Spiers Claims O’Neill Wants a Style Overhaul. Suddenly This Summer Just Got Even More Daunting.

So according to Graeme Spiers over on his Patreon, Martin O’Neill isn’t just inheriting this Celtic team.

He wants to rebuild how WE play.

Speculation on my part of course – but it tracks. It really, really tracks.

The slow, methodical, possession-for-possession-sake stuff is reportedly out.

A more aggressive, on-the-front-foot version of us is in.

We get it. It’s what most of us have been crying out for.

But let’s have it right – this changes EVERYTHING about the Window.

A Style Change isn’t a Press Release. It’s a Squad Rebuild on Top of a Squad Rebuild. And We’re Already Behind.

Think about what we already knew was coming this Summer.

A new permanent gaffer to back to the hilt. Replacements for Schmeichel and Sarrachi. Inevitable bids for Maeda, Hatate, Engels, Bernardo.

Now layer this on top.

A whole new style of play that doesn’t suit half the players who were going to be staying.

Brace yourselves.

The Board thought they had a difficult Window. They have just had the goalposts moved on them mid-conversation by Doctor Football’s successor – the actual Manager, finally, doing the football decisions.

About time.

I’d love to be a fly on the wall of that boardroom right now. Speculation on my part of course.

I Get the Style Shift. I Really Do. But Has Anyone Told the Board What It Actually Means?

Spiers isn’t drawing up training drills on a Patreon post either, let’s be frank.

But the direction of travel is clear if his sources are to be believed.

Less of the sterile sideways stuff.

More tenacious, aggressive, brave-on-the-ball footballers. The sort of phrase I used about Sarrachi a fortnight ago – funny that he’s the one walking out the door.

Martin O’Neill doesn’t do possession for possession’s sake.

Winning. Football. Matches.

Everything else – the profiles, the squad shape, the type of player we recruit – follows from that. And THAT is what makes this Window so much harder.

The thing is, you can’t switch from a tiki-taka era hangover to a high-tempo aggressive press overnight.

And you certainly can’t do it by signing the same profile of player we’ve been buying for five years.

Different bodies. Different mentalities. Different legs.

Project Signings? In THIS Window? For an O’Neill Reset?

I’ll be honest with you.

We all know the Board’s preferred player trading model. Young, cheap, re-sell value at the heart of every single deal.

Project signings. Untested. Unproven in this league, let alone this division of Europe.

I get all that.

But will project signings cut it for an O’Neill side asked to press from minute one and qualify for the Champions League against opposition who have been on their pre-season for weeks?

What a mess this could become.

A 22 year old from a feeder market needs six months to adapt to Scottish football.

Then another six to understand a totally new playing style.

That is not the answer to this question.

Oven ready is the ONLY answer.

Proven. Aggressive. Ready.

Then we could see a rare fruitful qualification campaign.

The Board Have to Pivot. Will They? History Says No.

Honestly? I doubt it.

This is the SAME Board that pointed at the balance sheet last Summer whilst we squandered another shot at the Golden Ticket.

This is the SAME Board that left Kuhn unreplaced in time for the qualifiers.

How many clubs go into Champions League qualifiers having spent as low a percentage of their cash reserves as Celtic did last year?

How many clubs ask a brand new Manager to overhaul the style of play whilst handing him squad players who don’t fit it?

How many clubs call that a plan?

We are about to find out.

Yet despite all this, I’ll be honest with you – if anyone can drag the Board kicking and screaming into proper, ambitious, oven-ready signings, it is Martin.

Because right now, if the Board had their way, it’d sound something like this.

We have the cash. We have the reserves.

The balance sheet is healthy.

Trust the process.

F**k the playing style.

We know better.

Remember Villa. Remember why he walked.

He won’t be doing that here. But he will not be quiet either.

Can the Board pivot in time? Course they can.

Will they? Knowing them – I doubt it.

I’ll be live on The Bhoycie Bus tonight and tomorrow evening discussing this in further detail.

Keep Your Eyes On The Board.