MARTIN O'NEILL'S HANDS TIED BY BOARDROOM INCOMPETENCE
- BY LIAM McBRIDE
- Jul 18
- 5 min read
(This article was written on January 17, before it became official that Kelechi Iheanacho and Marcelo Saracchi would not be joining. If anything these recent events only further emphasize the points herein.)
Celtic welcome Middlesbrough to Glasgow on Saturday and 33 days after the Summer window opened, attending fans will have one new signing to view in the shape of Camilo Duran.
Frustrations are brimming. During a transfer window in which so much work is necessary, the Scottish Champions are yet again struggling to get business done, at least on the incoming front. It really does feel like Groundhog Day.
The squad is weaker than it was at the end of last season. A rather remarkable fact considering that that side was the worst since the 2020/21 team by general consensus.
The defence sees the return of Cameron Carter-Vickers but is weaker on the left side, with Kieran Tierney the only senior available option. With Marcelo Saracchi told by Boca Juniors manager Rodolfo Arruabarrena that he isn’t part of his plans and a reported fee of £2 million enough, it seems like the easiest deal in the world to complete.
We wait.
Martin O'Neill can Only do So Much as Board Negiligence Continues
In midfield, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain extended his contract but it seems increasingly likely that Reo Hatate, Arne Engels and Benjamin Nygren will all exit the club this Summer. The forward-thinking thing to do would be to get some replacements in before the trio leaves.
That allows you to bed the new players in and gives you a better hand in negotiations for exit fees as well. Instead, history suggests that the Celtic hierarchy will wait out the process until the Champions League qualifiers happen before scrambling to some late replacements.
In attack, the Kelechi Iheanacho saga continues while Daizen Maeda looks certain to leave. What the future holds for the likes of Michel Ange-Balikwisha and Sebastian Tounetki is unclear, while the likelihood of seeing Jota returning to his best decreases by the day.
Needless to say, surgery is needed, as has been known to be the case since last Summer’s horrendous window. Naturally, having seen this story play out so many times, as Celtic fans, you can’t help but feel apprehension that it’ll be the same old story on September 3rd, with a dreadfully underpowered squad relying on the incompetence across the city to continue.
And whether you like it or not, Martin O’Neill’s comments after a 4-1 pre-season defeat to Sporting Lisbon don’t exactly inspire confidence. The Northern Irishman said, as reported on the Celtic Way,
“We’re trying to come to some sort of agreement with Iheanacho but we are definitely making moves.
I am in constant touch with Michael [Nicholson]…
I don’t know about numbers but I am definitely optimistic we will get players in.
I think to balance things up we’d have to let a few players go but I’m hoping to be in a position to do that with others coming in.”
He also admitted that the club doesn’t currently have a head of recruitment,
“I think obviously there’s a process. I think that they want to do that, but it’s not at the top of the list at this minute.”
And when asked if he had sought any transfer assurances before taking the job, he insisted,
“I think obviously there’s a process. I think that they want to do that, but it’s not at the top of the list at this minute. I didn’t seek any... I just didn’t. I can’t turn around and say, ‘By the way, you need to get me 12 players, and if you only get 10, then you’ve broken the trust’. Maybe it’s the fact that I’ve known the owner of the football club for some time and I genuinely believe that he will come up and help when trying to get things over the line, let me put it that way.”
So, there are the comments. It’s important to be objective about these words. With everything that MON managed at the end of last season, he deserves immense gratitude from the Celtic faithful; make no mistake about it. Yet, these quotes display why, despite this, there was a sizeable portion of the support that was apprehensive about him taking the job on a permanent basis.
Not because of anything to do with his management ability but because of what it meant for the running of the club. What happens in the public image may not correlate with what’s going on behind the scenes but based on comments throughout pre-season, the 74-year-old doesn’t seem to be pushing the boat out for club improvements. He remains calm and collected.
And that would be fine, should he be sitting with the knowledge that quality players are on the way. Yet, with the recent history of the club, it would be incredibly optimistic to hypothesize this.
Let’s start with the Iheanacho comments. Oxlade-Chamberlain, Iheanacho and Saracchi should all have been in the door weeks ago. With all three having been reported as keen to join and the former having already done so, there really is no reason for waiting; they are risk-free moves. With Saracchi’s deal, you can cut a bit of slack as interclub negotiations are necessary, but by a bit of slack, you don’t mean a month; you mean a couple of weeks at the maximum.
Although this is a club that took a month to reappoint an already present coaching team, so you can hardly be surprised.
Moreover, the comments about “balance” make little sense and sum up the attitude present at the club.
You can only hope that MON refers to squad size. As if this comment refers to finance, it really doesn’t add up. Celtic famously sit with £70 million of cash reserves and have made a net profit of £20 million over the last four transfer windows. Simply put, the club have never had any ambition to “balance” the books.
Moreover, the comments about a head of recruitment are equally as baffling. How a head of recruitment isn’t in place in one of the most important windows in the club’s recent history really beggars belief. Again, this is nothing new. It’s a process that should have begun last January when Paul Tisdale left.
And then comes to the most alarming fact of all: MON stating that he never asked for any assurances. Whether this is true or not, we can speculate. However, you can only take the former European Cup winner at his word.
It would, in essence, confirm exactly what many worried this appointment could bring. With a frankly incompetent board, it seems that MON has very little bargaining power. A hardly promising situation for the rest of the window.