.
This doesn’t look like a man enjoying his job.
It looks like pressure.
Perhaps that’s my interpretation rather than something I can prove, but when you’ve watched somebody for this long, you recognise when something doesn’t look right.
Even tactically, I don’t see the conviction I once associated with O’Neill.
This was a manager whose great Celtic teams had an identity. They could play, scrap, adapt and suffer. Everybody knew their job.
What exactly is this Celtic team’s identity?
Because I haven’t got a clue.
Celtic Look Broken.
That’s an uncomfortable word.
But when your own captain is publicly talking about the state of the team, nobody can dismiss what supporters are seeing as hysteria.
Confidence has completely drained from this Celtic side.
Good players suddenly look average.
Average players suddenly look disastrous.
One setback becomes two. One mistake spreads throughout the team.
That’s what concerns me most.
Against LASK, Celtic were in an enormously strong position and collapsed. At Ibrox, Rangers imposed themselves and Celtic couldn’t respond. Against Ferencváros, Celtic equalised immediately before half-time and should have walked down that tunnel with momentum.
Instead, Ferencváros scored again in first-half stoppage time and added their third almost immediately after the restart.
We can’t cope with adversity.
Increasingly, we can’t even capitalise on moments of strength.
That’s a horrible combination.
And That’s Where The COVID Season Comparison Starts.
I’m not saying 2026/27 is identical to 2020/21.
It isn’t.
That Celtic team was chasing a historic tenth consecutive title. Football was being played behind closed doors. Neil Lennon was operating in completely different circumstances. By the time he eventually resigned in February 2021, Celtic were 18 points behind Rangers.
We’re nowhere near that position domestically today.
So let’s get that distinction out of the way.
The similarity is the feeling.
Anyone who lived through that season will remember it.
Individual errors suddenly became contagious. Confidence evaporated. Players who had previously delivered for Celtic looked shadows of themselves. Every setback seemed to produce another setback.
Most importantly, supporters could see something wasn’t working long before the club appeared willing to accept how serious the problem had become.
That is the bit giving me flashbacks.
COVID-season Celtic reached a stage where you could almost predict the next punch before it landed.
I’m beginning to get that feeling again.
Look At Who Stood Up Tonight.
There was something particularly damning about Thursday.
For large parts of the first half, two of Celtic’s better performers were Colby Donovan and James Forrest.
Donovan is an academy graduate who isn’t even supposed to be Celtic’s established first-choice right-back.
Forrest is another academy graduate. He’s 35 years old and, at this stage of his career, shouldn’t have to be the man Celtic are looking towards to inject urgency into a European performance.
Yet there he was.
I actually had Forrest as Celtic’s standout performer when covering the game last night on The Bhoycie Bus, highlighting his direct running while several of the club’s newer additions struggled to impose themselves.
So what does that say about recruitment?
After all the money, all the scouting, all the targets, all the analysis and all the talk about strengthening Celtic, we’re sitting watching a 35-year-old academy graduate showing more attacking intent than players recruited to take this team forward.
That isn’t James Forrest’s problem.
It’s a massive compliment to him.
It’s a Celtic problem.
The 4-3-3 Obsession Has To End.
Or whatever variation of it we’re calling it from week to week.
Celtic actually lined up against Ferencváros in something closer to a 4-2-3-1 before changing shape during the game, but the wider issue remains: this squad continually looks like it is being forced into a tactical framework rather than the framework being designed around the players available.
If you don’t possess the players required to make a system work, stop asking them to play it.
Adapt.
Find something that gives the players confidence.
Make Celtic difficult to play against again.
Right now we’re neither particularly expansive nor particularly secure.
That’s some achievement.
This Goes Higher Than Martin O’Neill.
And this is where I refuse to let the Celtic board disappear into the background while the manager takes every bullet.
They appointed the management structure and the recruitment strategy.
The Board determine the resources, personnel and football operation underneath the manager.
Management then selects the players, formation and tactics.
Players then have to execute it.
Everything is connected and intertwined.
That’s why changing one individual doesn’t magically cure Celtic.
You can criticise O’Neill’s tactics while simultaneously questioning why the squad he has been handed appears so badly balanced.
