I have to admit something: I hate the international break. This is my first proper long one as a Celtic blogger, so perhaps I am discovering one of the occupational hazards of writing about this club.
There is no Celtic match, no build-up, no team news every five minutes, no press conference to dissect, no opposition manager to analyse and no Celtic Park atmosphere to talk about. Most importantly, there is nothing happening on the pitch for us to argue about.
Officially, anyway.
Because there is plenty happening in my head, and I suspect I am not alone.
This particular international break has arrived at precisely the wrong moment. Celtic did not enter it full of confidence. We went into it after a brutal sequence of defeats: 3-0 at Ibrox, 3-1 against Ferencváros at Celtic Park, then another defeat to the Ibrox club, this time 1-0 at Paradise. Three defeats in eight days, and then football disappeared for three weeks. That makes this break feel very different.
The obvious question is what is happening behind those closed doors. What is Martin O’Neill doing? What are his coaching staff doing? What are the players being told? What is Michael Nicholson saying?
And perhaps the biggest question of all is what happens if O’Neill decides that he really has had enough? O’Neill himself opened that door after the latest Ibrox defeat when he said he would reflect on his position. That was not the sort of thing any Celtic supporter wanted to hear before a three-week break.
So now we are left waiting. Is he simply taking a few days to clear his head? Is he genuinely considering walking away? Or will everyone return, get their heads down and try to repair what has gone wrong?
If O’Neill stays, one thing is certain: staying cannot mean carrying on exactly as before. That would be madness.
Celtic have already shown serious tactical and structural problems. The LASK collapse, the European disappointment, Ferencváros and the two Ibrox performances created questions which cannot disappear simply because everyone has had time away.
This break has to be a reset, not a holiday from reality.
Celtic have to return with greater defensive organisation, a midfield which can control games and a system which actually suits the players we have. We cannot keep putting square pegs into round holes and then acting surprised when the machine does not work.
What I expect from this break is actually simple: serious conversations, difficult decisions and some visible evidence of change.
Perhaps not dramatically in personnel. Perhaps not even dramatically in formation. But something has to be different.
Because if Celtic return and we see the same disconnected football, the same lack of structure and the same problems staring us in the face, then these three weeks will have been wasted.
That is what Celtic cannot afford.
If O’Neill goes, of course, then we enter a completely different situation. And this is where my frustration with Celtic goes beyond the manager.
Changing the manager does not magically fix the structural problems at the club. We have already seen different managers, different coaches and different players, yet some of the same questions keep returning.
So, if O’Neill leaves, Celtic cannot simply throw another old Celtic-related name into the dugout and hope everything sorts itself out.
The football structure has to be right. Recruitment has to fit the manager. Scouting has to identify players for a system rather than simply collecting names. Responsibility has to be clear, and Celtic has to decide what kind of football club it actually wants to be.
That is the bigger conversation.
The strange thing about an international break is that football can feel frozen when it is not. Players are away and returning. Injured players are recovering. Coaches are analysing. Managers are thinking. Boards are making decisions.
Three weeks is a long time in football, especially at Celtic.
So perhaps instead of only moaning about the lack of matches, we should see this as the opportunity Celtic desperately needed. Perhaps Paradise is not quiet at all. Perhaps difficult conversations are taking place which could shape the rest of the season.
Or perhaps we will return to action and discover that absolutely nothing has changed.
That is the possibility which worries me most.
I can live with Celtic making mistakes. I can live with players having bad games. I can even live with losing football matches, although I certainly do not enjoy it.
What I cannot accept is Celtic seeing the same problems that thousands of supporters can see and doing nothing about them.
So use these three weeks. Analyse. Think. Change.
Because when Celtic finally walk back onto that pitch, there should be no excuses. We should be looking at a team which has used the silence, a team with structure, a team with character and a team with a plan.
Above all, it should look like Celtic again.
Until then, all we can do is wait, overthink everything and wonder what is happening behind the closed doors at Paradise.
God, I hate the international break.
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Totally agree with you, Paulina about the International break. Waste of time. The worry about the time off is that you just know the players will come back just as unfit and the management just as clueless as to how to set up the team. The next game will see the same players played out of position playing the same mind-numbingly boring football.
MON and Maloney should have gone by now to give us a new start.
The thing is, if they could have improved things they would have done it in the week between the two Sevco games.
If MON decides to leave just before the end of three week break that will be a disastrous state of affairs. If he’d taken two days to reflect, as he stated he was going to do, then decided to retire, then a new manager could’ve been given almost the full three weeks to get his feet under the desk and bed in his footballing philosophy.