Martin O’Neill mocks Rangers during Scottish Cup coverage and makes Celtic Treble claim

Add as preferred source on Google

Another Treble is on the cards for Brendan Rodgers at Celtic.

It’s happened before and there is no reason why he can’t do it again, as Celtic’s 2-1 win over Kilmarnock in the Scottish Cup on Saturday proved.

Yes, there is still a long way to go, but with the League Cup in the bag and Celtic miles ahead of Rangers in the Premiership, then there is a serious chance it could happen again.

One man who knows full well about winning the big trophies and the Treble is Martin O’Neill, as he was working for Premier Sports for the coverage of Celtic’s clash against Killie.

Days before Celtic’s Champions League clash against Young Boys, Rodgers played a strong XI, including starting Daizen Maeda and Nicolas Kuhn on the flanks.

Maeda would go on to score the winner, after Callum McGregor, scoring his seventh goal of the campaign, opened the scoring in the first half.

Before the match, talk turned to the XI Rodgers put out, as O’Neill was in fine form, including putting in a few digs at Rangers.

Martin O’Neill corrects himself over Celtic’s lead over Rangers

It could have been argued that Rodgers could have played a weakened XI for the Scottish Cup to keep key players fresh for the Champions League game in midweek.

That’s what O’Neill was feeling at first, but then needed to correct himself by saying, ‘what am I talking about’ because he quickly realised that it’s a ‘runaway race’ in the Premiership and the champions can rest players in the league instead.

That’s why he understood Celtic going strong against Kilmarnock and put the boot into Rangers by stating the Bhoys are ‘miles ahead’, as he told Premier Sports (18/01/25 at 5:25 pm).

“If you are going to rest somebody, you might as well rest them during a league game where you are so far clear,” said O’Neill.

“I mentioned earlier about being in contention, what am I talking about? It’s a runaway race (in the league). I think he (Rodgers) has gone very, very strong. He has a big game coming up on Wednesday. He will want to combine both.

“I think, publicly, he will have to say that he was disappointed (with the draw at Dundee). But deep down, it’s another point on the board, they are miles clear in the league, so he will be sending out a couple of reminders to the players.”

O’Neill talks up Celtic’s Treble chances for Brendan Rodgers

The fact that the Hoops are so comfortable in the league, then it does allow the manager, for the rest of the campaign, to use the Premiership as a vehicle to rest players.

The wide areas have been hit with issues over the festive period, with Maeda and Kuhn now back, whilst James Forrest is still out injured.

Then you have the January transfer window, Kieran Tierney could return to Celtic, amongst other signings, all of which could boost the Treble chances and O’Neill talked it up for Rodgers.

“This is an important game,” said O’Neill about the Killie game pre-match. “I bet he will be saying in the dressing room, this game is every bit as important as Wednesday’s game coming up.

“They will want to stay in this competition. I know the players will still want to think about the Treble. I know it’s very early on and if I was the manager, then I would be playing all of these things down.

“I am not the manager, so I am going to go strong on it and say, this is exactly what they want to do. They have gone strong and it hasn’t surprised me, at all.”