On Tuesday night, away to LASK Celtic suffered their first defeat since March.
Martin O’Neill led the team on a 13 match winning run. Not just unbeaten but 13 back-to-back victories.
In football, and especially management you are only as good as your last result.
O’Neill’s last result was more than grim.
Instantly it was being discussed as Celtic’s worst ever European result.
Coming just over three months on from one of the most dramatic title wins.
The reward for winning the 25/26 SPFL Premiership was a place in the Champions League Play Off. Celtic were seeded in the draw and matched with a club that had become champions of Austria for the first time in 61 years.
CELTIC FAIL TO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF CIRCUMSTANCES
A club with turnover in season 2024/25 that was one third of Celtic’s £143.6m.
Tuesday’s crime scene, the Oberosterreich Arena holds 19,000 fans. One third the size of Celtic Park but housing vastly superior facilities.
After two stints as Interim Manager last season O’Neill couldn’t resist another crack.
He didn’t want to be on the outside, looking in as a pundit as the season unfolded.
Perhaps on Tuesday night he might have preferred a place in the Prime studio looking in from afar. Or the living hell of sharing the airwaves with Jim White and Simon Jordan the morning after.
I will never call for his head , never.
But I will call for him to resign immediately.— markbradley (@back2theegg) August 26, 2026
Walking away after Hampden in May was absolutely the obvious and right decision to take.
That was a more humiliating defeat than any that Nancy put us thru?
— The legend (@Thelege01259054) August 26, 2026
There is no comparison between O’Neill and Nancy but the hurt of defeat is never easy to take.
I’m sorry but, legend as he is, he’s not exempt from criticism either, he’s the board’s man,but like last year with Rodgers,he won’t be here next season, there’s no forward planning or thinking from these inept cunts on the board, and we’ll see a similar scenario next season.
— Paul69????????????????????? (@paulmul90824168) August 26, 2026
From waking up on Wednesday morning O’Neill has all of the Celtic problems to deal with.
The horrific recruitment of the previous three windows has been halted but remains a million miles short of what is required.
The substitute bench against LASK demonstrated that in full.
O’Neill has been a highly convenient shield between supporters and the ever failing Celtic board.
At every opportunity O’Neill praises the Celtic board, especially NED Dermot Desmond.
Tuesday in LASK confirmed that nothing has genuinely changed inside Celtic.
How much longer the challenge still appeals to O’Neill can now be questioned.
Over the next seven days he’ll discover in the shape of signings the extent of the backing he has from his friends in the Celtic boardroom.
He doesn’t look well at all, for his own sake better he leaves as soon as possible.
Turning on Martin discredits some of the Celtic fanbase. He did the club a favour in a time of need when the board are unlikely to persuade any other candidates due to their reputation
I read stuff like this then realise we are no different from them across the city.
It’s a defeat, a sore defeat.
But let’s not be Sevco with our reactions, our entitlement, our retribution.
The squad just isn’t good enough yet, simple as, and personally I am little relieved we aren’t gonna get a Sevco like humiliation in the CL proper, cos that’s what was ahead if LASK could do that to us over 2 games.
The Europa league is our level at this moment in time, as much as some might not want to admit it.
We should all, as one, save our ire for the suits, for yet again they have left the team wanting, and how I laughed and laughed at the suits who went to the effort of travelling to Austria to soak up the congratulations & adulation on a job well done by them only to have it slapped right back in their smug faces.
Hope they felt the heartbreak every supporter did when that whistle went.
But I doubt it.
Exactly Bhoy4life.
The disease at our club is caused by the suits!
Their utter incompetence and stupidity prevents progress.
The Europa League is where we are and as high as we can reach due to crumbling coefficient points, whilst the Board and Desmond’s remain. If a disease is not eradicated it can lead to something much worse!
Like you, I doubt the suits are bothered.
Martin O’Neill accepted the entire blame as the head coach and manager as the bucket stops with him …. absolutely ! But I believe he also knew that certain players would have been ostracized by the SMSM and fans in general if he did not ? He instantly knew after the result that the flak given to underperforming players would have been relentless particularly from gloating cowboy hacks desperate for a headline and from invisible social media troglodytes and had the mind to accept all of the blame . That’s how astute the man is and in the grand scheme of things …very smart !
