MARTIN O'NEILL has said his aim is to win football matches with the hope of unifying the club as he prepares to take charge of his first game in his second spell as Celtic manager.
Speaking to the media on Tuesday afternoon, the 73-year-old stressed the role was a short-term appointment after succeeding Brendan Rodgers, even quipping he himself could be replaced by Thursday if Celtic fail to beat Falkirk tonight.
However, there were not many other moments of mirth during what was a dramatic 24 hours for Celtic, with O'Neill's new assistant Shaun Maloney saying after taking his first training session on Tuesday that it had been a 'traumatic day'.
O'Neill, who re-established Celtic as a dominant force in Scottish football after years in the doldrums following his appointment in 2000, said results will be key to unifying the club, with fans increasingly critical of the board over a perceived lack of ambition and investment.
"It's the easiest thing in the world to say that when a club is successful, it has everybody going in the same direction," said the Co. Derry native.
"That doesn't seem to be the case at this moment, so really that's it.
"Whether I'm able to do that or not is in the lap of the gods but winning football matches has aways been the main contributor to fans and the club being together, so that would be it, winning football matches."
Desmond's explosive statement
So how did we get here with a side that narrowly missed out on a treble and pushed Bayern Munich all the way in the Champions League knockout phase play-offs last season?
The board has taken the lion's share of fans' criticism after a meek start to the season that has seen a goal-shy Celtic fall eight points behind Hearts and exit the Champions League at the qualifying play-off stage to Kairat Almaty.
Some supporters blamed a lack of investment and the quality of players recruited in the summer as the reason, with the club accepting it 'did not meet some its objectives' during a meeting with fan groups earlier this month.
Rodgers himself had expressed his disappointment with the tools at his disposal, most infamously after the 2-0 defeat to Dundee when he compared the players to a Honda Civic that he was expected to drive like a Ferrari.
Sunday's 3-1 defeat to Hearts was a further blow to supporters and while patience might have been wearing thin with the players and manager, many would still have had the board on the hook for the downturn.
Certainly, not many could claim to have foreseen Rodgers' resignation 24 hours later and the subsequent events.
Dermot Desmond, Celtic’s largest shareholder and a Non-Executive Director, pictured centre with Chairman Peter Lawwell, left, and CEO Michael Nicholson, right (Image: Ian MacNicol / Getty Images)Within minutes of the club's official announcement of Rodgers' departure on Monday night, largest shareholder Dermot Desmond issued a scathing statement.
The taciturn, rarely-seen Irishman said Rodgers' 'conduct and communication in recent months have not reflected' the trust placed in him.
He said claims from Rodgers that there had been no commitment to extend his contract were 'simply untrue' and added that the Co. Antrim native was unable to back up recent public claims of a lack of support with any facts during a three-hour meeting.
"Every player signed and every player sold during his tenure was done so with Brendan's full knowledge, approval and endorsement. Any insinuation otherwise is absolutely false," said Desmond.
"His later public statements about transfers and club operations came entirely out of the blue.
"At no point prior to those remarks had he raised any such concerns with me, Michael [Nicholson, CEO], or any member of the Board or executive team.
"In reality, he was given final say over all football matters and was consistently backed in the recruitment process — including record investment in players he personally identified and approved."
Desmond added: "Regrettably, his words and actions since then have been divisive, misleading and self-serving.
"They have contributed to a toxic atmosphere around the club and fuelled hostility towards members of the executive team and the Board.
"Some of the abuse directed at them, and at their families, has been entirely unwarranted and unacceptable."
Rodgers has yet to respond to the statement.
A case for Rodgers?
So, did Rodgers genuinely feel unsupported by the board or was he, as Desmond says, happy with the system, only turning the blame elsewhere when the performances and results he is responsible for started to falter?
Rodgers should certainly have been capable of much more with his under-fire squad, valued at more than €130m by Transfermarkt compared to Hearts' squad of less than €19m.
However, with Hearts unearthing some quality signings in the form of €500,000 Claudio Braga and free agent Alexandros Kyziridis, questions should rightly be asked of the scouting structure at Celtic, with so many new arrivals underperforming.
The system in place also failed to act swiftly, with four signings arriving in the final few days of the window (after it, in the case of free agent Kelechi Iheanacho) after Celtic had exited the Champions League.
