BBC Sport has placed Martin O’Neill and Robbie Keane head to head as the two main contenders for the Celtic manager’s job – and with the board aiming for a swift appointment, the decision that shapes everything coming next is imminent.
Celtic need a permanent manager, they need one quickly, and right now it appears to come down to two men. A season of extraordinary upheaval – Brendan Rodgers gone in October, Wilfried Nancy barely lasting long enough to unpack his office – ended with Martin O’Neill lifting the Scottish Cup at Hampden to complete a league and cup double that nobody could have scripted. Now the board, with principal shareholder Dermot Desmond directly involved, must decide whether O’Neill continues or whether Robbie Keane is the man to take the baton. A significant squad rebuild looms. Time is not on their side.
WHAT THE BBC ANALYSIS ACTUALLY SAYS
Writing via BBC Sport, the piece frames this as a genuine two-horse race – noting that with Jens Berthel Askou heading to Toulouse and Craig Bellamy committed to Wales, it really has narrowed to these two. The analysis is fair enough as far as it goes, and it does O’Neill credit for the steadying influence he brought to a fractured dressing room. It also takes Keane seriously as a candidate rather than treating him as a sentimental pick based on his time as a Celtic player. What it perhaps underplays is quite how urgent this decision feels from inside Celtic Park – this isn’t just about next season’s title race, it is about pre-season planning, transfer windows, and European qualification that starts uncomfortably early.
KEANE – THE CASE FOR
At 45, Robbie Keane carries a managerial CV that deserves genuine respect rather than polite acknowledgement. He won a league title and the Toto Cup at Maccabi Tel Aviv, then moved to Ferencvaros in January 2025 and guided them to a seventh successive Hungarian championship. In Europe this past season, he took a side operating on one of the smallest budgets in the competition to 12th place in the Europa League – four points and nine places above Celtic – defeating Rangers, Genk, RB Salzburg and Ludogorets along the way, and drawing away at Fenerbahce. That is not nothing. That is a manager who knows how to organise a team and get results against sides they have no right beating.
The domestic picture at Ferencvaros is more complicated. They failed to defend their title this season, losing out by a single point to ETO Gyor after a 1-0 defeat in April – a result that cost them dearly, and Keane departed shortly after. But context matters: their squad is valued at least three times more than the rest of the Hungarian league, so expectation was enormous and the margin of failure was razor thin. His tactical approach – attacking, direct, built around a 3-5-2 – could suit Celtic’s forward-heavy personnel. And with Scott Brown and Jonny Hayes mooted as potential assistants, there would be real Celtic DNA around him from day one.
O’NEILL – THE CASE FOR
The O’Neill Celtic fairytale is one of the great chapters in the club’s modern history, and what he produced across two emergency stints this season only added to that legend. He came in twice – first after Rodgers, then after Nancy – and delivered a league title and a Scottish Cup. The players spoke in the most glowing terms about his impact; a dressing room that had been unsettled and directionless found its footing again under a man who simply knows this club and commands its respect instinctively.
But O’Neill himself has been coy about his future, suggesting at Hampden that if the season were to start next week, he could not commit. He is 74. That honesty is admirable, but it is also the central tension in his candidacy. His coaches Shaun Maloney and Mark Fotheringham have been excellent alongside him, and the idea of another year with that trio in place – a bridge year while the rebuild takes shape – has clear appeal. Whether it is fair to O’Neill, or to the club’s longer-term planning, is the harder question.
WHAT THIS DECISION REALLY COMES DOWN TO
O’Neill has flagged himself that a major squad overhaul is needed – and he is right. The summer ahead is not a gentle refresh. It is a fundamental reshaping of a squad that has been through three managers in a single season and needs serious investment and direction. European qualifying rounds will arrive before the transfer window has barely warmed up. Whoever takes this job needs to be ready to work at pace, make significant decisions, and set a tone that lasts beyond twelve months.
That is the real lens through which to view this choice. O’Neill as a short-term bridge has genuine merit – stability, respect, experience – but the board must be honest about whether another interim-adjacent appointment truly serves the club. Keane is younger, energised, and has shown he can manage with ambition in difficult environments. The question is whether Celtic, at this specific moment, need consolidation or a fresh charge.
The board has the information they need. Now they just have to decide.