It’s okay to criticise players while asking who identified them.
You can question recruitment while asking who ultimately oversees recruitment.
Eventually, the road leads upstairs.
I Don’t Want To Watch A Celtic Legend Go Out Like This.
Maybe that’s the saddest part.
I don’t want Martin O’Neill’s Celtic story to end with supporters slaughtering him.
His transformation of Celtic, the amazing European nights, the trophies are what I want him remembered by.
Martin’s miracle of last season winning us the most unlikely Double of all time.
None of that disappears because Celtic are struggling in September 2026.
But legacy cannot become immunity.
That’s exactly why I’m so concerned.
On Wednesday, O’Neill insisted Celtic would “get ourselves right” following Ibrox.
Twenty-four hours later, they were beaten 3-1 at Celtic Park.
Now Rangers are coming to the same stadium on Sunday.
If Celtic win, perhaps something sparks and confidence returns. Perhaps tonight becomes the bottom and we finally start climbing back out.
God knows I’m looking for something to cling to.
But if Celtic lose again — and particularly if they lose in the same passive, fragile fashion we’ve witnessed against Rangers and Ferencváros — then I don’t believe the situation can simply continue as normal.
Because I’ve seen this movie before.
Different circumstances. Different players. Different stage of the season.
But that same horrible feeling that a Celtic team is beginning to unravel while the people running the club desperately hope it somehow fixes itself.
The COVID season taught Celtic what happens when you wait too long to accept something is fundamentally wrong.
Celtic didn’t act then. They don’t know how to act now.
They’d better not need taught the lessons of 2021/22 twice.
Everybody blames the Board for the lack of expenditure but we’ve spent tens of millions, probably up to £40 million in the last couple of years. I know other players have moved out but ask yourself what we’ve got for that expenditure. Ask yourself what Rangers have got for the £40 million they have spent. Hogh cost more than the whole LASK squad and yet they outplayed us. The total player wages bill at some of the SPL clubs we struggle to beat would be less than that of any one of our first team players,
My point is that the Board must look at the tens of millions spent and ask themselves if any one of them made a major impact. If not you can understand them feeling that more expenditure is good money after bad. I’ve made the point before but clubs with but a fraction of our resources (e.g. Villareal, Bodo/Glimpt, Sassoulo…there are more) CONSISTENTLY achieve results orders of magnitude better than we do. The problem goes well beyond the Board’s alleged tight-fistedness.
Bhoycie. I dont know where you get your info from but it is way off the mark. The other day you said the stadium would be half empty for the Ferencevaros game. I thought you maybe had some inside knowledge of what the fans were thinking but turns out it was completely wrong. I think you are wrong here also because the Ibrox outfit of the covid season was far more competent than the present basket case over there. Since the great extinction event we have won a record number of trophies in a short space of time. We won all these trophies because there was no opposition not because we are suddenly brilliant. Our performances in europe prove that
We are absolute gash just now but have full points in the league. A draw will do us on Sunday until we steady the ship but no surprise if we win. We need to say goodbye to MON give him a job upstairs if necessary. MON is only here because of the Robbie Keane protests but he is outdated and should retire.
I would still expect him to win the league though….its a one horse race.
your negativity is absolutely remarkable, I’m actually surprised you waste any of your time reducing yourself to watching Celtic play, you clearly derive ZERO pleasure or satisfaction from it.
Bhoycie is spot on, and the investment Rangers have made in the last 24 months has been significant – and far more (net spend) than ours. You can say they are shite all you like, and you can peddle chat about it being a one horse race, but we’re not good enough for it to be a one horse race so the point is stupid.
Bhoycie said there would be thousands of empty seats for the europa league game, he was clearly wrong…very wrong.
My negativity?…sorry but you have me confused with somebody throwing tennis balls on to the pitch.
The vast majority of fans are negative….CP is not a ray of positivity..where have you been? To be fair you dont sound very positive yourself migano.
The Ibrox team maybe cuffed us the other day but it doesn’t make them a great footballing side. Same as Ferencvaros are going nowhere in the europa league.That is the level.
I’m a realist mate.