GLASGOW, SCOTLAND - JANUARY 28: Celtic Manager Martin O'Neill during a Celtic MD-1 press conference at the Lennoxtown Training Centre, on January 28, 2026, in Glasgow, Scotland. (Photo by Craig Williamson/SNS Group via Getty Images)
Chris Sutton has described the mess at Celtic as completely self inflicted.
The former striker won’t be getting a call any time soon for some marketing or promotional work at his old club.
Sutton will be on co-commentator duties for Sky Sports tomorrow, he might find that line of work becoming a little more difficult.
With a boardroom filled with self congratulations those in the inner bubble don’t take kindly to anyone doubting their brilliance.
The 2026 Annual Report is ready for release at any moment.
Profits are likely to be around £30m, the bank balance sitting at about £85m at the end of June with a profit of £15m since year end of transfer trading.
Or the deliberate weakening of the playing staff as supporters know it.
Sutton sounded the alarm bell last summer when Brendan Rodgers was handed Shin Yamada to replace Kyogo Furuhashi and Adam Ihad.
With Nicolas Kuhn sold the world class recruitment division signed Michel Ange Balikwisha and Sebastian Tounekti eight weeks after banking the cheque from Como.
Not many fans were convinced by Celtic’s winning start to the season.
SUTTON CALLS IT OUT INDEPENDENTLY
Losing 5-1 in Linz confirmed all of the fears.
Three defeats in four big matches this season. The home win over LASK wiped out entirely just seven days later.
Sutton has watched a few Celtic car crashes.
In the Daily Record he nails the source of the current implosion:
Broken was a word that Callum McGregor used.
The captain is right. It is broken. Yet the mess Celtic are in at the moment is completely self inflicted.
Yet another failure of the club’s board in a transfer window has left the squad vulnerable to being exposed and, my word, they are being exposed alright.
I don’t like this current pile-on in terms of Martin O’Neill. Put bluntly, he’s been shafted.
Perhaps he should have been stronger in terms of the players coming into the building, he certainly was first time at the club.
But the damage is done and he has to fix it. Quickly because, unless there is a major transformation, it’s going to get even worse very quickly.
It’s up to these players to find the courage and character to cover up for the latest set of boardroom mistakes, yet I’m looking at the assembled group and wondering what Martin is going to do.
He must have been hoping to get some answers ahead of tomorrow’s momentous rematch with Rangers.
Instead, all he got from the Ferencvaros flop was more problems and questions. It was another woeful show.
In the space of week, Celtic’s obvious frailties and failings have again been brutally laid bare. Deficiences which could have been addressed in the final month of a transfer window and were not.
The defeat from Ferencvaros surprised no-one.
There are more than a few fans calling for Martin O’Neill to be sacked. He has ran out of magic and miracles.
That would leave the board badly exposed.
Last season Celtic had three different managers for their four matches in the Europa League group phase.
Benfica away on October 15 already has an ominous look about it.
Is the resignation of the Coaching staff and O’Neil after the game on Sunday a possibility. Regardless of the result, someone has to light the bomb under the board.and the Desmond’s.