“A total embarrassment in European competition & living on their nerves in the league when it comes to the retention of their title” – Keevins paints a painfully accurate picture of Celtic right now…

When we get to the point where it’s virtually impossible to argue with washed up journalists like Hugh Keevins, you know we’re not far from rock bottom at Celtic.

Yesterday morning, Keevins tried to admit he was wrong about Martin O’Neill, without actually admitting he was wrong.

Because let’s be fair, Shug never admits he’s wrong.

Here is how he put it in the Daily Record:

After a re-think, I’d say Celtic are now a total embarrassment in European competition and living on their nerves in the league when it comes to the retention of their title.

Now, the apology is a fake one, and he more or less says so himself a few paragraphs later when he tells us “I wasn’t wrong”.

But the latest shit show at Celtic is affording him the chance to shoot fish in a barrel.

It has never been this easy for Keevins.

And with each passing week, we make it easier and easier for him.

The unfortunate reality is that everything he wrote yesterday is the cold hard truth

I hate typing that sentence.

I really do.

But it’s the first time in a long time that I’ve read one of his columns and found myself nodding along rather than reaching for the nearest blunt object.

Total embarrassment in Europe?

Yep.

Living on our nerves in the league?

Absolutely.

Don’t get me wrong, I know we won at Easter Road, and I know we’re still top of the table.

But that does not hide a multitude of problems at this club.

Keevins reminds us that the 7-1 win over Hearts was supposed to be the platform for the season.

Instead, he calls it a trap door, one that exposed the poverty of the squad and the lack of a work ethic among players Celtic have paid millions for.

Celtic Park emptied long before the end against Celta Vigo.

The Green Brigade left in protest at the lack of any structure or strategy at this club.

Tell me that doesn’t say it all.

Martin O’Neill is being used as a shield for an inept board, and at times he is the most pathetic shield imaginable

Keevins describes him as the human shield for a hierarchy who have no idea how to run a modern club.

He’s right.

Keevins says he speaks on behalf of the principal shareholder, the chief executive and the finance director.

Silent Mike and the absent meddling golfer are never the ones facing the cameras.

So it’s left to O’Neill to stand there after every game and speak for all of them.

And for an intelligent man, he seems to think the average Celtic supporter is utterly braindead.

Take his comment yesterday that the win at Easter Road was the best of the season.

It defied belief.

We beat the team bottom of the league, a side that had won one point from eight home games.

Best of the season?

Pull the other one.

It doesn’t seem to matter how we perform in any game, his comments get more outlandish with each passing fixture.

Which in turn has people finding it harder and harder to take him seriously.

Keevins is spot on about that too, when he calls the manager’s appraisal of the Celta Vigo defeat “an insult to the intelligence”.

I watched that game yesterday and I genuinely could not figure out what our formation was, what our tactics were, or what the strategy was

I used to play football every Friday night on the astroturf with a group of mates.

Two, two and a half hours of it.

The routine never changed – somebody dropped a ball into the middle of 14 guys, and then it was a free for all.

To me, that’s exactly what yesterday’s noon kick-off in Leith resembled.

No shape.

No pattern.

No plan.

Just a ball, a lot of bodies, and the hope that somebody would do something.

And that, folks, is the team that’s supposed to be marching towards a title defence.

This is the un-fittest I have seen Celtic look since Neil Lennon’s time in charge of the club

Just what the hell is going on when it comes to player fitness?

Alistair Johnston lasted 20 minutes.

20 minutes, and he hobbled off injured again.

So what are the medical team doing behind the scenes?

Honestly, I’d love to know.

And what is it that Stephen McManus is imparting to these players in training?

Because something clearly isn’t working.

Make of that what you will.

Then again, I can only go by what I see on the pitch.

But what I see is a side that cannot get through ninety minutes without somebody going down, and a squad that Keevins says lacks “a work ethic” despite the millions spent on them.

Harsh?

Maybe.

But I can’t say I’d argue with it.

It just seems to get more nonsensical with every passing day

Keevins ended his column by saying it’s up to O’Neill to prove him wrong.

I’d love nothing more than for that to happen.

I truly would.

But when you’re agreeing with Hugh Keevins about the state of your own football club, you know something has gone badly wrong.

And the worst part?

Nobody in the boardroom seems to care.

Just what have we become?

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