In a post-Scottish Cup Final BBC interview, Martin O’Neill made it clear that he needed a break before considering the challenge of next season, saying, “If the season started in three days, I would not be up for it”, but the season was not starting in three days. He was more than up for the challenge, but a holiday was needed more than a quick decision.
A few months after we went to Montreal for a manager, I was disappointed we didn’t go to Motherwell. Jens Berthel Askou lost three times to Celtic, but showed in each of his four games against us, that he is a genuine talent. The criticism (from some) that Martin’s appointment merely kicks the can down the road is just, but there are reasons you should be happy about it.
The panel who appointed Brendan Rodgers and Wilfried Nancy still have the responsibility to make the next appointment. Even our board consider both terrible decisions (Dermot Desmond eviscerated Rodgers on the latter’s departure, while Nancy was relieved of his duties in record time). We need additional voices in the room next time.
We have vacancies for a chairman and other non-executive directors. Strong appointments are required to provide checks on what happened before. The Head of Football position has been vacant since January. The scouting infrastructure is far from robust (allow me an understatement). After Brendan’s damage, January should worry you – and attribute no responsibility to Martin or Shaun for that.
Despite all the trophies, Celtic are in a position of flux. Retaining Martin to provide some continuity is very welcome. I believe that retaining Shaun Maloney and Mark Fotheringham are almost as important. It will surely happen.
Over many years, you and I have discussed the unique and ridiculous position football managers hold. No other industry would allow a single member of staff to be responsible for just as much power as the football manager, never mind someone in a position who is often sacked or leaves within a couple of years.
Martin is different from most managers. He does not take training, and according to the aforementioned BBC interview, he is not entirely up on contemporary tactical nuances. Nor has he ever operated in the modern recruitment environment. Martin honed his managerial skills by signing players he had seen in person. That whole way of life has gone.
So if he is not the tactics guy, does not take training and is not on the phone to agents looking for players (not that this is the way either, Brendan), what is Martin’s role? He is the leader. Leaders are hugely important in every business, especially football. They provide vision and direction. This builds common-purpose where individualism can exist.
Martin is also not a manager with an unrestrained ego (cough). He does not need to be all over every decision. He delegates training, tactical research and innovation, and he will sit in a team who will decide on transfers. Celtic are in need of a significant rebuild of the squad. If this is to be done optimally, we will need Shaun and Mark at the transfer target meetings too.
If we are lucky, Martin will leave us in a year (or two) with a robust infrastructure for the next leader to slot into.
The opening day of the World Cup saw Oh Hyeon-gyu score the winning goal for South Korea against Czechia. Oh was one of our gilded Class of 2023 recruits who were subject to vandalism by an incompetent manager. We sold him for £2.5m in 2024, spending £9m on his replacement, Adam Idah. “Incompetent” is being generous, other explainations also work. We will talk more about this as the tournament goes on.
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Hail Hail!
Get the drinks in BRRB!
Headed to airport for Boston.
First World Cup for me. All of last few weeks pocket money wasted on Panini’s.
Brendan blamers reporting for duty …….Saahhh🫡
Who pissed in Paul’s cornflakes this morning?
Ah, yes, it was Brendan again who sneaks out of Pauls pantry every other day to ruin his breakfast.
I think P67 needs to grow up and get over it!
Paul mate you’re nearly 60. Brendan was an incredibly successful Celtic manager. Grow up please this is embarrassing for everyone involved.
I think, Paul, it’s probably time to stop harking backwards, put away the grudge and start looking forwards. Yesterday’s gone and now all I want Is a smile.
WalkingInAStormCSC
LoL.
You should really preface some of your articles with trigger warnings😂
BRRB
ALE! Ale!
New war cry,John.Take care.
‘Additional voices’ means getting in proper football professionals,not accountants,lawyers ,or Harpo Marx our CEO….
What a trail of devestation Brendan left behind . Someone’s got to polish all those trophies … it’s no wonder we’ve no time for all this modernisation and recruitment nonsense . Incompetent , indeed !
