GLASGOW, SCOTLAND - SEPTEMBER 13: Celtic manager Martin O'Neill (L) during a Premier Sports Cup Quarter-Final match between Rangers and Celtic at Ibrox Stadium, on September 13, 2026, in Glasgow, Scotland. (Photo by Craig Williamson/SNS Group via Getty Images)
Two days after a humiliating defeat at Ibrox Gerry McCulloch was given access to Martin O’Neill for an interview.
Rightly the interview started with discussion about Danny McGrain after his family announced that he was suffering from Alzheimer’s. Sadly a recurring issue with former footballers.
McGrain is absolutely a Celtic great. Coming through in the shadow of the Lisbon Lions he gave Celtic 20 years of outstanding service.
O’Neill was a contemporary of Danny, in the lead up to the 1982 World Cup he was involved in some commercial work alongside Kevin Keegan as captains of three competing teams.
To be fair to McCulloch he did raise the original thought that McGrain was a wing-back before that phrase had been thought of. He used that term while playing a clip from Love Street 86, McGrain’s last great Celtic triumph.
Other than that the interview was a waste of everyone’s time. It seemed that it was a soft jolt towards getting fans to buy tickets for the Europa League match tomorrow night.
https://youtu.be/2Hb-DZnPO00
MCCULLOCH CERTAINLY ISN’T PAXMAN
It was briefly touched on that ‘even the best players lose matches’ and with that ‘recent events’ were covered.
No fan is expecting O’Neill to deliver chapter and verse over what went wrong at Ibrox. But a little respect is deserved.
McCulloch didn’t go near it.
Like many at Celtic he operates in the safest most secure bubble.
Over nine year he has been Head of TV and Digital Media.
Applying the Michael Nicholson test it would be a stretch to say that McCulloch’s output is world class.
As they like to do on Celtic TV they hard back to the past. In this case last season.
Tellingly O’Neill mentioned the physicality that Celtic came up against when they lost 3-0 to Midtjylland.
Apparently that issue was one that Celtic tried to address during the summer transfer window.
CELTIC CRUMBLE AT IBROX
Looking at the two biggest matches of the season, in Linz and Ibrox again Nicholson failed to deliver.
Ferencvaros will be closer to the standard of LASK Linz than to Dundee and Dundee United.
Ibrox on Sunday wasn’t a case of a bit of bad luck, the ball rolling against Celtic.
O’Neill’s post match performance was equally worrying.
Leaving out Hasseim Hassan then bringing him on at half time was bizarre.
Starting with Sebastian Tounekti was an incredible decision.
Ibrox isn’t the place to find out what Sam Johnstone is about.
Etc etc.
Those issues and more could have been addressed. Discussed directly with Celtic fans, getting your story out first.
Instead O’Neill will face a full media conference this afternoon staged by UEFA. Not too many questions will be about facing Ferencvaros. Sunday’s predictable collapse and the reasons for it are the current issues at Celtic.
After the international break Celtic face matches against Motherwell, Benfica and Hearts in an eight day spell.
