Martin O’Neill expects only the highest standards from his Celtic players, conversely, should he not expect the same from the board?

A bit earlier today, my podcast colleague James Forrest wrote an interesting article over on the Celtic blog.

In it, James discussed the standards that Martin O’Neill demands from the players who play under him at Celtic.

Rightly, James highlighted the fact that Scottish football is not the retirement home that players think it might be when they come up here in their twilight years.

Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, I’m sure, is starting to realise that it’s no walk in the park.

As we know, certain individuals have come up to Scotland thinking they’d be getting an easy ride, and that they’d lord it in Scottish football.

Aaron Ramsey and Joey Barton come to mind for the Ibrox side.

For us, the likes of Eyal Berkovic and Ian Wright from a while back, and more recently Carlton Cole and Shane Duffy.

All of these players learned very quickly to their detriment that Scottish football was not the easy mark they thought it would be.

Consequently, none of them lasted very long in the game here.

Martin O’Neill, though, didn’t manage any of those players.

If there’s one man who can get the best out of a player, O’Neill is that man.

A perfect example of O’Neill’s ability to get the best out a player in comparison to other Celtic managers is the way he transformed Bobby Petta’s Celtic career.

Petta was originally signed by John Barnes from Ipswich Town during the ill-fated Barnes/Dalglish experiment.

He failed to make any impression under Barnes, and when Martin O’Neill came in, he gave Petta the chance to prove what he could do.

Who could forget Petta’s performance in the 6-2 victory over Rangers 1872, where he tormented fellow countryman, Fernando Ricksen?

Or his performance against Ajax in a Champions League qualifier at the Amsterdam Arena in September 2001?

Only for the fact injury blighted his Celtic career, and then he had a falling out with Martin O’Neill, Petta could have been a Celtic great.

He certainly had the potential to be, but never quite lived up to it.

So, we fast forward back to today.

Martin O’Neill still demands the highest standards from his players, there’s no doubting that.

But he doesn’t seem to demand the highest standards from those who operate above him at the club.

This was something he had no issue doing until Peter Lawwell became the Executive Director in 2003.

Prior to his arrival, O’Neill had secured Chris Sutton, Neil Lennon, and John Hartson for £6 million each.

Lawwell’s remit was to curb spending of that level at Celtic, and he did so ruthlessly.

While Celtic did spend big on four signings this summer just gone, that was before the Champions League disaster away to LASK.

There were plans to spend to spend a lot more because everybody believed the job was done as we headed to Linz 3-0 up on aggregate.

We know that didn’t happen.

I don’t need to rake over the coals of that one again.

But while Martin O’Neill was clearly demanding quality players before that disaster happened, why did he stop demanding the players he had earmarked for the squad after we lost to LASK?

He talks about demanding high standards from the players.

Should he not be demanding the same from the people above him?

And while he feigned satisfaction at the outcome of the final stages of the summer window, there were plenty of rumours circulating that he was very unhappy at the failure to secure Gvidas Gineitis.

With the window now shut, we have to make do with what we’ve got.

In reality, it’ll probably be enough to see us through the season and to win the League.

But as I alluded to in my earlier article on Hearts, we need to keep an eye on Wouter Vrancken.

We also have to accept that despite the fact we acquired ten players in this window, 4 to 5 of those could be gone by the end of this season.

Celtic does not plan for the long-term.

Whereas Hearts continue to build their side through Jamestown analytics.

Tony Bloom has a long term vision for the club, and there is a clear strategy in place.

These are the kinds of standards the Celtic boss should be demanding from the board.

Instead, the board sets its own standards.

Which, of course are the standards or Dermot Desmond, and nobody else.

Desmond treats Celtic like an investment bank, where the football plays second fiddle to finance.

The standard of financial operation is excellent in the eyes of the board.

Even if we do miss out on £40 million from the Champions League.

The fans see it differently.

Martin O’Neill’s latest admission that we aren’t good enough to compete in Europe, and that the domestic scene is of paramount importance shows he does not expect high standards from the board.

In fact, it shows that he accepts their poor standard of operating.

The sad reality here is that Martin O’Neill won’t rock the boat because he’s only here for a year.

He knows it.

And the board knows it.

That’s why he won’t rock the boat.

The strategy is short term, the club’s vision does not go beyond this season.

That is the way it has always been, and the next poor candidate after Martin O’Neill will be brow beaten onto accepting it.

Anybody headed to the bookies to place a bet on it being Robbie Keane?

If Desmond gets his way, you can be sure it will be.

And Desmond always gets his way…

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