Martin O’Neill says he will use the international break to reflect on his position as Celtic manager, admitting that it “might be time to wrap it up” after a week in which his side lost three times in big games.
The 74-year-old spoke at his post-match news conference after a second defeat in a week by arch-rivals Rangers, with a home European loss to Ferencvaros wedged between the two derby reverses. “I genuinely will reflect and see,” he said. “It’s a matter of whether I can help the team. The manager is supposed to be able to do that. I will look at that this week. I will reflect on the games and speak to the board. You never know, they may well want to speak to me. I’ll try to get a couple of days away and see how it goes.”
O’Neill raised the question of his age himself. “I think every single time something crops up and things don’t go so well, age plays a part. And, do you know what, they might be right. I’ll be 110 in two years’ time so it might be time to wrap it up.” He also looked back to last season’s final-day title decider against Hearts, describing it as “probably one of the great moments of my managerial time”, while noting that even then he was asking himself whether he still had the energy and the desire he demands of his players every Friday.
The stakes for O’Neill are personal as well as professional. He returned to the club as an unlikely saviour and delivered a double few thought possible last season, when the Scottish Premiership and Scottish Cup were salvaged from one of the most tumultuous campaigns in Celtic’s history. His status as one of the club’s all-time great managers is secure, and he came close to winning the Uefa Cup in 2003 against a Jose Mourinho-inspired Porto side that went on to lift the Champions League the following season. Celtic, for their part, remain top of the Premiership.
Yet the picture beneath that league position is troubling. Half an hour into the second leg of their Champions League play-off in August, Celtic led LASK 4-0 on aggregate in Linz and appeared to be cruising towards the league phase of European football’s elite competition. The collapse inside that game, and the exit from the competition that followed, appears to have left a scar on the players and the management team alike. The four Premiership wins that came afterwards were largely unimpressive – three of them single-goal victories over Falkirk, St Mirren and St Johnstone – and when the pressure arrived, against Rangers twice and Ferencvaros, Celtic folded.
Questions have been raised by a section of the club’s support about the quality, breadth and timing of the summer recruitment. Former Scotland international James McFadden, speaking on Sky Sports, argued the squad had not been strengthened: “They haven’t actually added to the squad in terms of numbers or real quality. They’ve just replaced what left.” O’Neill has tried to accommodate big-money signings Camilo Duran and Kasper Hogh without much success, and has cycled through a series of midfielders in an attempt to reinvigorate the heart of his team. In Sunday’s league derby he even dropped his wingers entirely, fielding five defenders and pushing full-back Kieran Tierney further forward. None of it worked.
Chris Sutton, who played under O’Neill during the manager’s first spell in charge, was scathing about what he saw. “It wasn’t a close game,” he said on Sky Sports. “There was a massive gulf. I can’t remember a Celtic team getting such a doing from a Rangers team at Celtic Park. Rangers were a team and Celtic weren’t. They knew their next pass and Celtic didn’t. Rangers were better in every department. They were smashed and that’s the concern. They have big problems, some self-inflicted. They’ve lacked legs and physicality in the middle of the park. This has been a big issue all season. Callum McGregor’s another year older, can’t get about the pitch like he used to. Martin will have to come up with something. I loved him as a manager when I was at the club. He is getting on a bit but, as a guy, I still think he has the fight for it.”
That view is shared by Sutton’s former team-mate Neil Lennon, who knows O’Neill better than most and is familiar with the weight the Celtic job carries. “He’s hurting, he’s smarting about it,” Lennon said on Sky Sports. “He’d want to find the answers. The break’s come at a good time for him – recuperate, get some sun and re-think about the whole thing. He still feels he’s got the energy to do it. When you get a week like this – not only defeats but the manner of the defeats – he knows himself more than anyone there’s going to be a lot of scrutiny, criticism and introspection.”
Supporters have been just as direct. One fan, Lee, said of the manager’s selection: “This is it for MON – his starting XI looked weak in midfield and proved to be. What he and the coaching staff have done to our big summer signings after bright starts is a worry. And the general fitness is telling, too.” Another, Alec, questioned which game O’Neill had been watching to describe the derby as close, adding that it is obvious the manager and his staff do not know their best XI or the right formation for it. Kev predicted O’Neill will soon “throw the towel in”, saying he would not blame him and sensing “something smouldering at the club”, while Wayne said defeats can be accepted but a lack of effort cannot, and that being beaten by average teams three times in a week is shocking. Danny warned that the board will keep O’Neill on in the belief the supporters will not turn – but that another defeat would make the situation toxic and see all the good he has done forgotten.
O’Neill’s legacy at Celtic is not in doubt. The question he must now answer, having said he will spend the coming days away from the pitch and then speak to the board, is whether he chooses to walk away while the side is still top of the Premiership.