IT CREPT in with the merest whisper and went out with an almighty roar.
Celtic’s 2025/26 campaign will go down in the Hoops’ Hall of Fame as one of the most extraordinary in the club’s proud history.
Written off and dismissed, the Parkhead men simply refused to roll over – and completed an unforgettable crusade with a league and Cup double.
CQN’S EXCLUSIVE series will tell the tale of how Martin O’Neill, who twice answered SOS calls from his old club, manoeuvred Celtic through a minefield to achieve the impossible dream of a fifth successive title.
Please enjoy!
UP AND RUNNING…Luke McCowan celebrates the first goal of Celtic’s 2025/26 season, the late winner against St Mirren on Flag Day at Parkhead on August 3.
AUGUST 2025
THE ball hadn’t even been nudged off the centre spot to get the Premiership campaign started when it became evident all was not well within the corridors of power at Celtic Park.
With the champions scheduled to kick off their bid for a record 56th title with a Flag Day opener – the thirteenth such fanfare in 14 years – against St Mirren in the east end of Glasgow on Sunday August 3, Brendan Rodgers made some comments that triggered concern among the supporters.
The manager was entering the third and final year of his contract and had stalled on an extension.
Live on Sky TV on the Friday before the weekend action, the Irishman admitted he had held talks with the club’s principal shareholder Dermot Desmond and chief executive Michael Nicholson during the close season.
Asked about some clarification on the contract front, the Irishman, with a fair amount of candour, answered: “There’s no further update and, for the sake of honesty and clarity, I can tell you exactly where we’re at.
“I said when I came here first that I would do three years minimum. People had me out the door at the end of last season or going various places.
WORRYING WORDS…Brendan Rodgers talks to Sky Sports before the season’s kick-off.
“I said then and I’ll say it now – there’s nowhere to go. I love being here. I’ve done two years. I’ve got one more year to go.
“Dermot and Michael and I had a conversation over the summer on where we were at and where it sits with myself and everything else and I said I’m very happy here.
“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.”
The words from the team chief were delivered in a frank and forthright manner.
Celtic fans realised they could be in for a bumpy ride in season 2025/26 – and so it proved.
By the time August was dispatched to the past, Scotland’s title kings were out of the Champions League after a miserable failure against the nonentities of Kairat Almaty and had carelessly shed two points in one of the worst derby encounters in memory, a tame scoreless stalemate at Ibrox on the final day of the month.
The distress flares were already appearing in the night sky above Paradise.
The fans hadn’t exactly been overwhelmed with the club’s work in the transfer market although they were quick to hail the return of Kieran Tierney following his six-year absence at Arsenal.
BENJI THE FIRST…£1.7million new Bhoy Benjamin Nygren hails his debut Celtic goal in the 2-0 win over Aberdeen at Pittodrie on August 10.
Nicolas Kuhn had been whisked off to Como in a £17.2million deal, but the followers fretted over the quality of those who had been introduced.
It took a goal three minutes from time by substitute Luke McCowan, who had replaced Reo Hatate nine minutes earlier, to claim the points on day one against the Paisley Saints.
The performance hadn’t been overly impressive, but the scoreline would have been enhanced if the woodwork hadn’t denied new Bhoy Benjamin Nygren, Adam Idah and Hatate plus skipper Callum McGregor had what looked like a perfectly good goal ruled out for a VAR call on handball.
A week later, Nygren and Hatate were on target as the Hoops overcame their Scottish Cup conquerors of last May, Aberdeen, 2-0 at Pittodrie.
There was no sign of a banana skin when the Premier Sports League Cup got underway the following Friday evening as newly-promoted Falkirk were soundly thrashed 4-1 at Parkhead.
However, a calamity loomed in the shape of their practically unknown Kazakhstan opponents in the play-off to the most prestigious competition in Europe.
Rodgers looked far from comfortable on the touchline as his players footered and fumbled their way through an unimaginative 90 minutes in front of their own supporters before being forced to settle for a dismal 0-0 draw.
FAREWELL…Brendan Rodgers watches Celtic draw 0-0 at Ibrox on August 31 – his final derby.
If that had been a perplexing performance, it was nothing compared to the second leg where Celtic failed to score again in two hours of football against mediocre rivals.
After extra-time, the tie went to a penalty-kick shoot-out and, in keeping with what had gone beforehand, the visitors managed to shoot themselves in the foot with failures from Idah, McCowan and Daizen Maeda from 12 yards.
The alarm bells were sounding in the east end of Glasgow following just six competitive games into the new season.
In between the unacceptable outings against Kairat Almaty, the Hoops beat Livingston 3-0 at Parkhead with £1.7million Swedish midfielder Nygren claiming a double.
The curtain came down on August with a totally uninspiring scoreless stalemate in Govan.
In the Ibrox dug-out that drab afternoon was Russell Martin who had been appointed to the post in the summer after being axed by Southampton.
It was to prove to be the last experience of the world famous all-Glasgow affair for Martin.
We weren’t to know it at the time, but it would also be Rodgers’ final farewell to the fixture.
RESULTS
August 3:
Premiership:
CELTIC 1 St Mirren 0
McCowan
August 10:
Premiership:
Aberdeen 0 CELTIC 2
Nygren, Hatate
August 15:
Premier Sports League Cup:
CELTIC 4 Falkirk 1
Maeda, Johnston, Murray, Henderson (og)
August 20:
Champions League Play-Off (1st leg):
CELTIC 0 Kairat Almaty 0
August 23:
Premiership:
CELTIC 3 Livingston 0
Nygren (2), Kenny
August 26:
Champions League Play-Off (2nd leg)
Kairat Almaty 0 CELTIC 0 (AET: Agg: 0-0)
Kairat win 3-2 on penalty-kicks
August 31:
Premiership:
Rangers 0 CELTIC 0
* TOMORROW: Don’t miss Part Two of The Impossible Dream – only in your champion CQN.
