Martin O’Neill stumped as he can no longer defend his pay-masters

Martin O’Neill was in no mood to question his pay-masters as he reflected on Celtic’s Champions League exit to LASK.

A year ago O’Neill was in the Amazon Prime studio watching Celtic lose out a Champions League place on penalties to Kairat Almaty.

Three times since then he has answered the call to manage the hoops.

He really should have an excellent grasp of all issues.

Especially after overseeing the horrific January recruitment that brought in Joel Mvuka, Junior Adamu, Tomas Cvancara, Ben Arthur to bolster his title bid.

Fortunately Brendan Rodgers had brought in Marcelo Saracchi and Kelechi Iheanacho before being forced into resigning.

Those two played a pivotal role in Celtic winning the SPFL title.

O’Neill wanted both players signed on permanent contracts. Michael Nicholson failed to do his job.

The Celtic CEO did manage to sell Daizen Maeda. With Alistair Johnston out injured Nicholson pushed ahead with the sale of Arne Engels. His boardroom colleague high-fived Mike Mute as the bank balance soared.

With less than a week to go in the transfer window there are gaping holes in the Celtic squad.

The substitutes used against LASK undermined Celtic’s hopes of going through to the Champions League.

O’NEILL KNOWS THE SQUAD, THE TASK REQUIRED TO REACH THE CHAMPIONS LEAGUE

O’Neill can just about field a decent First XI. Beyond that he has virtually nothing. He knows it, he took that squad to Austria, they failed.

Yesterday O’Neill gave a list of positions that he wants to strengthen.

Asked why those recruitment issues weren’t dealt with before the LASK ties the Daily Record reports the Celtic boss saying:

Do you know what, I’m in no position to argue, really, not today but, look, we genuinely need to learn. That’s the most important thing, attempting to learn.

I know that sounds like a politician’s answer after the whole thing and saying what we should have done.

It is. Avoiding the issue, refusing to answer the question. O’Neill knows the answer, he is dealing with the problem every day.

But in my moment in the ashes, and I do feel like that at the moment, I think the club will rise, and I’m hoping in the not-to-distant future.

I might not be there but I do think the club will not just qualify, but make it through and really do fine in the competition and attempt to get to the latter stages.

A word with Rodgers, Ange Postecoglou, Neil Lennon or Ronny Deila would have enlightened O’Neill to a recurring problem.

Nothing has been learned since Kairat Almaty a year ago. CEO Nicholson learned from his mentor Peter Lawwell. Celtic haven’t won a UEFA knock-out match since 2004. They have lost out 8 of their last 10 times they’ve needed to qualify for the Champions League.

In 2025 Nicholson sold Kyogo Furuhashi and Nicolas Kuhn without bothering to replace them.

This year he sold Maeda and Engels, the midfielder while knowing that Johnston was injured.

Four players have been signed. Only two started a fixture before the matches against LASK.

Last season O’Neill discovered the scale of the rebuild required.

He accepted the job of permanent manager without seeking any guarantees over signings.

None of the invited messengers at Friday’s media conference mentioned Nicholson or Dermot Desmond.

Expecting Champions League qualification Desmond turned up in Linz to watch Celtic crumble.

The conversation between Desmond and O’Neill in Austria would certainly make for interesting reading.