Shortly after returning as Celtic manager, while the transfer window was still open, Martin O’Neill sat in front of the Sky Sports cameras and made an extraordinary statement. He ruled himself out of staying at the club beyond this season.
A lot of us were profoundly shocked by that because we understood something called lame-duck syndrome.
It happens when somebody in a position of responsibility and authority announces their departure long before they actually leave and effectively places an expiry date on their own power. What happens next is brutally simple.
That power starts draining away.
Not on the day of departure. From the moment the departure is announced.
People know you will not be around to see long-term change through. They know you will not necessarily live with the consequences of decisions being taken today. Your authority begins to atrophy from that moment, and once that process starts it is extraordinarily difficult to reverse.
A lot of us wondered why O’Neill would voluntarily put himself in that position and I suggested one very dark possibility at the time, and I was far from alone in thinking it. Perhaps O’Neill had already had his authority undermined so often by people inside Celtic that he knew it hardly mattered.
Perhaps he already understood that they were not going to give him everything he wanted or enable him properly to do the job, and therefore announcing his eventual departure was almost his way of saying: “This is on you now. You will have to live with the consequences yourselves.”
The problem is that putting an expiry date on your own reign also has an immediate destabilising effect inside a football club.
You cannot easily impose radical change on a dressing room which knows that somewhere in the background a timer is counting down.
I am not saying that explains the dreadful performances we are seeing. It doesn’t. But it may help explain why O’Neill now faces such an enormous challenge in arresting this slide.
And yesterday, by saying publicly that he is going to consider his future, he either knowingly or unknowingly weakened his position further.
Because where exactly is the way back from that statement?
If you are openly considering whether you still have the energy for the job, whether you still possess the appetite, whether you still have the heart for it or whether you still believe you can turn things around, those doubts immediately become part of the story. Especially when your departure date is already measured in months rather than years.
Even if O’Neill ultimately decides to stay, restoring his authority will require an enormous effort. And in the present circumstances, I genuinely do not know whether he can do it.
I am not sure anybody in his position could do it easily.
A football manager occupies one of the last jobs where authority has to be unmistakable. Players have to know who makes the decision. They have to know whose judgement ultimately prevails.
It is one of the reasons so many of us are uncomfortable with the idea that Celtic’s football operation might be functioning through some sort of collective consensus rather than through dictatorial decision making.
Say what you want about those dictator fellows; the trains run on time.
Football teams require decisions. They require authority, and they require certainty. Right now, Celtic has very little of any of those things.
O’Neill is entitled to take some time to think.
Of course he is.
This is a deeply personal moment for him and a deeply personal decision. But “some time” cannot mean “as long as he likes”.
Because there is another clock running; Celtic’s.
We now have an international break. Three weeks. And every day of those three weeks has value. If O’Neill intends to remain, then he needs every one of them to work on this team, restore some organisation, repair confidence and establish exactly how he intends to get the season back under control.
If he intends to leave, Celtic needs every one of them to identify what comes next, appoint somebody and give that person whatever time remains to begin imposing his own ideas.
Either way, waiting costs us. That is the key point.
Indecision is not neutral. Every day without a decision is effectively another day in which Celtic chooses the status quo. And the status quo is clearly not working.
Out of respect for Martin O’Neill, he deserves breathing space.
But as I argued earlier, the institution comes first.
Respect for the man cannot become paralysis for Celtic itself.
If his ultimate decision is to walk away, and being perfectly frank, I struggle to see how his public comments can realistically lead him or this club anywhere else, then that decision has to come quickly.
We are talking about days here. Not weeks.
Two days? Certainly not more than three. Beyond that, you begin spending time Celtic simply does not possess.
If the people running this club have any foresight whatsoever, they should already have seen this possibility coming.
The wheels should already be turning.
Plans should already exist. Names should already be under consideration. Because serious organisations do not wait until a crisis reaches its final stage before wondering what the contingency plan might be.
Noah built the Ark before the rain.
O’Neill either goes all in or he walks away from the table. The game cannot continue properly while everybody waits to see which one he chooses, and every table has a limit on how long somebody gets to ponder the call.
His clock started yesterday.
Celtic is not some tiny operation capable of drifting along while one individual considers what he wants to do. The club reported revenue of more than £140 million in its last full financial year. This is an enormous business with employees, supporters, commercial partners and a football operation depending on swift decisions being made.
At that scale, there are certain luxuries you do not have.
Misplaced loyalty is one of them. Indefinite personal indulgence is another.
A decision of this magnitude cannot simply float around unresolved because everybody feels uncomfortable forcing the issue.
I do not believe Martin O’Neill is a fundamentally selfish man. Quite the opposite. Which is why I suspect he understands this perfectly well.
He knows Celtic has to function regardless of what he decides. If he stays, these three weeks cannot be spent procrastinating. He is already close to the point where the decision might eventually be taken out of his hands, and he needs every minute available to convince people that he can turn this around.
