Martin O’Neill’s humility has been a weapon in Celtic’s season.
Whilst a ‘do your talking on the pitch’ mentality is nothing new at Celtic, the team’s level of inconsistency on the pitch has been, relative to recent times.
In both of his interim spells, O’Neill has had to steady the ship in completely different ways. Players have come in and out of the team, but the manager’s message has been the one constant.
And in a campaign of twists and turns, it may truly be the one thing keeping Celtic’s season alive.
How many points will Celtic end the season with?
Will it be enough to win the league? 😅
Martin O’Neill’s weaponised humility at Celtic
Long before Brendan Rodgers’ resignation, faith in his ability to navigate such a complicated season had started to wane.
In his mind, this simply wasn’t what he had signed up for. Dermot Desmond’s statement on Rodgers – which conveniently deflected from the hierarchy’s own role in jeopardising the campaign – made it clear that the manager’s public comments were beginning to spread negatively.
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Whilst the interim appointment of a club icon in O’Neill did little to alleviate fans’ unhappiness at the general state of the club, his immense popularity with the fans and players ultimately paid dividends on the pitch.
His honest humour and back-to-basics approach radiated onto the pitch, only to be violently ripped away by the unknown experiment of Wilfried Nancy.
Not only was the timing of this experiment absurd, but the immediate downturn in results – and how Nancy handled it – was also catastrophic, so Celtic broke the glass in a case of emergency.
O’Neill’s second return brought more certainty as the club finally had a stable direction for the rest of the season.
He publicly discarded Celtic transfer targets, and the focus firmly on results as the team struggled for confidence. Inevitably, that confidence grew.
The clear-headedness needed to push for result-changing goals in tight games simply wasn’t there under Nancy. Under O’Neill, it has allowed the team to dig in for results against Livingston, Dundee, Kilmarnock, Aberdeen, Rangers… expect this list to be bigger by the end of the season.
Even as Danny Rohl and Derek McInnes have been lured into giddy comments by the media in the heat of a title race, O’Neill has kept things on the ground.
After he tasted domestic defeat for the first time with a 2-1 loss to Hibs, he responded with the club’s first-ever win in Germany and a crucial fight back for a point at Ibrox.
Make no mistake, the season’s fate is in the players’ hands, and doubts over their ability to pull through are justified.
But few managers are better equipped to guide them through it than O’Neill.
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Martin O’Neill’s balanced message ahead of Rangers vs Celtic
The even-temperedness of O’Neill’s messaging was clear ahead of this weekend’s cup game at Ibrox, as he was asked if it would have any bearing on the title-race.
He said: “We’re miles away from winning anything, and that is very, very true.
“I think the overall picture is that it should be a wake-up call for the football club, really. You could say that in recent years the fans have maybe been spoiled. No real challenges in many aspects.
“Being able to coast home in the last six or seven games of the season, which is great because you’ve done that, but the challenge has not been strong.
“Here it is. Hearts have arrived on the spot maybe a few years before they thought they would do. Rangers have come strongly and spent some money getting good players in at the football club.
“So it’s important for us now. It’s been a challenge all season.
“It’s certainly been a challenge in my couple of spells in here where you’re winning some matches and you’re still trying to peg teams back. But we’re in with a chance anyway. That’s the point.
“Regardless of Sunday’s game, as you say, I don’t think it would have a serious bearing. But in terms of confidence building, of course, those things always matter.
“But for the league, I’m not sure, it’s down now to nine games left.”
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