Hunbelievable……
Fuckin acting like the tramps across town, get a grip, instead of trying to crucify our penultimate manager and his reputation, why not just compliment the outstanding opposition we faced over wihr two legs and admit we were deservedly beaten.
HH
Agree Dando, we were well and fairly beaten in the tie by what looked like a very well run club with an excellent stadium
I think Martin o’neils tactics were spot on….”run the clock down” given the score . However it wasn’t happening the ball wasn’t sticking to Hogh to allow the midfield to get up the park. So Martin should have changed it ….He could have taken Hogh off and replaced with a fresh pair of legs …or ..keep him on and change tactics
He’s the Manager and the boards puppet , in being manager he should have been screaming through the halls of CP that we needed recruitment in early , he didn’t he sat on his hands and told we daft stories
where where we are today because the support has no spine different groups want to cosy up to the board for tea and biscuits , nothing will ever change the club has no ambition regarding europe , they take the ST money and basically tell you to stfu , so until the support grows some balls were always be the whipping bhoys of europe ,,,,,the diddy team
Possibly one of the root causes of Wednesday’s night humiliation is the Celtic Board’s
continued preference to go for the [usually] cheap, convenient, lazy option with regards to recruitment?
MON overdelivered last season to secure a wholly unexpected Double.
He came back in and did a great recovery job for us:
it was too easy for the Board to give him the job permanently.
And, the ultimate example of this flawed approach to recruitment is Nicholson himself.
A sports lawyer handed the Interim CEO role – then handed the job permanently.
How would Nicholson have compared to other experienced, CEO applicants – given the chance?
Aiming to be “world class in everything we do” could / should start with the club’s recruitment processes?
The board sanctioned four signings to shut us all up, then put the cheque book away and gambled on the result of the play off.
Since the gamble didn’t pay off I’ll be majorly surprised if it reappears.
The players let the manager, the fans and themselves down on Tuesday night however the management team have to take their share of the criticism for the failure.
As for myself, I haven’t felt so disappointed after a game since ‘helicopter Sunday’.
People talk about the board, the Scottish League, lack of planning, lack of proper academy etc.
And all these factors combined surely play the part in our failures.
Nevertheless, there is something way more fundamental than that.
The whole LASK starting line-up was assembled for less than Balikwisha, Tounekti, Hatate and McCowan combined, none of whom made our starting line-up.
Their stadium is the size of Tynecastle.
Their new acquisition is a guy from St Mirren.
Their record signings who run us ragged cost less than a half of Trusty..
Their league may be a bit stronger and competitive than ours, yet somehow one of their top teams Rapid Vienna was knocked out by Hearts on Wednesday, and Dundee Utd lost to the same team just by, on penalties last year. And we defeated Sturm Graz last year and Sevco narrowly lost.
Time after time we lose to the teams with a fraction of our turnover, a fraction of all the transfer fees we pay for our players, with a fraction of the size of the stadium, and teams from the leagues comparable to ours.
You can’t win a football game with bad psychological attitude and poor physicality and an inability to do the basics – like getting close to opponents, fighting, being aggressive, blocking crosses, putting a foot in to defend.
Even if you’re great technically (and we are not) you have to have this attitude, this psychology, this aggression, this physicality.
We seem to have none in the midfield – McGregor, Hatate, McCowan, Baur, Nygren, Chamberlain are NOT this kind of player. And our backline is soft and lacking in speed, aggression and physicality as well.
We talk about reinforcements, which makes sense, but unless we get the basics right, we can’t progress.
Look at all the failures from previous years. Cluj, Midtjylland, AEK, Ferencvaros, Maribor, Kairat etc etc – all these clubs share the same features as LASK. A fraction of our stadium size, of our budget, of our resources and a comparable poor league they come from. It’s no coincidence and not any kind of accident. It’s just a pattern.
It’s just ridiculous that we can’t defeat teams whose entire squad was assembled for the same amount as a couple of our reserve players.
We sit at Celtic Park and complain about every opposition team parking the bus and we inevitably end up with a one or two goal victory. If Saint Martin had a plan like the worst SPFL manager we’d be in that draw tonight and interestingly playing Bodo in one of our ties. The game management was non existent, he hadn’t a clue.