Follow Follow tells us Martin O’Neill’s success at Celtic was a myth as Alex McLeish matched him on trophies? I guess that must make EBT’s a myth too then??

Well, well, well…

It seems we’ve reached the part of summer where the Ibrox keyboard warriors have to dust off the trophy cabinet, polish the silverware nobody else can see, and lecture the rest of us about how brilliant their dead club used to be.

Today’s edition comes courtesy of Follow Follow.

The headline??

“Alex McLeish and the myth of Martin O’Neill.”

Right.

Let me get this straight.

Follow Follow has decided, in the year of our Lord 2026, that Martin O’Neill’s success at Celtic was a myth.

That?

That’s the take??

Give me a f*****g break.

Here’s the central premise.

Both managers won 7 major trophies during overlapping periods (O’Neill 2000-2005 at Celtic; McLeish 2001-2006 at Rangers).

Seven trophies apiece.

So they’re level pegging.

A draw.

Honours even.

Indeed.

Convenient, isn’t it??

Because there’s one wee detail Follow Follow forgot to mention while he was tallying up the silverware.

The financial doping.

The Bank of Scotland overdraft facility that ran like a tap for over a decade.

The David Murray and Gavin Masterton bromance that propped up Ibrox while the rest of us were told to budget like grown-ups.

And, of course, the EBTs.

Stop the bus.

Did Follow Follow, the noted historian of Ibrox triumph, somehow forget about the EBTs??

Alex McLeish and the myth of Martin O’Neillhttps://t.co/8AU7T8c23C

By Mark Dingwall

A myth has grown up amongst Celtic fans that in his first stint at Parkhead that Martin O’Neill swept all before him. In fact, Alex McLeish trounced him in direct managerial battles coming out… pic.twitter.com/Thh3QoZeV6

— FollowFollow.com News (@GrandmasterSuck) June 4, 2026

He did, didn’t he??

Really??

I had to read his piece twice.

Three times, in fact.

Because somewhere between the trophy lists, the sob story about Advocaat’s “£124 million” overspend, and the chest-thumping about McLeish’s domestic treble, the wee detail that the entire operation was bankrolled by money that never belonged to the club has snuck out like an embarrassed cousin at a wedding.

Funny that.

So let me get this straight.

McLeish “matched” Martin O’Neill.

By spending money the club did not have.

On wages that were never properly declared.

In trust schemes that the courts eventually said were unlawful.

While the bloke next door at Parkhead was operating on a self-sustaining budget.

Against a team being bankrolled by the limitless plastic credit card of Sir David Murray and his pal Gavin Masterton over at Bank of Scotland.

That’s matching him, is it??

Bollocks.

That’s not matching anybody.

That’s cheating, and then getting all huffy when somebody calls it cheating over a decade later.

Here’s the inconvenient truth Follow Follow conveniently left on the cutting room floor.

The McLeish “treble” of 2002-03?

Lorenzo Amoruso (EBT).

Barry Ferguson (EBT £2.5 million).

Ronald de Boer (EBT).

Stefan Klos (EBT).

I rest my case.

I could go down the rabbit hole and list the lot of them.

But you get the picture.

That’s not a trophy haul.

That’s a receipt.

And the receipt, eventually, was handed to the liquidators in 2012.

The club that “matched” Martin O’Neill is dead.

It is in a box.

The lid is nailed shut.

The entity currently parading about in the blue jerseys is Rangers 1872 in name only.

A NewCo.

One that climbed out of the bottom division and has not won a Premiership title in five years.

Now, let’s talk about the Martin O’Neill part of this “myth”.

Because Follow Follow really does want you to believe that the man was just lucky.

Lucky??

Let me get this straight.

Martin O’Neill turned up at a Celtic that had been so badly run that John Barnes had gone out of the top of the building.

He inherited a wage budget that was a fraction of what was happening at Ibrox.

A fraction.

And he ran us all the way to the UEFA Cup Final in Seville.

That.

That is not a myth.

That actually happened.

80,000 of us were there to watch it.

The fact is, the only “myth” in this entire conversation is the idea that anything won at Ibrox between 1998 and 2012 was won on a level playing field.

It wasn’t.

Make no mistake.

The LNS panel that scratched the surface back in 2013 was a coat of paint over a truth that everybody in Scotland already knew.

The titles were bought.

The dressing room was bought.

The League Cups, the Scottish Cups, the treble, the second-place finishes – all of it bought.

Then the credit card bounced.

And the club died.

Then, your fans have the audacity to tell us we should have an asterisk next to the title we just won?

F*****g seriously??!

So please. Save it.

The next time you fancy a wee comparison piece between Alex McLeish and Martin O’Neill, do us all a favour and put the asterisk where it belongs.

Or should I say, asterisks?

Beside the trophies that were paid for in funny money.

Not beside the manager who took a self-sustaining Celtic side to within touching distance of lifting a European trophy.

The trophy count is meaningless when you are counting the haul of a club that does not exist any more.

It is like boasting about the dragon you killed when the dragon was made of cardboard, and the cardboard was on fire, and the fire was started by your own auditor.

Convenient, isn’t it??

And on the matter of “myths”.

If Martin O’Neill’s success at Celtic is a myth?

Then so are the EBTs.

And so is the 2012 liquidation.

Then so is the NewCo.

Then so is the third place finish the Ibrox side has just stumbled to in a two-horse race.

Third.

In a two-horse race.

Apparently not.

The bottom line is this.

Martin O’Neill walked back into Parkhead mid-season and walked out with the double.

Now he’s back for another year, and you’re all shitting your pants over there.

Alex McLeish?

The last time anybody checked, was somewhere on the after-dinner circuit.

Telling us how Scotland nearly qualified for a tournament under his stewardship.

The myth, Follow Follow, is yours.

And it cost the original club its life.

Sad, but true.

I really do rest my case.

Key Takeaways

• This Follow Follow piece argues Alex McLeish “matched” Martin O’Neill by trophy count between 2001 and 2006.
• The article omits the financial doping, EBTs and the Bank of Scotland overdraft facility that bankrolled McLeish’s Ibrox sides.
• Lorenzo Amoruso, Barry Ferguson, Ronald de Boer and Stefan Klos were among the McLeish-era players on EBT arrangements.
• The original Rangers 1872 was liquidated in 2012; the current Ibrox side is a NewCo that has not won a Premiership title in five years.
• Martin O’Neill took a self-sustaining Celtic side to the 2003 UEFA Cup Final in Seville and has just delivered the 2025-26 double on his return to Parkhead.

Source: Follow Follow

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