Martin O’Neill’s Celtic future is under renewed scrutiny after Rangers won 1-0 at Parkhead, leaving the manager to consider whether he can still improve the team.
Ryan Naderi’s first-half goal gave Derek McInnes’ side victory in the Scottish Premiership rematch and moved Rangers to within two points of Celtic at the top of the table ahead of the international break.
The result came just days after Rangers defeated Celtic 3-0 in the League Cup at Ibrox. O’Neill had already been facing mounting pressure following Celtic’s 3-1 defeat by Ferencvaros at Parkhead on Thursday night.
O’Neill, 74, is in his second spell as Celtic’s permanent manager after taking charge on an interim basis twice last season. He said he would use the coming days to assess his position and speak with the board.
“I genuinely will reflect and see,” O’Neill said. “It’s a matter of whether I can help the team. The manager is supposed to be able to do that. I will look at that this week.”
He added: “I think every single time something crops up and things don’t go so well, age plays a part. And, do you know what, they might be right. I’ll be 110 in two years’ time so it might be time to wrap it up.”
O’Neill said he would take a short break before deciding what comes next. “I will reflect on the games and speak to the board. You never know, they may well want to speak to me. I’ll try to get a couple of days away and see how it goes,” he said.
The Celtic manager accepted that supporters were entitled to voice their dissatisfaction and questioned whether he could turn the situation around.
“I think they’re absolutely entitled,” he said. “And I’m not immune from criticism. Far from it. Absolutely and utterly far from it.
“I think there’s every reason to ask, ‘can you turn this round? Can you change the whole thing?’ We are, as I said, two points clear, so I have to kind of look at the bigger picture at this minute.”
Criticism after another poor Celtic performance
O’Neill acknowledged that Celtic faced a significant challenge alongside Rangers and Hearts, insisting there was still a long season ahead. But former Celtic manager Neil Lennon said the team needed a complete reset after three poor performances in a week.
“Rangers were the far superior team, not just in physical attributes and running power, but football,” Lennon said. “They played all the football.”
He added: “Second half, totally disjointed, totally outplayed. Outworked, which is the worst thing you can label at a team. Really disjointed, battered, actually battered.
“Celtic have a lot to ponder and a lot to work out. They’ve got an international break, which is probably coming at a good time for them … but there needs to be a total reset because the last three performances in the space of a week have been very poor.”
Chris Sutton said he disagreed with O’Neill’s assessment that the Old Firm game had been close, arguing that Rangers had been superior throughout.
“There was a massive gulf between the teams,” Sutton said. “I can’t actually remember a Celtic team getting such a doing at Celtic Park from a Rangers team, which happened today.
“It looked like Celtic were making it up as they went along. Rangers were better in every department. Celtic have got big problems. They were smashed by Rangers and that’s a concern.”
