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.
Sutton said that Martin O’Neill has been shafted by Celtic ? Well just in the last 6 or 7 seasons alone I can think of Big Ange …Brendan Rodgers and now Martin O’Neill being just 3 top class coaches at Celtic FC who have suffered the same experiences and treatments by this unfit for purpose board ?
A same Board which remains in power for all of that time to this day with a few exceptions of change yet continue to enjoy huge bonuses and perks as members even when obvious turmoil is here all under their watch ! It’s like the’ royal family ‘ …..self inflicted problem after problem yet receive full backing from pals in the MSM and continue on full of power with complete disinterest on what’s happening all around them .
The problem is that old Charlie boy and his lot are on borrowed time in charge …I suspect this current board will suffer the same fate …very soon too ?
O’Neil is taking the flak for Maloney’s shit show.
No improvement until Maloney, “Fozzy” and McManus are shown the door.
As usual, everything, including the coaching staff, done on the cheap.
Minimum outlay maximum profit. The Desmond way.
Empty seats the morra, that’s the message that needs to be sent, especially in this game.
But of course, the team we all love to celebrate as Sevco are in town, and we pretend they are the dead club just as much as their own fans do half a dozen games a year, then laugh at them the rest of the time as we take the moral high ground.
There probably will be empty seats, but not in protest, just once they go 2 up and our own start heading for the exits.
Not buying socks, pies, bovril or having big fancy banners wi big faces on them will make one iota of difference to the suits.
They have necks of brass and are run by a total narcissist.
Stop going to games folks or at the very least empty the place at half time.
It would be the talk of Europe and everyone would be asking why, cos absolutely nobody outside the West coast knows anything that’s going on in the background.
If we all truly want to force change that is about the only action that will have the impact required, the biggest club ground in Scotland with only a handful of away fans providing an atmosphere.
But as is the norm, we will wait till real damage is done, almost unsurvivable damage like last season, before we wake up and smell the coffee.
DD, MN and the rest are going nowhere unless real sustained pressure is applied, and not having a hot drink and a roll at half time ain’t gonna do that.
We are either serious about bumping them or we should just shut the fuck up and get on with it.
Spot on bhoy4 life,but I just can’t see it happening, ironically it is the one big decision that will jolt this board into action, either selling up or making sure they back the next manager,but at present nothing changes this board don’t give a toss about NAPM,they still get their bonuses through ST sales and selling off our best players.
Well I’m doin my bit…
Not been over a turnstile since 2015 but that’s for another reason and not cash hoarding…
Spent plenty on merchandising though bit didn’t in 2025/26 nor so far in 2026/27 !
The trip to Lisbon is looking ominous. At least I have booked a nice hotel.