Forget about the title, in fact, forget about any success this season, as Celtic double down on Martin O’Neill

For a long time now, I’ve been saying that this season has felt more and more like the Covid season as it has gone on.

There are so many stark similarities to it, it’s actually uncanny.

Well, last night, the similarities continued.

Common sense has not prevailed at Celtic.

Neither on the board’s behalf, nor on Martin O’Neill’s behalf.

He has got the dreaded vote of confidence from the board and Michael Nicholson.

The club released a communique from Silent Mike yesterday evening in line with the release of the annual results, and to be honest, I’m not bothered repeating it.

There is nothing in it which gives me any confidence whatsoever that the people running our club have any awareness of the downward spiral Celtic is in

In fact, I’d go so far as to say that this statement was dictated by Dermot Desmond, and Michael Nicholson was instructed to put his name to it.

I know that as CEO he has to make this statement in line with the annual results, but he certainly didn’t dictate it.

The annual results themselves are an indicator of the direction our club is now headed in.

One thing is clear, the Not Another Penny campaign had the desired effect.

The club posted a loss after tax of £4.8 million.

This is the first time in a long time Celtic have posted a loss.

Expect it to be the first in a long line as long as this board is in charge.

There are plenty of other sites out there who will forensically examine these results, I won’t be one of them.

The bottom line is all that matters to me.

And the bottom line states that we operated in the red from June 2025 to June 2026.

Oh, don’t worry, right now there is a lot more than £66.4 million in the club coffers.

Player sales after June saw to that.

You will note that the sales of Arne Engels, Daizen Maeda, and Reo Hatate are not included in these results.

Celtic aren’t in trouble financially yet, but mark my words, that is coming

Last season showed us that when the fanbase comes together, we can apply pressure to this board.

A loss in turnover of £32.6 million tells us that much.

But as I said, I’m not going to take the results apart, I’ll leave that to the people that do it every year.

I’m more concerned about the immediate future on the football side of things.

Michael Nicholson and the board’s vote of confidence in Martin O’Neill tells us two things.

One, Martin O’Neill has agreed to continue as manager because this statement would not have been made without his consent.

Two, as a result of that, this season is now over.

Make your peace with it, I already have.

I have accepted that we are not winning anything this season, and I base that acceptance on what I have witnessed over the last ten days or so.

This, as I feared in last night’s article, is the nightmare scenario that is going to play out.

It is identical to the decision to retain Neil Lennon as manager after the League Cup loss to Ross county at Celtic Park back in 2020

Where we are headed after that will also be identical.

The board and Desmond, once again, are doubling down.

The only thing that remains to put the tin hat on it after another shambolic run of results happens when the international break finishes, will be the mid-season review.

That shambolic run of results will be brought starkly into contrast by a humiliation in Lisbon at the hands of Benfica.

Martin O’Neill, and his current fractured coaching team, are not capable of anything other than a tanking at the Estádio da Luz

That is sandwiched in between a perilous away trip to Fir Park on the 11th of October, and the visit of Wouter Vrancken’s Hearts team on Sunday the 18th.

On the evidence of what I saw last week, I would be surprised if we navigated both of those fixtures without dropping points.

Martin O’Neill, just like Neil Lennon back in 2020, has lost the confidence of the dressing room

In addition to that, it looks like he’s lost the confidence of his coaching team too.

I say this because of the tactical mayhem that ensued last Sunday against the Ibrox side.

There is no way that insanity could have been agreed upon between O’Neill and his coaches.

That wasn’t a tactical plan.

That was throwing shit at a wall in the hopes that some if it would stick.

When we’re reduced to that, you know the game is up.

The manager looked lost, and the players reflected the exact same thing.

When Cameron Carter-Vickers stated there was no plan, that was enough for me.

It took me a long time to accept watching ten in a row evaporate before my very eyes in the 2020/21 season.

But the mental scars from that season have given me the ability to accept and understand what is happening this season.

That’s why I’ve made my peace with it.

It’s why I’ve accepted what’s to come.

Anything after that is now a bonus.

I’m not sure what kind of a grip the club has over Martin O’Neill either

Because he does not strike me as a stupid man.

O’Neill is long enough in management to know when the game is up.

If he didn’t recognise that last Sunday, then he’s clearly in denial.

I think there’s a hell of a lot more to that story than meets the eye.

I’m sure it will emerge in the fullness of time.

But right here, right now, this is where we are at.

A club that is now operating at a loss because of the treatment of its support has now decided that the best course of action is to torch our domestic dominance.

You couldn’t make it up if you tried.

Something is rotten inside the walls of our football club

We are watching the slow and painful death of a once great institution.

It is entirely self-inflicted.

One man oversees it all, and he is the one who’s decisions have ultimately set us on the path to destruction.

This does not end until Dermot Desmond is gone from Celtic.

At this point in time, we all know the only way in which Dermot Desmond will vacate Celtic Park.

And it won’t be of his own volition.

So, you don’t have to be a genius to figure this one out.

This ends when he ends.

And that, I fear, is quite a long way off.

In the meantime, strap yourselves in because this isn’t going to be a pleasant ride.

It never, ever, needed to be this way…

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