Martin O’Neill did not need a full season to change the tone around Celtic. He only needed enough games to make the wider argument uncomfortable.
O’Neill came into a campaign that already had its own direction, but he seems to have changed it’s course.
The real question is sharper than that. What would Celtic’s season have looked like if O’Neill had been in charge from the beginning?
- READ MORE: Martin O’Neill’s end-of-season record is the reason why Celtic should be favourites for the title
What is the biggest difference you have noticed in this Celtic side under Martin O’Neill?
O’Neill’s Celtic numbers make the full season question unavoidable
From the 30 games the 74-year-old has taken charge of, Celtic have only lost four of them.
No Celtic manager has picked up more points than O’Neill this season, with 23 wins and three draws also complementing his record and showing that there has been improvement domestically, and in the Europa League.
Celtic have taken 47 points from 57 available in league matches under O’Neill, which works out at 2.47 points per game.
Stretch that league pace across 38 matches and it lands at roughly 94 points and, at this stage of the campaign, would see them sitting on 84 points. That would have the Bhoys top of the table by 11 points and within touching distance of the Scottish Premiership title.
That does not prove Celtic would have won every major prize, but it does show that the league conversation would almost certainly have been different.
The cup and European record adds weight, not decoration
Away from the league, the Hoops have also impressed in the cups and in Europe.
All five cup games have ended in victory for the Northern Irishman, including two Glasgow derby wins against Rangers.
He also ended a four-year wait to win an away game in Europe when the Bhoys beat Feyenoord.
There are already conversations about O’Neill getting a statue if he delivers a league title, and this only reinforces that idea.
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