22nd March 2026; Tannadice Park, Dundee, Scotland; Scottish Premiership Football, Dundee United versus Celtic; Celtic interim manager Martin ONeill with Celtic PR Iain Jamieson
Martin O’Neill has delivered an incredible tribute to Jamestown Analytics.
The big question is why Celtic don’t have a similar system in place to replicate the success of Hearts and Brighton?
O’Neill’s usual media form is to scoff and mock modern developments while providing a throwback to the good old days when football was less sophisticated.
First time around O’Neill signed players almost exclusively from the EPL, players that he knew well, that would settle quickly and make an impact.
Those days are long gone.
Celtic need to look far and wide for players of a specific profile.
Ange Postecoglou got it right in the summer of 2021 by bringing in starters like Kyogo Furuhashi, Carl Starfelt, Josip Juranovic, Liel Abada, Cameron Carter-Vickers and Jota.
Postecoglou had a system of playing and knew what was needed.
In his second transfer window he turned to the J-League, signing Reo Hatate and Daizen Maeda. When a deal for Riley McGree fell through Matt O’Riley was signed and playing before the usual last minute scramble on Deadline Day.
THE ONGOING DISASTER THAT IS CELTIC RECRUITMENT
In contrast O’Neill’s recruitment over two transfer windows has been horrific.
Players have signed up with no real purpose or plan.
Who is in charge of recruitment is unknown but O’Neill has given his approval to two windows that have left the Celtic squad weakened.
In January Joel Mveuka, Junior Adamu, Ben Arthur and Tomas Cvancara were signed on loan, contributed little then left.
During the summer, after losing to LASK Linz in the Champions League Celtic went on another sweep of left-overs to pad out the squad.
Six players were signed with only one costing a transfer fee. Two have yet to play a single minute while one other has made three underwhelming substitute appearances. Three were left out of the Europa League squad.
In contrast Hearts have a defined style of play and actively recruit players that are ready to step in and make an impact.
Players like Calvin Miller, a one time Celtic youth player who excelled for two seasons at Falkirk.
During that period Celtic wasted £10m and two five year contracts on Sebastian Tounekti and Michel-Ange Balikwisha.
Miller is a far better winger than either of the Celtic duo.
In his usual roundabout fashion O’Neill has praised the analytics driven recruitment that has been headed up by Woulter Vrancken.
Rather than get an elderly board member to dig into his dwindling Contact Book Hearts used Jamestown Analytics to recruit a manager that suited the system that they wanted to play.
Discussing Hearts with The Herald O’Neill said:
I think their recruitment is really good. I think that what they’ve done has put pressure on Celtic and Rangers. They’re a definite challenge.
They kept going all last season. That was a big, big effort. They kept going and they took it right to the last couple of minutes. Are they capable of doing it? Yeah.
I think that they’ve got a certain system in place at this minute, which has been used down at Brighton. They used it there and they’re scouring the European scene for these things.
The system has a name Martin, it is called Jamestown Analytics.
Jamestown Analytics is the world leader when it comes to football player and head coach data analysis. The bespoke data services we can offer to our clients can make all the difference in team performance. We can assist with player valuations, player recruitment, head coach recruitment and opposition team analysis.
DOCTOR FOOTBALL- CELTIC PUT THEIR TRUST IN PAUL TISDALE
Brighton sell it to other clubs for £1m a year, money well spent. Far better than the £10m that brought Tounekti and Balikwisha to Celtic.
Half the price of Shin Yamada and Hayato Inamura in the summer of 2025.
Instead Celtic employed Paul Tisdale.
The former Exeter boss branded himself as the Football Doctor and waltzed into the salary of being Head of Football Operations.
Tisdale was the driving force that brought Wilfried Nancy in as manager last December. Nancy lasted 33 days, Tisdale 15 months.
Tisdale took over from Mark Lawwell who left in March 2024 and hasn’t worked in football since then.
Since the summer of 2022 Celtic have had two good transfer windows. January and summer 2024 as Brendan Rodgers sidelined Lawwell Mini.
There is no mystery or secrets about what Hearts do, what O’Neill will face tomorrow.
Meanwhile at Celtic there is no Recruitment strategy, no Director of Football, no Professional Player Pathway Manager.
Instead Celtic rely on a variety of factors led by agent recommendations to bring in footballers.
Thanks for everything Martin but your time is up. You let this happen.
Nothing new going on here, Moneyball has been around since the 50’s.
Using analytics like this has been commonplace and relatively successful.
God forbid our dinosaurs in suits try anything even remotely outside their comfort zone.
We need an entirely new board, people in touch with the modern game, 5 year plan in place, and regular turnover at the top, make these suits work for their cash instead of sitting comfortably, knowing they are safe regardless of how shite they are.
EMPTY SEATS.
Should have left at the end of the season as a legend, now hanging on as a fag-end.
Celtic is Grace Brothers. An Analogue club in a Digital World. And, sadly, The Legend that is MON, who is now being seen as a blethering Old Mr Grace and erstwhile but solid Human Shield for the Fat Cat Grey Suited Yes Men above him is slowly but surely running out of road as the chronic underinvestment and deliberate downsizing of the board and the de facto “Owner” / Dinosaur Dictator becomes more and more evident ( maybe even to some of the happy clappers?) Shocking. Absolutely shocking.