Looks like the board even managed to make an *rse of the announcement of the most unanimous managerial choice ever.
Who’d have thunked it CSC
I bet Brendan would have updated the league table by now
For goodness sake Paul move on
Appointing a manager after being drafted in mid-season and winning the league and cup. Trying to think if that has happened before and how it went. Answers on the back of a shower cap.
The ultimate ‘safe’ appointment and yet also very high-risk, given it is (or should be) a completely different remit going forward, requiring a skillset not immediately obvious in the heat shield.
At least we can take comfort in knowing that the people/person making the call will have utilised their proven expertise to arrive at the decision, as they did barely six months ago when appointing Wilfried Nancy (the outstanding candidate, remember)……
Anyway, I’m sure Martin will do an excellent job, as he always does. The question would be, will it be the job that needs doing or will that can be kicked down the road for a year or two for someone else? Maybe if this had happened before we could hazard a guess…….
What fun it is closing down the banner plastered over the page asking me to disable my adblocker so that ads can be displayed ….
……thus enabling me to close down some of the ads that are displayed !
Incredible that two hugely successful Celtic managers rated a dud like Kyogo higher than a guy who averages a goal every four games!
The panel who appointed Brendan Rodgers and Wilfried Nancy still have the responsibility to make the next appointment.
The Panel ? who are they ? I think they should be named, why the level of secrecy
I think BR was given the job by “The Owner”
Even our board consider both terrible decisions (Dermot Desmond eviscerated Rodgers on the latter’s departure, while Nancy was relieved of his duties in record time). We need additional voices in the room next time.
So none of the board made up “The Panel” obviously as they opposed the appointments of “The Panel” this is becoming a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma, hope you are all keeping up, appreciate any help
Can anybody name “The Panel”
Can anybody name the board members opposed to “The Panel”
We need additional voices in the room next time.
Is this Cluedo ?
After Brendan’s damage, January should worry you – and attribute no responsibility to Martin or Shaun for that.
In January Brendan had left the club ? and apparently MO’N and Shaun bore no responsibility for the January transfer debacle, we are back at Cluedo, who did the recruiting ? was it “The Panel” or”The Board” or “Executives”
Martin is different from most managers…….. Well something we can all agree with as MO’N is a winner, he is intelligent, smart, doesn’t suffer fools P67 may want to consider that, if MO’N reads this article he will laugh his head off at that supposed long list of footballing failings whilst looking at his medal collection
This guy did all right running the show
Jock Stein transformed Celtic by taking full, unprecedented control of team affairs in March 1965. Demanding total authority—a radical shift from the board’s prior interference—he ended an eight-year trophy drought almost immediately and built the legendary Lisbon Lions squad
Lovely morning here in Boston.
Looking forward to catching up with a few folks this next few weeks. Really good vibe about the place. Great to see many Celtic / Scotland fans too.
Unlike here where folk love regurgitating negative MSM and blogger shite about our club.
Breaking news Celtic won our 5th league in a row against all odds and some of the most negative infighting imaginable.
Every blogger has an opinion but not every one has had to ‘walk the walk’.
Many so called ‘Celtic fan blogs’ are run for money by folk who make money from making folks feel bad about Celtic. We have folk on here who spend their lives criticising anything the club does.
Pointing this out seems to make folk some kind of board fan or whatever.
I get that bitter resentment is a trait which manifests in some old folks who feel unfulfilled in their lives but it is kinda sad to see folk dedicate hours each day to it. Or even just sad to see folks constantly finding negatives in everything Celtic with no hard evidence.
I do realise some have bitter wee objectives of course. Not everyone is what they seem.
There is a lot worse things happening in the world than at Celtic. For me it is more a thing to enjoy.
Good to see Oh scoring another big goal last night.
Off for a wee jog around the city.
