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The Football Show · 8 October 2026
Martin O'Neill must take back control of the team tactics at Celtic - Hugh MacDonald argues Celtic have a crisis of culture, with Sean Maloney, Steve McManus and Mark Fotheringham pulling in different directions and the team showing no discernible pattern of play. He says O'Neill, as manager, must assert control over how the team plays or risk losing his job.
"Listen, Shaun. Listen, Mark. Listen, Stephen. I'm picking the team." On The Journos, Peter Martin says Martin O'Neill has to take charge of how Celtic play and tell his coaches so, because "if he doesn't do that, he's going to get the bullet".
The panel start from O'Neill's decision to stay at Celtic: "whatever Martin O'Neill is, he's not daft". Is he crunching the numbers, or does he genuinely believe? Either way, the first job is clarity of purpose. The team shows no discernible patterns or routines, and Cameron Carter-Vickers, Liam Scales and Callum McGregor have been saying the same. The panel see a crisis of culture, with coaches Shaun Maloney, Stephen McManus and Mark Fotheringham probably advocating one style, O'Neill another, and a team "completely unrecognisable from the Celtic style that was there before".
Peter's verdict: the buck stops with the manager. He doesn't buy the fanzine and pub talk that Maloney is picking the team. O'Neill decides, and he has to set out his way from now to the end of the season.
Transcript:
And I think the soul-searching would have been a bit longer than that, because whatever Martin O'Neill is, he's not daft. He's one of the brightest people I've met in football, and there's a lot of bright people in football, and he's one of the sharpest intellectually I've ever met or talked to. So he knows what's at the centre of all this as well.
But hang on, if he's that intelligent, is he crunching the numbers here, or is he looking beyond and believing genuinely? What is he doing?
Only he can answer that. But one thing is for sure: the major thing that has to be sorted out immediately is clarity of purpose, because you watch that team and you watch them play, and there doesn't seem to be any discernible patterns or routines in that team. And it's not just me saying that. It's Carter-Vickers, it's Scales, it's Callum McGregor, and that's alarm bells. So what you've probably got is a crisis of culture in there, where Shaun Maloney and Stephen McManus and Mark Fotheringham are probably advocating one style, Martin's maybe advocating another, and then they're maybe deciding, you know, we can mix it up a wee bit, but we don't have to play all that way. But it's completely unrecognisable from the Celtic style that was there before. It just is.
The buck stops with the manager. It always does. He's got to turn around and say, listen, see this way, we're not doing it any more. I am going to tell you right now, I'm not going to be at training every day. I want you to lay out the cones, and I want them to play this way. And if we can't play this way, I want them to play that way. But you guys have had your say, if indeed... and I'm certainly not of the opinion, all the whispers in the background from fanzines, pub talk, the lot, that Maloney and all them are picking the team. Martin O'Neill is the manager. He decides. He's been out six years, but sooner or later he's got to turn around and say, "Listen, Shaun. Listen, Mark. Listen, Stephen. I'm picking the team, and this is what I want you to do with these boys." And then I'll walk onto that training ground and I will basically have a chat with individuals and say, this is our way now, from now to the end of the season. Because if he doesn't do that, he's going to get the bullet.
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