A Beautiful Sunday, A Beautiful Week, And The Good Ship Celtic Sails On!
Forget the Rodgers/ Board/ Fan negativity; Celtic have ended their perfect week with a very good win over Hibernian at Easter Road. There are so many positives to take from this, so, where do I start?
Let’s start with the manager; Martin O’Neill has breezed back into Celtic Park in a manner befitting a legend of yesteryear. Now, his legend is growing, and our prayers are being answered. St. Martin of Kilrea has brought a stability back to our ailing club, and united what was threatening to become a rudderless vessel.
Brendan Rodgers departed in acrimonious circumstances with Dermot Desmond’s acerbic tongue lashing him digitally as he headed for…God knows where. Meanwhile, Celtic’s season was in danger of floundering after a series of uninspiring outings, defeats, and draws. Our goals-for column made dull reading, matching the performances on the pitch.
The fans were rightly at odds with the board, a body of men who refused to fund Celtic’s bid to bring multi-millions into the club by qualifying for the Champions League. Kairat Almaty took our spot…
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The bean-counters failed us, again, after season after season of abject failures in the exact same manner. They refuse to buy the players needed BEFORE the qualifiers to take that final step; God alone knows why, but hey, they’re Celtic men, right? As they were when they participated in the ‘Five-Way Agreement’ scam!
These failures refused to take the normal route in terms of satiating the support or acknowledging our angst and anger. Yes, that same fan-base whose hard-earned cash props up their luxury lifestyles. The board, in my opinion, sneakily sabotaged the AGM, and pulled up stumps in order to disappear back down their malt whisky decanters before vital and relevant questions were asked of them.
They refused to be held to account and publicly shamed themselves in the most cowardly fashion. The fans STILL do not have answers, but we do have a resurrected board who snuck back into the Parkhead drinks cabinet in the middle of the night. Sounds familiar?
Along came Martin. Out of the blue, the gaffer was spirited back to his spiritual home, and the ghosts of 2003 appear to have followed him into Paradise.
'It means everything, absolutely everything' ❤️
Martin O'Neill on what Celtic means to him as he approaches what could be his final game in charge of the club on Wednesday night.#BBCFootball pic.twitter.com/Ols42cN5QF
— BBC Sport Scotland (@BBCSportScot) November 30, 2025
The team is not miraculously perfect all of a sudden, neither is the style of play, but we’re back to winning ways, and our football is fluid and exciting to watch much of the time. It’s been quite a while since we could say that!
After capitulating to Hearts and losing our manager in mid-season, O’Neill has overseen a remarkable resurrection. We beat Falkirk, 4-0. We beat theRangers 3-1 in the Premier Sports Cup semi-final, and how we celebrated. Losing to Midtjylland after such a draining victory was not a disaster-we would recover.
A 4-0 romp against Kilmarnock and a good away win at St Mirren courtesy of Calmac’s last-gasp wonder strike brought us hope that we could maybe, maybe, snatch something in De Kuip against old friends/foes, Feyenoord. We owed them!
A magnificent 3-1 triumph in that cauldron brought tears to a green glass eye. What a performance, and we all fawned over the dugout to project worthy praise.
Yesterday we faced a banana skin if ever there was one. Hibs at Easter Road is not a place for the faint hearted when you’re looking to potentially catch their table-topping (for now!) Edinburgh rivals.
However, it was Hibs who hit the skids, and Celtic vaulted this tough hurdle with a stirring first half display. Is O’Neill really getting a tune out of the much-maligned Yang? Indeed he is, and Arne Engels, and the Scales/Trusty partnership, Reo is back in form, and so on, and so forth. And…we had other good fortune befall us this weekend.
Hearts dropped yet another two points at Motherwell, and the Steelmen hammered another nail into the prospective Gorgie Championship coffin. The Jam Tarts (that’s Hearts, not…) are only two points ahead of Celtic now, but we have a game in hand.
Should we beat Dundee on Wednesday, and win on Sunday against Hearts then we go top of the tree and we still have that game in hand. I do believe Stevie Wonder can see what’s coming. Maybe no ’86 and all that, but just as important.
Celtic has a Cup final against St Mirren to contest soon. Celtic are back, and… Santa is coming!
With Martin O’Neill on board the good ship Celtic to steer the club to sunnier climes until Nancy (we believe) takes the wheel, the future is bright; it’s Green and White!
Hail Hail!
Eddie Murray
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I hope things get sirted at board level and supporter the board shold be queastioned on shabby way contacts are done the time its taken time bring in a new manager not just that but the lack if information from board to supporters who saved the club by buying shares those deserve more the share holders meeting should have went on board just dismissed it not all turned up to protest but those who done gave board an easy way out we are not employers of Desmonds we are share holders and deserve better two people caused this Lawell and Rogers who forgot there jobs and made it a personal issue both big egos one is gone the other must go we the have allowed anarchy into our supporters which to political
Strange piece imo?
Forget all that has gone beforehand, yet the usual anti board sentiments?
Yet the biggest decision taken this season to date, has been replacing Rodgers with MoN?
Yet who made the required decision that was needed for ourselves?
I got no idea as to why our players were no longer responding to Rodgers management in place?
Was very evident after Munich, and especially with a cup final and treble on the line. Hardly helped by numerous matches beforehand, where we looked like a totally uninterested team imo?
Nothing was on show to suggest that matters had improved during pre season, and the humiliation of the Ajax defeat, only confirmed that we were nowhere near to being regarded as a CL team?
So a very poor start to the season remainder in place, with things finally coming to a head after the hearts defeat.
A manager able to get nothing from his players, means only 1 thing in the footballing world?
And believe that the right decision was taken, even if it could have been handled better imo?
Yet the MoN and Maloney partnership haven’t done anything spectacular, regarding setting up our team, and inheriting an unwanted injury list also.
They have however managed to get players that we depended so hugely upon last season, and before, back playing closer to there capabilities.
Less dependency placed upon the newer arrivals, who have had to come into our club, at such an unsettling time for them to try and adjust to as well?
Hardly been made to be welcomed, with the events of the summer still in operation either.
So yes, strongly believe that MoN and the changes within the coaching set up to date, has potentially salvaged our season to date imo.
That doesn’t mean that it’s going to be a successful season all the same, but we are back on track, to making the likes possible for ourselves all the same.
There is still plenty of work required ahead for ourselves. The decision making during January is potentially harder to make, than what endured during the summer imo?
Facing more bigger decisions, with potentially far less options available to a manager awaits?
With only possibly 3 changes to a European squad available to the one already in place, brings huge decisions, just in our defensive set up alone.
That’s without even tackling the number of players who might be seeing there careers elsewhere?
So even as things within our club are in a far more stable position at present. We still can’t be claiming that we have overcome the choppy waters still, especially with the amount of unknowns currently within our club?
Hopefully MoN and Maloney partnership stays in place to after the cup final imo?
Then should allow the transition to be smoother, with less pressure involved.
But the main thing, is the MoN deserves to finish his reign with another winning trophy besides his name.
Nancy still has plenty of preparation work to take on, before taking over, and that within itself is a huge job, with the decisions involved.