Whatever happens at Easter Road today, common consensus is that the return of Martin O’Neill to Celtic Park as interim manager has been a success.
It felt a bit nutty bringing in a 73-year-old who hadn’t coached for six years to steady the ship following the toxic departure of Brendan Rodgers, but it has undoubtedly worked.
The relationship between board and supporters may be as bad as ever, but, at least on the footballing side of things, life is considerably more stable ahead of the great handover to incoming head coach Wilfried Nancy.
Results have improved, the gap between Celtic and Hearts at the top of the Premiership has been reduced, the team is in the Premier Sports Cup final thanks to a win over Rangers — albeit a controversial one — in the last four and Thursday’s outstanding win at Feyenoord has retained a degree of interest and hope in the Europa League at least.
By anyone’s measure, it has been a job well done, against the odds, and it is easy to see why there is now a push to keep the Northern Irishman — with his knowledge, experience and feel for the club — on at Parkhead in some shape or form.
Is that really what O’Neill or Celtic need right now, though?
Martin O’Neill will lead Celtic for one final time against Hibernian at Easter Road this afternoon
The veteran boss has had a dramatic impact and has changed the mood music around Celtic
Columbus Crew manager Wilfried Nancy is expected to be appointed as the new Celtic boss
Perhaps O’Neill, based down south with wife Geraldine, could be considered for some kind of honorary role. Talk of him becoming director of football or replacing Peter Lawwell as chairman, however, feels like a step too far.
Celtic need new ideas at boardroom level. Fresh thinking. A fresh direction. If they are going to go down the road of a director of football — and that’s far from certain, considering they still have the mysterious Paul Tisdale in situ as head of football operations — it figures that they should go for someone up to speed with modern developments and modern thinking in the professional game.
That, for all his positives, is not O’Neill. He has tried to be a unifying force at the club during his short time back at the helm, but the issues between fanbase and management look too deep-rooted at the moment.
O’Neill is close to major shareholder Dermot Desmond and, although his character suggests he would never be a ‘yes man’ to anyone, staying on in some kind of boardroom role runs the risk of him being caught in the crossfire.
No matter your background as boss, becoming the chairman, for example, is a different kettle of fish. The circumstances were considerably different with Rangers all over the shop from top to bottom as an organisation, but it didn’t work well for Walter Smith across the city back in 2013.
Less than three months after agreeing to sign up as the figurehead of the boardroom, he resigned because of the in-fighting in the place. It didn’t damage the way he was — and is — regarded by supporters, but it was a move he should never have been talked into.
O’Neill has been tipped for another role but must surely consider waving goodbye for good
O’Neill’s love for the game is clear. It looks like it burns as brightly as ever. It’s easy to see why he might be interested in accepting something, anything, to stay involved.
Yet, from the outside, this looks like a perfect time for him to sail into the sunset.
He hasn’t just preserved his legacy at Celtic over the past month or so. Quite unbelievably, he has enhanced it.
He has brought calm and humour and, most importantly, victories to a footballing operation that was spinning off its axis under Rodgers.
He couldn’t be regarded in a better light by the rank and file of the Celtic support than he is right now. And tempting as a role that wouldn’t really fit his skillset, wouldn’t see him hopping up and down on the touchline in a vintage-design trackie, might be, that feels like a pretty good way to leave it.