Just watched S Korea first goal there. Very reminiscent of Lubo’s at the midden in the famous 3-0 game under MO’N 💚
In the Jock Stein days, there were no agents, no bosmans, no transfer windows and no statistics.
We also lives in a time where many European leagues were of a similar standard.
A manager could pick up the phone to his counterpart at any club and announce a surprise signing at any point in the season.
Those days are well and truly gone – plus the game puts a lot more physical stress on players.
So one man can’t do everything – but a leader to set the tone and delegate properly is crucial.
Jock Stein was truly a genius – but the one man show has gone forever.
On the Brendan Rodgers topic, we all have our opinions on BR but I think Paul 67 either needs to spill the beans on what he knows or let it go.
“ Much blog about nothing “
Shakey CSC 🇮🇪
I take it that the word Jog is a euphemism for ‘van loaded with Grants whiskey’ and city is referring to ‘Skegness’
Blame everything on BR and expect the clowns in the boardroom to come up with some sensible appointments.
Insanity is relying on the same people to do something different.
They sat on their arses, attacked the Celtic support, watched as every media outlet lambasted the fans (Wilson’s pish yesterday goes nowhere near far enough), did nothing about about assaults on Celtic staff and fans and have not listened to a blind word of the fans.
No Head of Football, no scouting or recruitment mechanism in place, appoint a 74 year old (but dither over how much his coaching team will cost) and they expect us to trust them.
As yet, nothing has changed.
A board full of charlatans. Desmond’s puppets.
And, our host will blame everything on BR.
Why is he not calling for the removal of those who put him and Nancy in place?
Groundhog Day…..
Brendan was left holding the baby whilst our incompetent board fckd things up spectacularly
Where is the lazy cvnt Nicholson ?. Where is the plan ?.
Aye, nowhere !.
In an era when our successful managers leave after two for bigger and better elsewhere, and the not so successful ones are asked to leave long before that, it would be madness to permit a manager to rip up and replace the football strategy on appointment, only to have to do it all again a year or two later.
When the manager turns over so quickly, the rest of the football operation needs to be stable and reliable.
The problem is that the last strategy was ripped up and the operation dismantled, and now it all needs to be rebuilt before MON says ‘Slán’.
Meantime we need a first team.
The politics of envy trope never gets old… and neither do character assassinations of Rodgers it seems.
I don’t know how insufferable he was or wasn’t as a person, so I will retain an open mind on that and base my judgement on what the facts tell us about whether he was a competent football manager or not.
He improved standards out of all recognition, achieved a step change in the culture, delivered an invincible treble and multiple other trebles/ doubles. His teams did tend to run out of steam in years 2 but always plenty good enough to dominate in Scotland. His European record was patchy.
Compare his treatment on here to Ronny Deila, who was a lovely guy who drank in the Park Mains pub in Erskine and was roundly liked by all who met him. He was a decent enough football coach but not even close to Rodgers. Yet no a word of criticism on here. Could it be because he didn’t challenge the many failings of the Board? Compliance = competence?
And never a word of criticism for the Board, irrespective of the depths of genuine incompetence they plumb.
Double standards and credibility are not happy bedfellows I’m afraid.
Is Mark Lawwell is still on the dole?
It’s some form of mental condition re Brendan.
Paul,
Take a day off.
The Battered Bunnet
Wilson told us, yesterday, that we had some great players and a great team who won the double.
Don’t hold your breath for that ‘first team’.
Yes, yes. Is the answer to that. I hope Pistol is giving him a little stipend to tide him over while he waits by the telephone.
The scars are deep.
And disturbing.
MAOLMUIRE O MUIRGHEASA on 12TH JUNE 2026 1:16 PM
Is Mark Lawwell is still on the dole?
Hes on “The Panel”
The Strictly come Dancing Panel i assume.
AiPPLE TEXASTIM have a great meet up bhoys
BURNLEY 78 enjoy.
A wee heads up on Scotland fixtures:-)))
https://x.com/i/status/2065112031624036423
:-)
HH