Bhoycie 
LINZ, AUSTRIA - AUGUST 25: Celtic manager Martin O'Neill during a UEFA Champions League Play-Off Round Second Leg match between LASK and Celtic at Oberosterreich Arena, on August 25, 2026, in Linz, Austria. (Photo by Craig Williamson/SNS Group via Getty Images)
Martin O’Neill warned us.
Only days ago, after watching Celtic labour to a 1-0 victory over St Johnstone, he admitted his side were “still well short”.
He even joked that, at 74 years old, he could have scored one of the chances Celtic squandered.
I wrote about his comments on this site and the fact I felt Martin seemed less than convinced of his side.
Well, after watching Celtic get dismantled 3-0 by Rangers at Ibrox today, it would be very easy to point back towards those comments and say the manager has been proven correct.
He has.
But that doesn’t mask what were, in my opinion, some disastrous decisions from O’Neill himself today.
Rangers didn’t sneak this. They didn’t require a refereeing controversy or a fortunate deflection.
They deservedly beat Celtic.
Dan Neil scored twice, Kevin Kelsy got the other and Rangers caused Celtic problems throughout, particularly through Djeidi Gassama. Celtic, meanwhile, offered nowhere near enough going forward.
That hurts to admit, but I’m not interested in dressing it up, it’s not my style.
O’Neill has spent the last week telling us this team needs to improve. He openly questioned whether Celtic could function without Camilo Duran after resting him against St Johnstone.
Again, he was right.
Yet today was also about what the manager did with the players available to him.
Celtic arrived at Ibrox with a perfect Premiership record. Six games, six victories and five points clear of Rangers.
Nobody expected perfection, but I certainly expected Celtic to look like Celtic.
Instead, Rangers dictated far too much of this game.
O’Neill’s setup didn’t work. Celtic struggled to establish control in midfield, Rangers found space to hurt us and our attacking threat was nowhere near what you’d expect from a team containing the quality Celtic possess.
When it became obvious things weren’t working, I wanted a decisive reaction.
It never really came.
Changes were made, but nothing fundamentally altered the direction of the match. Rangers remained comfortable and Celtic increasingly looked like a team hoping something might happen rather than one capable of making it happen.
That’s on the manager.
There can be two truths here.
O’Neill can be correct that this Celtic squad remains short of where he wants it to be.
Supporters can also believe he got today badly wrong.
He did get it wrong.
One shouldn’t be used to excuse the other.
I’ve criticised Celtic’s recruitment repeatedly. We went into the Champions League qualifiers without a finished squad, watched the LASK disaster unfold and then conducted a frantic amount of business at the end of the window.
Those decisions have consequences.
However, this isn’t LASK.
Celtic had their new players available today. O’Neill had decisions to make about how to use them, how to set his team up and how to respond when Rangers took control.
His decisions didn’t work.
Perhaps the most concerning thing is that today’s result didn’t arrive completely out of nowhere.
St Johnstone gave Celtic warning signs on Wednesday. O’Neill himself acknowledged them afterwards.
We won that game, so it was easy enough to move on.
You can’t move on quite so easily from this.
Three-nil at Ibrox.
Out of the League Cup.
Barely laying a glove on Rangers when the first domestic trophy of the season was on the line.
That’s unacceptable for Celtic.
But today the criticism has to travel in his direction too.
Martin warned us Celtic were well short.
Today proved his point.
Unfortunately for him, it also proved that some of the improvement required needs to come from the dugout as well.
O’Neill’s post-match admission only makes some of those decisions harder to understand.
He deserves credit for immediately saying he would look at “my own part in proceedings”, but his explanation that he “wanted people to experience this atmosphere” really caught my attention.
Martin, this wasn’t a pre-season friendly or an opportunity to give players a wee taste of Ibrox. This was Rangers away in a League Cup quarter-final.
Celtic were there to win, not provide an experience.
New signings will get plenty of opportunities to discover what this fixture is all about, but when there’s a place in a semi-final at stake, I want our strongest available team selected for one reason and one reason only: to beat Rangers.
Ultimately, O’Neill can point towards Celtic being “well short” all he likes, but today he became part of the problem.
His team selection was wrong, his setup failed, his changes did nothing to rescue the game and describing a cup quarter-final at Ibrox as an opportunity for players to “experience this atmosphere” simply isn’t good enough.
Celtic weren’t there for a learning experience — they were there to knock Rangers out.
O’Neill has spent the week demanding more from this Celtic team. After a 3-0 defeat in which Rangers thoroughly deserved to progress, the harsh reality is that the manager failed his own standards too.
He got the biggest domestic game of the season badly wrong, and no warning about the limitations of his squad should be allowed to disguise that.
He hasn’t a clue.
Every word true!
Least something has went right today then!
Don’t you find it strange and informative that 4 ‘rookies ‘ selected for the Solheim Cup all played brilliantly for team Europe all weekend gaining winning scores when being thrown into the deep end yet Celtic’s equivalent today played like they had been up all night sitting on the toilet worrying about today’s game ? I do …..
Not gonna say the Solheim Cup at crossed my mind to be honest mate!
Yeah, this is a bad one. The decisions against LASK, the starting line up vs St Johnstone, and now the starting line up today. The first half was enough to know we were falling short in midfield and would only concede again if we continued as is. The shape needed changed at half time, not just subs. What’s the point of changing better wingers if the balls into the box aren’t being won and you can’t win second balls with the midfield you’re sticking with? Our coaching staff played right into “Del’s” hands (as Scott Brown calls him!). He probably still can’t believe how easy this game went for them! That bomb scare Fernandez wasn’t even tested, and looked more likely to score than any Celtic player out there. All of a sudden Dan Neil is a quality midfielder?? He had all the time in the world to pick his spots. Look where McGregor is for the 1st goal, he’s cruising down their left rather than pressing back into the middle of the park, to block opponents like Neil. McGregor can’t compete as a 6 in these games any more. The questions and doubts where there last season, and McGregor now needs to be honest here. LASK exposed him and now this mob… Our midfield is far too fragile. MON needs to bolster it up and I wouldn’t blame him if he tried 352 vs Ferencvaros as a try out before the next game against them. Because we all know what trying the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result is… At least no Celtic fan had to watch that performance from within the ground… That’s the only positive I can think of.
MON should carry the can for this totally inept performance from the team today he selected the players and he was quite happy saying he was content with the defenders at the club.We are totally bereft of decent defenders of at least a decent quality, half of the team today were blowing out their a@@e plus he should call out the board on this because as far as I’m concerned his Celtic legacy will be gone in tatters
A good article Bhoycie but may I politely request that you please stop calling Sevco “Rangers” – That Just gives credence to a filthy club that cheated it’s competitors for years and years…
Sevco I call them every single post…
“Rangers” DIED in 2012…
Sevco are 14 years and 46 days old as of today !
Wtf did Tounekti start,what has he done to merit a start,when Rangers played Penrice inside we should have put Oxlade and Hussain on and withdrew Nygren,go 4 5 1,why wasn’t Hussain in that 11 ffs,they played 3 at the back ffs.
How many debuts were in that sevco team,at least 7 ?
Yet they got what it meant,McInnes had them ready to go to war whereas Martin made sure our players had a fkn nap for 90 minutes,fkn embarrassing