Celtic's Alarming Slide Under Martin O'Neill

Celtic’s slide under Martin O’Neill has gone from worrying to alarming in the space of a week. For a support that treats O’Neill almost as a sacred figure, questioning his ability to drag them out of this mess feels close to heresy. But with every game, keeping the faith gets harder.

Days after being taken apart at Ibrox, Celtic were humbled again, this time by Ferencvaros in their Europa League opener. Another heavy loss. Another three goals shipped. Another night of basics gone missing.

The performance was riddled with the same old failings. Midfielders switching off. Defenders drifting out of position. Caution on the ball where there should have been conviction. Pass-and-move football reduced to pass-and-hope. The tempo was flat, the work-rate short, the belief almost non-existent.

At 3-1 down, Celtic tried to rouse themselves. They fired from distance, had the odd spell of pressure, but nothing that resembled a coordinated surge. No waves of pressing, no quick interchanges, no sense that Ferencvaros were being dragged into uncomfortable areas.

Supporters know what this team is supposed to look like. Under Ange Postecoglou, Celtic were relentless and inventive, a blur of movement and aggression, forever stretching defences and playing on the edge. This version is a ghost of that side.

Echoes of darker European nights

The concern isn’t just Thursday night. It’s the pattern. Five goals conceded to LASK. A bruising, one-sided Old Firm defeat at Ibrox. Now this.

At times against Ferencvaros, the football carried an ugly familiarity. Flashbacks to Cluj and Copenhagen in 2019 and 2020. Memories of Sparta Prague in 2020. Legia Warsaw, Salzburg, Maribor. The kind of European nights Celtic fans thought they had left behind.

The atmosphere told its own story. Low energy on the pitch, high volume in the stands – and not in a good way. Boos rained down. The picture was of a team with no answers and a crowd that knew it.

O’Neill’s post-match words did little to shift the mood. He spoke of frustration, failure and psychological damage, of how these moments test a squad’s resolve. He promised Celtic would “get ourselves together” for Rangers on Sunday, but his delivery was flat, his demeanour weary.

He listed the team’s shortcomings, but there was no sense of a clear plan or a spark of defiance. His tone matched his side: leaden, stale, dispiriting.

This is the same manager who, across his first spell and his dramatic return last season, restored order to chaos. He rebuilt confidence, gave Celtic a hard edge, turned them into a side that simply refused to lose when the title was on the line. They were not always pretty, but they were stubborn and streetwise.

That resilience feels distant now.

Soft goals, soft centre

The night had started reasonably well. Celtic moved the ball, saw plenty of it, and for a spell looked in control. Then they conceded a soft opener. They clawed their way back with a flash of quality, only to sink straight back into bad habits.

Sideways passes. Safety first. Little urgency. Only flickers of emotion.

The second goal, just before half-time, was the sort of concession that exposes a fragile team. First, nobody attacked the loose ball. Then came weak resistance on the flank as the cross was allowed. Finally, confusion and poor organisation in the middle as Ferencvaros punished them.

The numbers underlined the frustration. Celtic had 62.5% of the ball in the first half, yet trailed 2-1. Their central striker, Camilo Duran, preferred through the middle ahead of Kasper Hogh, managed just eight touches before the break.

Duran, so vibrant and enthusiastic when he first arrived in Glasgow, now looks drained of that early spark. A shadow of the player who lit up his first few outings.

Behind him, Hogh’s situation is becoming a problem. Signed for £11m, a forward who scored against Man City, Atletico Madrid, Inter Milan, Sporting, Porto, Jagiellonia and Olympiacos during his Bodo/Glimt days now looks like a different footballer entirely. His touch is heavy, his movement uncertain, and he is starved of any meaningful service.

One goal in eight games as a Celtic player tells its own story. O’Neill has not yet found a way to unlock the striker the club thought they were buying.

Even Callum McGregor, the constant, the captain, looks adrift. The man who normally knits everything together is struggling to impose himself. If McGregor is unsure, the whole team feels it.

O’Neill has the experience and tactical nous to change this. He has done it before. But right now, he does not look or sound like a man brimming with conviction.

Arzani’s strike twists the knife

On a night when everything seemed to be going wrong for Celtic, it felt almost inevitable that Daniel Arzani would appear to haunt them. The winger, who passed through Parkhead years ago without leaving much of a mark, stepped into the spotlight with the kind of moment Celtic badly lack.

His goal was a punch to the gut. Ferencvaros broke at speed, slicing through Celtic with embarrassing ease. The disarray at the back would have shamed a slapstick routine.

Colby Donovan, having pushed too high, was left sprinting desperately to recover as Arzani drifted into acres of space on the left. The Australian took his time, picked his spot and whipped a stunning finish into the top corner. Clinical. Simple. Brutal.

It summed up the gulf in clarity and confidence.

Celtic, by contrast, look drained of ideas and edge. They lack conviction in possession, composure under pressure, physical presence in duels, creativity in the final third and, perhaps most damningly, the stomach for a scrap.

O’Neill himself appears short on inspiration. His career has been built on comebacks and revivals, on turning troubled squads into hardened winners. Instinct says he can do it again. The evidence of recent weeks says there is a mountain to climb.

McGregor admitted the team is “a little bit broken” at the moment. That is an honest assessment – and a worrying one.

Rangers, watching all of this, will sense vulnerability. They go to Celtic Park on Sunday knowing they have already inflicted one heavy blow and with the chance to land another. Wounded animals can be dangerous, but only if they still have fight left in them.

Soon enough, we’ll find out exactly how much resistance remains in this Celtic side – and what kind of grip O’Neill still has on this season.