Simon Jordan Urges Martin O'Neill to Show More Fight
Simon Jordan has called on Martin O'Neill to show more fight after the Celtic manager publicly questioned whether he should stay in the job following a damaging run of results.
Celtic have just endured a grim seven days. Three games, three defeats. Two of them to Rangers. The mood around the Scottish champions has turned sharply.
It started with a bruising 3-0 loss at Ibrox in the Scottish League Cup quarter-final, Rangers sweeping them aside and booking their place in the last four. Celtic then stumbled again at home, beaten 1-0 by their city rivals in the league at Celtic Park, a result that snapped their perfect start to the Premiership campaign.
The European stage brought no relief. Wedged between those Old Firm setbacks came a 2-0 defeat to Ferencvaros in their Europa League opener, a flat performance that deepened the sense of unease.
The numbers are stark. O'Neill’s team have now lost four matches in all competitions this season, already level with the total number of defeats they suffered across 35 games last term. The contrast with the control and momentum of last season is impossible to ignore.
O'Neill, 74, returned to Celtic in January as caretaker and promptly delivered a Scottish Premiership and Scottish Cup double, earning himself a one-year deal in June. That contract was framed as a reward and a reset, a chance for one of the club’s most iconic managers to steady the ship and push again.
Now, only a few months on, he is openly wondering if he is still the right man to lead them.
After the latest loss to Rangers, O'Neill admitted he would step back and consider his position.
"I genuinely will reflect and see," he said. "It's a matter of whether I can help the team. If that's the case – the manager's supposed to be able to do that. I will have a look at that there this week."
Those words jarred with Simon Jordan. The former Crystal Palace chairman expected something very different from a figure as seasoned and combative as O'Neill.
Jordan told talkSPORT he wanted to hear defiance, not doubt.
"I've liked to see him being a bit spikier and a bit more robust, rather than sounding relatively defeated in that clip," Jordan said.
"I certainly would have been wanting to say back to them, 'This has happened, it will not happen again.'
For Jordan, the tone was as concerning as the results. The idea of O'Neill questioning whether it is "his time" struck him as out of character.
"The fact that he's talking about whether he can help the team and whether it's his time – I find that slightly strange of Martin, but he's having a reflective moment."
Celtic now sit at a crossroads: a veteran manager weighing up his future, a fanbase rattled by a brutal week, and a season that suddenly feels far more fragile than it did just a fortnight ago.