If he goes, the club needs every available second to decide what comes next and then execute that plan. And frankly, I have little faith in the people above him pulling that off even with three times the runway.
When O’Neill returned previously, they had months to prepare for what came afterwards. They still contrived to make a mess of it. So when I say Celtic needs all the time it can possibly get, I mean that literally.
Martin O’Neill deserves respect. He deserves a little space. He deserves the opportunity to think and to reflect and to come to the conclusion that puts Celtic first.
But Celtic cannot wait indefinitely while he does it.
His future is a personal decision. Celtic’s future is not.
And the institution cannot spend valuable days standing still while one man decides whether he still wants to lead it.
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Before the game yesterday I never thought it could be MONs last as Celtic manager even if we were to lose. Well we did lose and now I think there’s every chance it was his last. Carter Vickers was right, it was too random what we were trying, we set up defensively (a bit embarrassing at home but fair enough if it had worked) and still went behind then it was pure desperation, nothing cohesive. Can he reset and get all the players to buy in to a new approach for the rest of the season when they know he’s leaving? Probably not. The time to implement a new style was preseason but we wasted preseason and it’s a big ask to do it now.
When the team is winning you can convince yourself that we’ll fix all the other problems at the club when the team stop winning you look around and see the neglect in every aspect.
MON might go but that doesn’t necessarily mean things are going to be any better.
Keep Maloney away from the showers.
Everything starting to fall into place …
.
McCowan starting and two new signings not in the squad.
O’Neill making the point that Engels was not replaced with similar quality.
.
CCV post match interview — a second career as a diplomat awaits.
Alan Partridge is now doing our tactics — at the “inverted” monkey tennis stage.
Postecoglu had a plan and he stuck to it.
Maloney is getting out old Hibs videos and joining dots in the dark.
.
We are a shambles — an Irsh Raj inspired shambles.
Time for club to make that decision today and pat Martin on the back thank him for his service and stepping up to mark when called on wish him well in retirement and withdraw some of the million covered in cobwebs in the bank then go a get McKenna…no f*****g around just do what any massive club would do but I won’t hold my breath waiting for our board to act like a massive club.
As soon as MON said he was only here for one season it meant he wasn’t “All In”, that was him admitting his limitations. Since then he’s had a short spell in hospital, and at 74 years old I think he should call time on his illustious career as a player and manager.
If Martin does go, God knows what this board will do, long term planning doesn’t seem to be part of their thinking.
I like my memories of Martin O’Neill and his Celtic team was easily the best and strongest Celtic team of my lifetime. I worried when he came in last season as I felt winning the league highly unlikely especially the second time post Nancy and yet he pulled it off adding yet another layer to his legacy and truthfully should have stepped aside there and then, with his legacy assured and potentially even statue at stadium worthy.
He should not have returned. If the supporters who regard themselves perfect and guardians of virtue along with the bandwagon jumpers hadn’t shouted down the preferred candidate for supposed political reasons then O’Neil wouldn’t have had a decision to make on returning or not, we may not have been doing any better than currently, but would have a younger coach who you could allow time to build something in a way O’Neill doesn’t really have time on his side for.
In O’Neill’s first era we had essentially an EPL level team as football finances were different then. We essentially have stood still as we are still paying the same sort of transfer fees and wages as we were then, fully 25 years ago, while the football world has moved on without us.
That younger O’Neill had a fiery personality behind closed doors in the dressing room and made it clear the standards expected. I do wonder if with age he’s naturally lost a bit of that fire as the wisdom of age comes in its place.
I don’t know if he will leave or has the stubborness and fire still to say its only September, start banging some heads together in the dressing room (and boardroom for January) and steel himself that he won’t leave the job worse than he found it.
I see the other Keane, Roy Keane was at the game with his old number 2. Maybe a left field shout for O’Neill would be to bring in his old ROI n.o2 in Keane, to take the no2 position above maloney to really shake things up at the training ground and put a rocket up some people if O’Neill isn’t up to that anymore. The last few displays have suggested many might need just that!
If however O’Neill does indeed step aside it would be a sad end for a great of the club, these things do happen though. I’m sure Forest were relegated in double European cup winning manager Cloughs last season. If he goes I have no idea where the club go from there, we can all think of names that we like but relying on this board to show boldness, bravery or to be able to convince them to come here is a different matter, before you even look at what sort of backing they would offer in January and beyond!
Good post Muttmutt, and it did cross my mind that a certain Roy Keane might be getting touted to enter the building to either assist or replace MON.
I love Martin and everything he’s done for our club but it may well be, for his sake and health, to stand down before any further damage is done to his reputation and most importantly, wellbeing !
Personally, I’d take McKenna or Howe, but would any of these exciting managers be prepared to work under these charlatans! I very much doubt it ? HH