GLASGOW, SCOTLAND - OCTOBER 02: Celtic Chief Executive Officer Michael Nicholson during a UEFA Europa League 2025/26 League Phase MD2 match between Celtic and SC Braga at Celtic Park, on October 02, 2025, in Glasgow, Scotland. (Photo by Ross MacDonald/SNS Group via Getty Images)
Martin O’Neill has finally highlighted the failings of Celtic recruitment.
Despite signing two Champions League strikers it was the fourth successive window of failure delivered by Michael Nicholson.
That is a failure on the park. With a surplus of around £15m and a significant cut in the wage bill there won’t be any awkward questions from inside the Celtic boardroom.
In their limited public messaging Nicholson and ‘interim’ Chairman Brian Wilson both admitted to mistakes being made and lessons learned. What those lessons were was never made public.
Gerry McCulloch knows his place. At Celtic only nodding dogs survive. Ask Ange Postecoglou, Dom McKay or Brendan Rodgers for confirmation.
After three successive windows that weakened the squad a significant rebuild was required during the 2026 close season.
Twenty players left by one means or another.
Many had been accumulated over previous failed transfer window.
O’NEILL OVERSSES THE FAILED SUMMER 2026 TRANSFER WINDOW
In reality only Arne Engels and Daizen Maeda were nailed on starters.
Marcelo Saracchi and Kelechi Iheanacho were useful, certainly deserving of a place on the bench.
For a variety of reasons they all left with only Camilo Duran and Kasper Hogh signed in time for the pivotal Champions League Play Off ties on August 19 and 25.
Mika Baur and Haissem Hassan were in the squad after brief substitute appearances in a 4-0 win over Dundee United.
After the exhilaration of a 3-0 home win Celtic crumbled away to LASK Linz.
The players on the park failed, the substitute bench offered nothing. The blame line extended to the coaching staff, manager, boardroom and to the feet of CEO Nicholson.
Dermot Desmond abandoned his golf schedule to be at the return leg in Austria.
Nicholson continues to drain £17,000 a week. Mute Mike lives in a bubble of no internal accountability.
The team failed, recruitment failed and still Nicholson continues. Two more Non Executive Directors were added on Friday. Likely to have the same impact as Sharon Brown and Brian Rose.
O’Neill tackles medias duties. Increasingly poorly, the old gags aren’t working, he is being dragged down rabbit holes.
Since losing at Ibrox he has had to preview and review the defeat from Ferencvaros.
O’NEILL SELECTS HIS MOMENT OF DELIVERY
To preview today’s match O’Neill held an all-in media conference, another for the Daily papers and finally the Sunday papers.
O’Neill could have criticised recruitment in the all-in conference. Or for Friday evening online and the Saturday edition of the daily papers.
He held back for the Sunday papers to deliver the first criticism of the board since he returned to Celtic last October
Discussing the lack of physicality in the team the Daily Record reports O’Neill saying:
I think that in an ideal world it would have been greater to have the likes of Arne Engels and that type of running power, and that’s really what we were trying to do when we knew that Arne was going to leave.
So it didn’t materialise, but that’s something that we would certainly have to look at. Arne, I always felt he was going to be leaving anyway.
Trying to get a like-for-like, we looked at a number of players who could do that.
For one reason or another, it didn’t materialise. So yeah, he’s been a loss in terms of that running power he can give you.
Engels was signed on August 30 from Augsburg for £11m after Brendan Rodgers finally got his way.
That level of investment clearly hurt figures inside Celtic who were quick to use their messengers to run down Engels who was 20-years-old when he signed from Germany.
Engels played a full part in Celtic’s 10 match Champions League campaign. He started the December 2025 League Cup Final on the bench, came on and scored in the penalty shoot-out.
FROM BAYERN MUNICH THE DECLINE OF CELTIC HAS RACED OUT OF CONTROL
Taking 12 points and reaching the Round of 16 Play Off spooked the Celtic board. Ambition had been ruffled into life.
The board responded by selling Kyogo Furuhashi, Nicolas Kuhn, Adam Idah, Maeda, Engels and Reo Hatate.
Replacements take 12-18 months to arrive.
O’Neill has kept silent until now.
It seems that defeats in Linz and Ibrox plus Thursday’s 3-1 loss to Ferencvaros has forced him into his first public criticism of his employers.
The beginning of the end is underway.
As the shambles of last season demonstrated the Celtic board are forever reactive, never pro-active.
Brendan Rodgers resigned on October 27, Wilfried Nancy joined on December 3 and was gone on January 5.
The close season was wasted, as was the summer transfer window. No lessons were learned.
O’Neill has to front up for successive transfer failings for a board that is baked into failure.
Only the timing of the conclusion remains to be finalised.
What should Celtic Fans Collective do with Not Another Penny?
CONTINUE- This is the main way to protest
SUSPEND- Let us see what Celtic Connect produces
ABANDON- No longer required or useful
Unfortunately the only way forward is probably going to cost us the league this season but board has got to be removed and new manager put in place as both are by their best
MON has overstayed his welcome.
His sycophantic relationship with DD & Son and Mute Mike has lost him any sympathy he may have received.
If the Last few result had not happened you would not here a peep out of him.
People conveniently for get that in his previous years at CELTIC .John Robertson who was a fantastic player and coach helped build his legendary status.Without JR he would have been bang average.
Both Martin and John were lucky to be shown the ropes by one of Englands Best managers and motivators Brian Clough.
However even Brian did not Last Long without his partner Peter Taylor!
SM & Fozzy are not good enough to Coach and support Martin.
When Ange noticed that Daizen was a bit rough around the edges he brought Harry Kwell in to be his one on one to refine him…Ange new his limitations and got help!
Martin living of past glories is struggling and needs an assistant.No man is an island and Martin is now being isolated by the DD & Son grinding machine driven by Mute Mike and the board.
Martin is too proud to ask for help!
Roy Keane would be perfect!
Just like you never heard a peep out of the majority of supporters?, when it was apparent to anyone with a modicum of football sense that his was a terrible appointment, or that the window was a shambles, or that a woeful McGregor had been on the slide since Bayern.
Nothing like a bit of hindsight, eh?.
These ain’t Martin’s words…
They all belong to that bas*tard Lucan !
I really shouldn’t be here
O’Neill should have realised he had arrived at St. Clabbert’s when he saw the occupants of the Celtic boardroom, Celtic Park has become Jurassic Park where they talk out of their big hairy ars*, feck it!
Instead of a statue being built, the board have prepared punishment stocks for St. Martin. He has fallen into their trap as well as from grace in some of the eyes of his followers because he chose not to seek the necessary assurances that would have helped prevent the latest crisis.
He accepted their mantra, he hasn’t criticised DD who he believed would get signing targets over the line. When he does blame the majority shareholder we then could have sympathy for his woes, but until he points the finger at the real culprit there can be little respect for him.
Wilson’s over-ripe fruit and veg from his allotment is now available at all good green grossers stores at unreasonable prices while stocks last.
None of them should be here, they’ve all come to the end of the road and have reached a dead end. They are past their prime and need to go to a better place.
At the closing ceremony it will be game over for O’Neill, Desmond didn’t make the final putt, it’s curtains for Wilson, it’s a shot in the dark for happy snapper McKay and nobody minds this time if Nicholson doesn’t make it.