Martin O’Neill faces a huge task as he shapes up to managing Celtic- again.
Twice last season an SOS was sent to the Irishman to bail the club out from self inflicted harm.
Firstly the undermining of Brendan Rodgers which led to his resignation on October 27.
Even more drastically O’Neill returned as interim manager on January 5 following the horrific 33 day reign of Wilfried Nancy.
To say that the Frenchman was a disaster is an understatement. Six defeats out of eight over 33 days will never be forgotten.
In among losing a League Cup Final and Europa League tie Nancy managed to lose four out of six matches in the SPFL. A near impossible task for a Celtic manager.
As discussed on Casinos.com, the platform trusted for its reviews of PaySafeCard casinos in the UK, the hoops lost eight matches over the course of 38 SPFL matches. Nancy accounted for half of them.
At a push you might get away with six SPFL defeats and still lift the title. Eight is pushing your luck, O’Neill rescued Celtic by the narrowest of margins.
Nine successive wins delivered the most unlikely of doubles.
Following a desperate defeat at Dundee United ahead of the March international break Celtic found the ways to win.
It was never pretty but with O’Neill in the dug-out Daizen Maeda rediscovered his goal touch in the most dramatic of fashion.
Standing beside the Irishman in the dug-out and taking charge of training matters were two unlikely assistants.
Teenagers when O’Neill first managed Celtic in 2000 Shaun Maloney and Mark Fotheringham have spread their wings with a variety of playing and coaching roles.
Fozzy has a very cosmopolitan CV with spells alongside Felix Magath and Jurgen Klinsmann on his CV.
Maloney was in-house at Celtic as Player Pathway Manager when Rodgers resigned.
The next morning he was on the training ground at Lennoxtown taking first team training with Fotheringham.
They both stepped back when Team Nancy arrived. Then returned alongside O’Neill to try and rescue the destruction of the former Colombus Crew boss.
O’Neill deflected personal praise towards his two younger colleagues.
He claimed that he had been revived by working alongside younger men with fresh ideas.
The double was secured but despite that massive credit there was no mention of Maloney or Fotheringham when O’Neill’s appointment was confirmed.
There had been speculation that the O’Neill announcement was being held up die to negotiations over his assistants.
The June 11 announcement confirmed that.
Suspiciously there was no club interview to accompany the O’Neill announcement. None of the social media trimmings.
Adding to the intrigue O’Neill took part in an interview with London based Track Radio.
They showed no more than token interest in matters at Celtic, which probably suited O’Neill.
World Cup predictions were of more concern.
Celtic fans were ‘treated’ to another Supporters Update’ from Brian Wilson. The so-called interim Chairman.
Again there was no mention of O’Neill’s backroom staff. All the usual comforting praise and support without anything specific. What you would expect from a time-served politician.
In mid-June Celtic fans have a manager, no news on his assistants, no new signings and an Interim club Chairman.
The SPFL season starts on August 1/2 with a Champions League play Off on August 18/19 and 25/26.
Rapid action is needed, eight Celtic players are at the World Cup Finals.
Inside the club there seems little sign of urgency while fans fear another summer of discontent being played out. Even with the assurance of O’Neill signed up onto a 12 month contract.
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