Celtic's Triumph and O’Neill's Return: A New Era Begins

The timestamp on the phone reads 4.47pm, May 16th. The place is Celtic Park. The figure in the distance, maybe 80 yards away, is unmistakable: Martin O’Neill, 74 years old, glasses on, retro tracksuit hanging just as it did two decades ago, playing in goal while his grandchildren toe-poke shots at him.

A grandfather in the sunshine, larking about in front of the Celtic end. A warm, almost homemade scene.

Scroll back on the camera roll and the contrast is jarring.

At 2.30pm, the same goalmouth is a different world. Callum Osmand has just rammed in Celtic’s third against Hearts to seal the Scottish Premiership title. The photograph barely finds him. He’s somewhere under a crush of green and white – players, staff, fans who have poured from the stands, some of them topless, all of them delirious.

Around them, the wreckage. Hearts players on their knees, others standing rigid, hands on heads, staring at the turf as if it might swallow them. Sixty-six years without a league title, three minutes from ending it, three minutes from history, three minutes from what 2026 would christen a Mayo moment.

Then Daizen Maeda tore it away.

Celtic lifting a 14th title in 15 seasons sounds routine on paper, the cold continuation of domestic dominance. It was nothing of the sort. Hearts’ improbable surge, Celtic’s Rodgers-O’Neill-Nancy-O’Neill managerial hopscotch, Rangers stumbling through another meandering campaign – all of it had dragged the league out of its predictable groove.

And in the middle of the chaos stood O’Neill, asked about “fairytales”, about the chance of a double in the Scottish Cup final against Dunfermline and Neil Lennon a week later, widely presumed to be his Celtic farewell.

Hearts players, confronted by the full, gloating force of title euphoria before a final whistle had even been heard, did not wait around. They left the stadium immediately, still in their kits. Celtic apologised formally the next day, a detail many have allowed to fade. O’Neill, though, was allowed to bask. He spoke of the title giving him “a reason to live”. There was even talk of a statue.

The story was not finished. Not for him.

Twenty-six days on, Celtic announced O’Neill as permanent manager on a one-year deal with an option for a second. Surprise mixed with delight, and with it came a familiar murmur of dismay at what looked like another short-term fix from a club that talks long-term but often behaves differently.

Celtic is a club that splits itself. Boardroom to terraces, optimism to anger, the lines are never far from the surface. No wonder O’Neill had leaned so heavily on unity in that title address.

Thirty-seven more days pass. Celtic return to Parkhead for the first time since the mayhem, a pre-season friendly against Middlesbrough. O’Neill, in his programme notes, nods to that “dramatic and thrilling” last occasion here.

The scene this time is quieter. The sun is still out. O’Neill is still in the tracksuit. But only about 6,000 Celtic supporters have turned up. Some blame holiday season, some the opposition, but the low crowd folds neatly into a wider story – a fanbase uneasy with the club’s direction.

Yet the same club reports that 99.5 per cent of season ticket holders have renewed. Disenchantment, yes. Disengagement, not yet.

On the pitch, other absences tell their own tale. Kelechi Iheanacho, whose controversial 90+9 penalty at Motherwell three days before the Hearts game had tilted the title race, is gone to Bursaspor in Turkey’s second tier after Celtic baulked at his wage demands. Maeda is on his way to Ipswich Town.

Brendan Rodgers has seen this film before. Kyogo Furuhashi, Nicolas Kühn, Adam Idah – names that echo in the minds of Celtic fans as they watch another attacking reshuffle. This is Glasgow; within a week, the rumour mill even throws up the suggestion that recruitment strategy has pushed O’Neill towards the exit.

Then Saturday arrives and there he is again, on the touchline, as more than 20,000 come through the gates to watch Celtic face AC Milan in their final pre-season friendly.

A new striker is on show. Camilo Duran, a Colombian brought in from Qarabag, scorer against Benfica in last season’s Champions League, and already off the mark with a neat finish against Middlesbrough. Three goals in three pre-season outings. A small sample, but a comforting one.

A few days later, another forward arrives. Kasper Høgh signs for around €13 million, close to the fee banked for Maeda. Høgh scored twice in Bodo/Glimt’s 3-1 Champions League win over Manchester City last season. If he and Duran can find that level in green and white, Dundee on Monday night should not terrify them, nor Kilmarnock, Falkirk, Aberdeen or St Mirren after that.

Upcoming Fixtures

• Dundee
• Kilmarnock
• Falkirk
• Aberdeen
• St Mirren

Those are Celtic’s first five league opponents. None finished in Scotland’s top five last season. It is as gentle an opening as a champion could ask for.

That cushion matters. In the middle of it sits a home-and-away Champions League qualifier next month, the kind of tie Celtic have managed to trip over before. Kairat Almaty last year still grates with Rodgers. Selling remains baked into the club’s economic model, and projected exits such as Arne Engels will not surprise anyone. The calculation, as ever, lies in how quickly and how well the money is turned back into a team.

If the balance is right, early momentum is there for them.

The mood now feels a long walk from last October, when Dermot Desmond spoke of a “toxic atmosphere” around the club. The scepticism has not vanished. It lingers in the questions about Europe, about whether this squad is built to compete or to prosper.

And all of this unfolds with a month of the transfer window still to run. The picture will move again.

Across the city, Rangers have been busier. They have to be. They cannot afford another season of drift. Hearts’ manager at Parkhead in May, Derek McInnes, is now in the Ibrox dugout. Hearts’ captain and goalscorer that day, Lawrence Shankland, has followed him. So has Cammy Devlin, the midfielder and Hearts’ player of the season.

A maroon core, imported to harden Rangers’ spine.

McInnes becomes the sixth permanent manager in five years, the third in 12 months. Russell Martin and Danny Röhl never settled into the role, never quite looked like Rangers managers in their brown brogues. McInnes does. Former player, steeped in the club, he fits the image.

The demands will not wait. Three of the last four seasons have yielded no trophies. He starts at Tannadice on Friday night and he will be expected to start fast.

His departure from Hearts has opened the door for Wouter Vrancken at Tynecastle. The Belgian has had two games, both defeats to Sturm Graz in a Champions League qualifier. Early days, but the task is stark: replace not just results but the raw energy that dragged so many neutral eyes towards Hearts last season.

They went the distance. They made Glasgow sweat. They forced Celtic to find something extra in stoppage time on a sunlit afternoon in May.

The calendar says the 2027 season will end on May 16th again. O’Neill’s grandchildren might want to circle the date. So might everyone else.