Tonight at Celtic Park Martin O’Neill makes his shock return to the Celtic dugout alongside new first team coach Shaun Maloney and a new backroom team of Stephen McManus (stepping up again from the B team) and Mark Fotheringham.
Brendan Rodgers No. 2 John Kennedy has also left the club after 27 years and surprisingly the only thing on Celtic’s website came this morning giving a coaching update brief. Nothing to single out for all the service he has given to the club I do find it a bit strange.
https://www.celticfc.com/news/2025/october/29/celtic-fc-coaching-staff-update/
O’Neill is a Celtic legend and his period at the club was one of my favourite times following the club home and away. Memories come flooding back from the 6-2 game to the run to Seville. Back then he inherited some really good players including Lubo and Henrik and added quality. He was probably the last football Celtic manager with total control of football matters, since he left Celtic have reverted to a more first team coaching model.
When Paddy McCourt arrived at Celtic, Gordon Strachan who replaced MON didn’t know who he was which suggests that he was not fully in control of what players came into the club and depending on who you believe in Brendan v Dermot spat it may well be the case.
After tipping Hearts to win the league on talk sport on Monday, MON received a phone call from Dermot Desmond and not the Celtic CEO Michael Nicholson about coming back as short term manager until a permanent manager could be found. He gave him 10 minutes to make up his mind.
At yesterdays Press conference both MON and Shaun Maloney said this was a short term fix until a permanent replacement for Brendan Rodgers could be found. There have been plenty of names mentioned in the media as to who that replacement might be, Big Ange, Robbie Keane and Kieran McKenna are just 3 who have been linked to the job but I am sure that list will grow along with the rumours.
When you book a flight and hotel for a midweek game against Falkirk at Celtic Park you expect it to be drama free and you would be expecting three points, a few pints and a hotel bed to get your head down.
Well this midweek game build up has had plenty of drama and is playing out like a soap opera. What a few days it has been!
Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers resigns and Dermot Desmond comes out on the official club website to make personal attack (Donald Trump Style) on our former manager and the man he brought back to the club. Actions like this do not show the club in a positive light.
He also wrote in his signed statement that no man is bigger than the club which raised some eyebrows considering how Celtic’s major shareholder took over the media department to make his personal attack which you would have imaged should have been written by the CEO if anyone was to deliver such a character assassination. It was also strange that it came 15 minutes after the usual thanks for your contribution and the best of the luck for the future official club statement.
A protest against the board has been organised by the Celtic Fans Collective for 7pm outside Celtic Park but when the Celtic team come out for kick off they will have the full backing of every Celtic supporter inside Celtic Park and I am sure Martin O’Neill will get a hero’s welcome but the most important thing is 3 points against a Falkirk team who are sixth in the table after 9 games they have 12 points ( 3 wins, 3 draws & 3 loses).
Shaun Maloney has had little time to prepare the team for the game and he got the senior players together yesterday and he will need each one of them to stand up and be counted tonight. We saw flashes of how good a leader Callum McGregor on Sunday in the first half against Hearts. Tonight we need it for all 90 minutes.
Andrew Milne is Editor of More than 90 Minutes & host of the Celtic Soul Podcast
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