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The Football Show · 17 September 2026
Celtic 1-3 Ferencváros: Peter Martin assesses a miserable week for Celtic after a 1-3 home defeat to Ferencvaros in the Europa League, another European embarrassment at Celtic Park. He argues Celtic spent no money in the summer, do not have a good back line, and were undone by a disjointed midfield and a toothless front line.
Why are Celtic struggling?
From a "car-crash" manager's interview to conceding twice inside a couple of minutes and a screamer from former Celtic player Arzani, Peter breaks down a grim night, with 35-year-old James Forrest their best player. He questions the board's ambition, the recruitment, and whether Martin O'Neill should have walked away with legendary status after delivering the title.
What is next for Celtic?
It doesn't get easier: Rangers at Celtic Park in the Old Firm, Hearts and Motherwell in the league, Benfica away, plus Celta Vigo and Besiktas still to come in the Europa League. On this evidence, Celtic's misery looks set to continue.
Ferencvaros ran out winners, another embarrassment at home, this time in the Europa League for Celtic. And there's no point in going back over what happened in the summer: Celtic have spent no money in the recruitment process. Good teams are built from the back, and Celtic do not have a good back line.
The whole thing started off with a car-crash interview from the manager with one of the TNT Sports reporters, and then from there the side came out and it just went from bad to worse: going a goal behind, getting a goal back, and then, just over 100 seconds later, conceding another to go 2-1 down. And then, as if to add insult to injury, a former Celtic player, Arzani, scored an absolute raker into the roof of the net.
It's perhaps a fair indication of where Celtic are that the best player they had over 50 minutes of that match was a 35-year-old stalwart in James Forrest. But other than that, the back line is so poor, the midfield is disjointed, and the front line is toothless at the moment and lacking in major confidence.
And it doesn't really hold any great confidence for Celtic fans to know that on the horizon is Rangers. They also have Hearts and Motherwell coming up in the league, and let's not forget Benfica away, and they'll also have to deal with Celta Vigo and Besiktas in this Europa League as well.
So, grim times. You can look and assess the damage and wonder if Rangers can come to Celtic Park and give them the most miserable of weeks. But on the evidence of tonight, Celtic's misery continues. They are going down while the profits continue to go up. You can make of it what you will, but this Celtic side...
You only have to look back at February 18th, I think it was, in 2025, when they'd already sold a player prior to the game against Bayern Munich, and Brendan Rodgers' side played some scintillating football against Bayern Munich in the Allianz Arena. But from there, it's just been a downward slide. This board has no ambition. And in this year of all years, going into 2027 and the 60th anniversary of the Lisbon Lions, the Lisbon Lions, with Jock Stein, had ambition. This Celtic side is left with no real ambition, and you can tell by the way they're playing that they don't have any real confidence at the moment as well.
Something's got to change. Martin O'Neill, I think, should have maybe left after he delivered the title on the last day of the season against Hearts. He should have said thank you, left with legendary status. But right now he's looking as if he's a manager haunted by the lack of quality that he has at his disposal.
Another embarrassing night for Celtic at Celtic Park in the Europa League, and there could be more to come. Celtic one, Ferencvaros three.
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