CELTIC have been pitching and rolling in choppy waters since the start of the season.
Before the end of the opening month of August, the club had been dismissed from the Champions League, unable to score a solitary goal in three and a half hours of football against opposition from Kazakhstan.
Three penalty-kicks were squandered in the shoot-out and the team had to accept they were not good enough to see off Kairat Almaty who became the whipping boys of Europe’s most prestigious competition at the next stage.
They lost seven and drew one of their eight games, scored seven goals, conceded 22 for a goal difference of minus 15 and completed the league section as officially the worst team at that level, finishing in rock-bottom 36th place.
Alarm bells were already ringing in the east end of Glasgow after a mere six games into the crusade.
BYE, BYE BRENDAN…Rodgers leaves the field for the last time as Celtic manager after the champions’ 3-1 loss to Hearts at Tynecastle on October 26 2025.
Sherlock Holmes qualities were not required – not even those of dear, old Miss Jane Marple – to detect all was not well at the club that has lifted 19 titles in the 21st Century.
Even before the first rotation of the ball off the centre circle against St Mirren at Parkhead on August 3, there were clear signs that turbulence lay ahead.
Going into the final 12 months of his three-year deal, Brendan Rodgers took the opportunity in a live interview with Sky Sports to give an update on his managerial position with “honesty and clarity” while conjecture surrounded his contract.
Revealing there had been meetings with Dermot Desmond, the club’s majority shareholder, and Michael Nicholson, the chief executive, over the summer, the Irishman, with a fair degree of candour, admitted: “There are conditions we want in to be able to improve and be better because I’m not the type of manager who is good at maintaining anything.
“If it’s just something to maintain, I’m not the manager for Celtic. It’ll be someone else.”
Alas, that “someone else” emerged as Wilfried Nancy, completely out of his depth in Glasgow. Mercifully, his wretched tenure was cut short after 33 days of chaos and calamity.
During that tumultous brief and costly period, the Frenchman contrived to lose six of his eight games in charge, including dropping TWELVE Premiership points, blowing a domestic Cup Final and being thrashed at home by an AS Roma side who graciously took their foot off the gas after easing to a three-goal first-half advantage.
The axe finally fell on the grossly incompetent coach after Celtic engineered a 3-1 defeat from a position of strength in the January 3 derby at Parkhead.
Exit Wilfried Nancy, enter, for a second time, Martin O’Neill.
WOEFUL WILFRIED…Nancy can’t bear to look as Celtic head for another defeat during his catastrophic 33 days in charge.
The charismatic and crafty 73-year-old son of Kilrea had already answered the call to step up in late October when Rodgers, following back-to-back league losses against Dundee and Hearts, vamoosed to warmer climes.
Changing your manager in mid-season is never clever. Changing the inhabitant of the dug-out four times is downright suicidal.
Rodgers, O’Neill, Nancy and O’Neill have utilised the revolving door at Parkhead in a campaign that has enraged many with all the attendant criticism and protests.
Hindsight is a wonderful thing. Unfortunately, it is also bloody useless.
If any of the decision-makers at the club possessed a crystal ball and had utilised the spherical creation that apparently can predict the future, I think we can all agree a certain individual would still be residing in Ohio as head coach of Columbus Crew and we would all be blissfully ignorant of his existence.
Alas, real life rarely follows the bouncing ball; there is always a blip in the road for the unwary; a pesky curve ball to be dealt with.
And here we are today, dear reader.
The gloom and doom merchants have been going into overdrive. Scatterguns have been used with a fair amount of dexterity and panic buttons have been pushed with a verve and zeal as the way ahead becomes obscured in clouds of anxiety.
How about injecting a smidgen of positivity into proceedings?
Celtic are on the brink of four season-defining encounters within 10 days or so.
The club travel to Germany to take on VfB Stuttgart in the second leg of their Europa League tie on Thursday February 26.
Next up, we cross Glasgow for the third derby Premiership confrontation against Danny Rohl’s side on Sunday March 1.
Three days later, O’Neill will lead his troops to Pittodrie for a must-win league meeting with Aberdeen and then it’s back to business in Govan with a Scottish Cup date on the weekend of March 7/8.
The strain on the manager and his squad will be relentless. No doubt there will be scaremongers out there predicting the end of the world as we know it.
The club have something like £77million in the bank, so why have they not splashed the cash to strengthen the pool of players?
Colossally-valued recruits may trigger all sorts of fanciful notions, but spending large amounts of cash in the transfer market does not guarantee success in football.
MASTERMIND MARTIN…O’Neill gets his message across to his players during Celtic’s 2-2 draw with Bologna in the Europa League in Italy last month.
Just look across the border at Liverpool. Arne Slot has overseen at outlay of something in the region of £460million for arrivals since the summer. After winning the title last season, the Anfield club are struggling to make sure of participation in next term’s Champions League.
O’Neill has already stated it is long odds on him occupying the dug-out next time around. It made sense to bring in loan players in the winter transfer window.
Why throw around vast amounts of dosh on players on lucrative five-year contracts and then a new gaffer comes in and his way of thinking about a performer’s ability may not run parallel with that of the genial Irishman?
In his first months back following his return in June 2023, Rodgers had the final say on the summer recruits such as Marco Tilio, Kwon Hyun-jun, Luis Palma, Gustaf Lagerbielke, Maik Nawrocki and Odin Holm.
It soon became evident they were not exactly his cup of tea.
We now have Junior Adamu, Joel Mvuka, Tomas Cvancara. Julian Araujo and Benjamin Arthur who have arrived in a variety of loan transfer arrangements while the experienced Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain has joined initially on a short-term contract.
The interim manager is not exactly spoiled for choice, but that’s his lot for the remainder of what has been a stormy voyage since the good ship Celtic set sail on day one.
Will we reach the Promised Land and the silverware that awaits?
It’s not going to be dull, that much is certain, but, at least, we have a safe pair of hands on the tiller.
ALEX GORDON
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