49ers eye Tounekti, Martin O’Neill and Celtic support roll back the years

Sebastian Tounekti is reportedly catching the eye of Leeds United. Things must be going well at Celtic for Tunisian winger…

Sebastian Tounekti
Sebastian Tounekti. Celtic v theRangers. Premier Sports Cup, semi final at Hampden. 2 November 2025. Photo AJ (The Celtic Star)

48 hours on from our Premier Sports Cup semi final victory over theRangers, the headlines are still in full flow, but not of our much on thoroughly deserved victory that secured us a place in yet another final, it’s more of the fallout created by the latest Ibrox club over their much publicised indignation created to disguise yet another disappointing display this season.

Those headlines are continuing, but now forming a different narrative, this time in the shape of unsettling our players, with the mainstream media reporting via Tunisian outlet Maghreb Foot interest in one of our players, most notably Sebastian Tounekti, whom they say is attracting interest from the other side of the 49ers franchise, English Premier League side Leeds United.

Sebastian Tounekti
Sebastian Tounekti. Celtic v theRangers. Premier Sports Cup, semi final at Hampden. 2 November 2025. Photo AJ (The Celtic Star)

Ironically, just recently the hacks had been trying to cast doubt on our recruitment process by digging up anyone they could to question the Tunisian’s ability, much like they did with Nicolas Kuhn a few years back when he had a slow start to his time at Celtic. Nicolas went on to prove he’s top class before Celtic sold him to Italian side Como in the summer for £17m, making a £14m profit in the German winger.

So lo and behold, they have all of a sudden changed their tune, and are once more linking our players to other clubs. Things must be improving at Celtic at the minute, with Martin O’Neill back in charge and Celtic on a roll with the angst of the early season slipping into the distance.

Martin O'Neill
Martin O’Neill, Interim Manager of Celtic, reacts during the Premier Sports Cup Semi Final match between Celtic and theRangers at Hampden Park on November 02, 2025. (Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)

It was amazing seeing Martin O’Neill jumping for joy at Hampden on Sunday as his Celtic team beat theRangers 3-1 to reach the final against St Mirren on 14 December. It was like rolling back the years and that was also the case with the Celtic support on Sunday.

With no Ultras to conduct the choir, the wider support was left to their own devices up against the blue half of Glasgow and despite the ticket ban, their ultras were in attendance – meaning theRangers penalised 500 of their non-ultra supporters – 500 who don’t let off flares and pyros to allow the very fans that caused the ban in the first place. Anyway that’s their business.

Celtic supporters at Hampden.
Celtic supporters at Hampden. Celtic v theRangers. Premier Sports Cup, semi final at Hampden. 2 November 2025. Photo Vagelis Georgariou (The Celtic Star)

My point is that the Celtic support at Hampden were MAGNIFICENT throughout the match, a second case of rolling back time to the era before the ultras came on the scene. That’s not to say I don”t value and appreciate the Green Brigade and Bhoys Celtic because I certainly do.  But it does remind the rest of us that we have dreams and songs to sing and we can do that collective as a stadium at Celtic Park. And our Dear old Paradise will be all the better for it.

And a word on their songbook, absolutely disgraceful. Shameful, undiluted bigotry from a support with nothing better to sign about.

Just an Ordinary Bhoy

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Celtic in the Eighties and Willie Fernie - Putting on the Style both by David Potter
Celtic in the Eighties and Willie Fernie – Putting on the Style both by David Potter. Photo The Celtic Star
Danny McGrain signing copies of Celtic in the Eighties
Danny McGrain signing copies of Celtic in the Eighties by David Potter. Photo: Celtic Star Books

About Author

An ordinary everyday Celtic supporters hailing and still residing in Govan in the shadows of the enemy. I’m a season ticket holder. I Witnessed my first Celtic game in 1988 and have attended when I can ever since. Growing up in the 90s I witnessed Celtic at their lowest, and now appreciate the historic success we enjoy today. I enjoy writing about this wonderful football club and hopefully will continue to do so. I’ve always been a keen writer and initially started this a hobby. My ambition is to one day become as good an author as my fellow Celtic Star colleagues.

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1 Comment

  1. This rumour surrounding Seb needs to be treated as the nonsense that it is imo.

    Once Seb starts finding that killer pass in assists and goals to his game, then admittedly the interest and value upon him will grow, so just an unsettling tactic at present.

    Seb is already a very valuable member to our squad, and we certainly aren’t in a position to even consider letting him go whatsoever.
    Still have to consider that’s it’s likely that he will be involved within the African cup of nations, which I think starts after the league cup final?

    Even balikwisha could be involved also, if he impresses with Congo, during the next international break.
    So we still need to see in MoN can get Yang back on his game also, much like Maeda showed on Sunday, especially as we are going to need all our wide options available, with such a run of intense and huge matches after the next international break, which is pretty relentless up to the next Glasgow Derby.

    So still plenty to consider within our club, especially for the decision makers to ponder over.
    Before then, we still have another 2 must win games to overcome, to improve our standings in 2 competitions.

    So overall this Seb rumour isn’t worth entertaining, especially as we have far bigger issues that still needs to be taken into account imo

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