Celtic's Struggles Under Martin O'Neill
The faith is being tested now.
For years, Celtic supporters have treated doubting Martin O'Neill as a kind of heresy. The man who steadied chaos, who dragged a fractured club back to trophies and respectability, earned that deference. But the last week has pushed belief to its limits.
Routed at Ibrox. Outplayed by Ferencvaros. Six days, two heavy defeats, six goals conceded. The slump is no longer a blip; it’s beginning to feel like a slide.
A team stripped of its edge
The latest loss told a grimly familiar story. Celtic gave up three more goals, and did so with a carelessness that has started to define them. The midfield drifted through phases of play as if detached from the danger around them. The back line wobbled at every meaningful question. On the ball, they were tentative, negative, loose.
Pass and move? Not really. Pass and stop, pass and hope.
There was no sustained intensity, no sense of a side trying to impose itself. When they did rouse themselves at 3-1 down, the response came in the form of speculative strikes from distance, hit more in hope than as the climax of any coordinated press or rapid combination play.
It felt a long way from the Celtic that once tore through teams under Ange Postecoglou. That version of this club played with aggression and invention, ran at opponents with pace and conviction, and dragged defenders into uncomfortable areas until they broke. This current iteration looks like a pale copy, stripped of the daring and stripped of the belief.
Old scars reopened
Scottish football can turn on a single afternoon, but right now the momentum is running hard against O'Neill. Sunday brings the second act of this season’s Old Firm drama at Celtic Park, and the venue alone keeps the contest hard to call. Logic says there has to be some kind of reaction to the humiliation at Ibrox.
Logic has not had much say in Celtic’s performances of late.
Five goals shipped against LASK. A wretched experience across the city. Now this home collapse. At times on Thursday, the football carried an echo of darker European nights: Cluj and Copenhagen in 2019 and 2020, Sparta Prague in 2020. Those evenings when the club felt bloated with the wrong players and stripped of direction.
This had that same flat, haunted feel. It was Legia Warsaw, Salzburg, Maribor all over again. Energy levels on the pitch were low, the booing in the stands was loud, and the sense of a team utterly devoid of answers was impossible to ignore.
A manager sounding as tired as his team
O'Neill did not sugar-coat it afterwards. He spoke of frustration, failure, psychological damage. He talked about how these nights hit you and test your resolve. He promised Celtic would “get ourselves together” for Rangers, but his delivery was subdued, almost drained.
He listed the shortcomings – and there were plenty – but he did not sound like a man brimming with solutions. His words were heavy, his tone flat. In a way, his interview matched his team: leaden, stale, disheartening.
This is the same manager who, across two spells, has solved problems that looked far more entrenched than this. Last season he walked back into chaos and imposed order. He gave the group structure and belief. Celtic became stubborn again, hard to shift, a team that might not always dazzle but almost never yielded. In the title run-in, nobody managed to beat them.
That defiance feels recent. It also feels, right now, oddly distant.
Soft goals, softer mentality
The night against Ferencvaros actually began reasonably well. Celtic started with a measure of control, then surrendered a soft opener. They clawed their way back with a flash of quality, only to sink again into bad habits: safe sideways passes, minimal risk, almost no emotional spark.
The goal conceded just before half-time was the sort of concession that marks out poor sides. First came the hesitation to contest a loose ball. Then the weakness in stopping the cross. Finally, the defensive confusion in the middle as the move unfolded. Three separate chances to stamp it out. None taken.
The numbers only deepened the frustration. Celtic had 62.5% possession before the break yet trailed 2-1. Camilo Duran, starting through the middle ahead of Kasper Hogh, touched the ball only eight times in that period.
Duran, once buzzing with enthusiasm for his new life in Glasgow, now looks like a faded version of himself, a forward starved of impact and confidence. Hogh, signed for £11m with a European scoring record that includes goals against Manchester City, Atletico Madrid, Inter Milan, Sporting, Porto, Jagiellonia and Olympiacos for Bodo Glimt, has regressed into an awkward presence up front. His first touch has deserted him. His chances have dried up.
One goal in eight Celtic appearances is a stark return. O'Neill has not yet found a way to unlock what the club thought they were buying.
Behind them, the great constant is flickering. Callum McGregor, the totem of this era, looks strangely adrift. If there is any coach with the experience to drag him and this team back to themselves, it is O'Neill. But time is short, and right now he neither looks nor sounds especially convincing.
Arzani’s reminder and the Keystone Cops
On a night when everything seemed to conspire against Celtic, Daniel Arzani scoring felt almost inevitable. A former player who arrived with hype and left barely leaving a footprint, he returned to add a little sting.
Worse still, it was a stunning strike that exposed Celtic on the break in the most humiliating fashion. The defending had the chaotic feel of a silent-era comedy. There was more structure in the Keystone Cops.
Colby Donovan, having over-committed in attack, sprinted back in vain as Arzani drifted into acres of space on the left. The Australian had time, had calm, and then had his moment. One touch, one whip into the top corner. Clinical. Simple. Damning.
A broken side, a brutal fixture
O'Neill now faces the kind of week that defines seasons. He needs answers everywhere: tactically, technically, emotionally. This Celtic side is short of ideas, short of conviction, short of composure. They lack physical presence and mental resilience. They lack creativity, edge, and a taste for the fight.
Right now, even the manager looks drained of inspiration. His career is built on comebacks from awkward, even hostile situations, and that history conditions you to expect another recovery. But there is a lot to repair here, and not much time to do it.
McGregor has admitted the team feels “a little bit broken”. Across the city, Rangers will sense weakness. They will relish the idea of facing a wounded rival. The old warning says to beware the backlash, to fear the response of a hurt giant.
On Sunday, we find out whether this Celtic side still has that kind of fury in it – or whether the balance of power in Glasgow is beginning to tilt for real.
