The 2025/26 Scottish Premiership campaign has undeniably been a poor one based on Celtic’s own long lasting self set standards. We were poor and struggled under Brendan Rodgers before he walked out, a restoration of pride under the returning Martin O’Neill – only to commit Harikari with the ridiculous appointment of Wilfried Nancy – before we returned to pride with our legendary 73 year old.
His 2025 return saw eight games with seven wins added to his Parkhead tally, and having come back again in the New Year we have returned to eight wins from ten games and although we are still in third place in the top flight table, we have closed the gap and are only three points from Hearts now, importantly, with a game in hand over them, and it is all to play for in our second leg Europa League Knockout Round Play Off against Stuttgart in midweek.
With the European clash next on the cards and a small domestic break, although neutrals might check new UK casino sites out online this week, fans will be looking into the available odds for Stuttgart as arguably form would favour a decent result here.
With good and solid positives returning, we cannot overlook the simple fact that our performances are far from classic at the moment and that we are grinding out results by digging deep – but after the first half of the season it is a case of needs must and winning ugly can become a good habit to have when a team simply does not know when it is beaten – a trait again epitomised in the 3-2 fightback victory over Kilmarnock at the weekend.
This is a point that the Northern Irishman freely concedes, there are major problems in our play right now that you would not naturally associate with the club given the calibre of players that we can call on – but O’Neill could not be more proud of the spirit that has returned within the group because he is confident that this mentality could see us all the way through to another league title if things go our way.
Despite the complaints that can be levelled at our on pitch showings, Monny knows that there are direct comparisons to draw from the spirit showed by his former charges during his silverware ridden spell with us and the camaraderie that was more than on display once again in the second half Killie comeback when we fought back from 2-0 down.
Whatever words were again well chosen at the break are in many ways irrelevant, all that matters is it was the third time in a week that we had turned a pretty disastrous result into a positive one by the end of stoppage time.
No Hoops fan will expect that to continue for much longer and it is imperative that we address the issues that have seen us fall behind in games of late, but it is undoubtedly a nice knack to call on when it comes to those few occasions where it is needed to secure a win. That is no more true, or important, when sides hit the business end of a campaign and Celtic are certainly at that point now and although performances may give rise to frustrations, all that matters as we look towards the future again is getting our noses back in front and then, staying there this time.
It would cap a remarkable turnaround for the team, and would be befitting of O’Neill’s return.
Image Source: unsplash.com
