Who is signing Celtic’s players if, as Maloney says Martin O’Neill ‘leads everything’?

Yesterday, Shaun Maloney tried to tell the Celtic support who is running the football side of this club.

He wasn’t very convincing.

According to the Scottish Sun, some supporters believe Maloney is the one pulling the strings behind the scenes while Martin O’Neill fronts things on match days.

Here is his answer, as reported by the paper:

“Anyone that’s written or said that, I don’t think they’ve ever worked with Martin.”

“If they came into the building and watched us each day, Martin leads everything.”

“Recruitment, team selection, tactical.”

Recruitment, team selection and tactics.

Everything, in other words.

So, let’s get this straight, Martin O’Neill decided he wanted Joel van den Berg?

Because that is what we are being asked to swallow.

I’ll be fair to the man, I can’t see inside the building and neither can Maloney’s critics.

But I can see what comes out of it.

Are we to believe that O’Neill sanctioned all the loan deals after the LASK debacle?

Pull the other one.

It was clear that he wanted Gvidas Gineitis, and that didn’t happen, did it?

But Oliver Sorensen did happen, and there was no hint whatsoever that O’Neill was in pursuit of that player.

Then there’s Sonny Inzalaco.

If O’Neill was totally invested and totally in charge of the recruitment process, then how is it that he didn’t know who Inzalaco was?

Who sanctioned his trial at Celtic?

Because if the man who leads everything didn’t know the lad, it’s hard to see how it was him.

Make no mistake, this is a club where nobody seems to know who is doing what.

Somebody at this club is signing players and organising trials, and I’m still waiting for anybody to tell me who.

As for team selections and tactics, they have been baffling at times to say the least.

Maloney was asked about Kasper Hogh’s place on the bench again, and he called it a really good issue to have.

An £11 million record signing watching from the sidelines is a good issue to have?

I’m sure the board are delighted.

The support is the one watching that investment from the stand, after all.

Camilo Duran is flying right now, and fair play to the lad, that’s a genuine point in Maloney’s favour.

But I could say the same about a lot of selections this season and the answer wouldn’t be so kind.

We all remember how the last few weeks went.

Three defeats in a week.

Back-to-back Europa League losses to Ferencvaros and Benfica, and a squad that looked like it had never met each other.

Maloney himself said it was difficult to claim we are close after being beaten by those two.

And on that, I couldn’t agree with him more.

Then again, that is the very point.

Maloney also said that to go deep in Europe, recruitment and all departments of the club have to be bang on.

Again, I couldn’t agree more.

But he can’t say that and also tell us the recruitment is all down to one man.

You can’t tell me the man who leads everything is happy with how the team has looked in those games.

Or maybe he is, and that’s a far more worrying thought.

For example, let’s see if Oliver Sorensen starts tonight against Celta Vigo.

Because here we are again, a must-win game and another selection to pick over.

If Sorensen starts, it will confirm the rumour doing the rounds that part of his deal is that he plays in all the Europa League games.

Now, it is a rumour, and I’ll treat it as nothing more.

But if it’s true, is that a decision O’Neill agreed to?

I doubt it.

I can’t imagine a manager with his experience, with a Uefa Cup final on his CV, signing up to be told who goes in his team.

So who did?

Maloney admitted something else yesterday that is worth remembering.

He said he came in as head of loans, and that the plan was to spend a couple of seasons here before going back into coaching.

Then he said that changed in October, when things were tough.

Now, I’m not saying that tells us everything.

But it tells us something.

Funny how a man who came in to look after the loans ended up at the centre of every conversation about who runs the club.

Then again, we all know how things work at Celtic when the results go south.

There are a lot more questions than answers arising from Maloney’s interview.

I take no pleasure in this.

Maloney is a Celtic man, he played here, and his loyalty to O’Neill is obviously real.

When he talks about being indebted to the man who took him from cleaning boots to living the dream, I believe every word of that.

Who knows?

Maybe O’Neill does lead everything.

But if he does, then he has to own the loans, the Sorensen situation, the Inzalaco trial, the team selections and the results.

All of it.

Because you can’t be the man who leads everything only when the news is good.

And if he doesn’t, then somebody else is making the calls and the support deserves to know who.

Either way, tonight’s team sheet will tell us far more than any interview can.

Keep your eyes on the line-up…

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