And if Rodgers approved and endorsed all transfers, why are so many of them sitting on the bench or not even in the squad?
Some fans have accused the manager of stubbornly showing faith in long-serving players who have under-performed this season but with injuries racking up and results spiralling down, surely he would turn more regularly to those new arrivals, even if they are not yet up to speed.
Brendan Rodgers and Benjamin Nygren, one of the few new arrivals to appear regularly this season (Image: Alan Harvey/SNS Group via Getty Images)Only two — Sebastian Tounekti and Benjamin Nygren — started against Hearts with Rodgers fielding youngsters Colby Donovan, Dane Murray and Johnny Kenny, while Shin Yamada, Hayato Inamura and Jamal Simpson-Pussey have made a combined two starts and seven total appearances between them.
As for record investment, the club may have spent big in Rodgers' first season on some players yet to fully convince the fans, including record signing Arne Engels, Auston Trusty and the already-departed Adam Idah, as well as the returning Jota.
However, this summer's reported €15m outlay was very much in a different market, while all the incomings under Rodgers come against the backdrop of the sale of key players Matt O'Riley, Kyogo Furuhashi and Nicolas Kühn over the past 15 months.
Desmond also claimed that 'every pound generated by the club is reinvested towards… the continuous improvement of Celtic'.
That will certainly raise an eyebrow with fans after the club revealed last month it had £77m in the bank.
Legacy of Euro woe
Desmond also claimed that the club structure 'has served the club with great success for more than two decades' but this does not reflect repeated failures in Europe, and not just under Rodgers.
In that time, Celtic have been knocked out before the Champions League group stages by Artmedia Bratislava (under Gordon Strachan), Maribor (Ronny Deila), Malmo (Deila), AEK Athens (Rodgers), Cluj (Neil Lennon), Ferencvaros (Lennon), Midtjylland (Ange Postecoglou) and Kairat (Rodgers).
The 2014/15 Maribor exit also came after Celtic lost to Legia Warsaw in the previous qualifying round only to win a reprieve after Legia fielded an ineligible player.
There were also humbling Europa League play-off defeats to Utrecht and Sion, the latter similarly overturned after the Swiss side fielded ineligible players.
The fact is that since 2018/19, in all five of the Champions League campaigns in which Celtic didn't automatically qualify for the group/league stage, they failed to qualify every single time under three different managers.
You can change the manager but the constant each time during those repeated European disasters was Desmond's much-vaunted club structure.
Can O'Neill halt the slide?
So where does all this leave O'Neill?
A septuagenarian who hasn't managed in six years would have infuriated the fans further if it had been anyone other than O'Neill.
He arrived for his first spell in 2000 with Celtic having won just one title in the previous 12 seasons and five trophies in total in that time.
He was faced with a monumental task, with Celtic having finished 21 points behind Rangers the previous season but O'Neill claimed a domestic treble in his debut campaign, the club's first since 1969, stopping Rangers' 10-in-a-row bid in the process.
Four more trophies, including two titles, following over the next four years, with Celtic missing out by just a goal and a point respectively in the two seasons they failed to win the league.
He also led Celtic to a UEFA Cup final, losing to Jose Mourinho's Porto, who would win the Champions League the following season.
Both the board and the fans are happy with the appointment, so there is at least unity on that front but will O'Neill be able to whip an under-fire squad into shape and what fate awaits him and the club if he can't?
In his first spell, O'Neill was blessed with healthy finances to complement a side with existing talent (Image: Jamie McDonald / Getty Images)In his first season 25 years ago, O'Neill was able spend around £20m on players of the calibre of Chris Sutton, Lennon, Alan Thompson and Joos Valgaeren, complementing existing quality such as Henrik Larsson, Stiliyan Petrov, Lubomir Moravcik and Paul Lambert.
In their prime, all of those would walk into the current team, so with a lack of such quality currently, the onus will be on O'Neill's managerial skills to get the best out of this current crop.
He has previously had success on limited resources, winning promotions and trophies with unfashionable Wycombe Wanderers and Leicester City before his move to Celtic.
After leaving the Hoops, he led Aston Villa to two consecutive top-six finishes, ironically quitting following a reported disagreement with the board over transfer funds.
He later had solid if unspectacular spells with Sunderland and Nottingham Forest either side of managing the Ireland national team, qualifying for Euro 2016 and leading the side to the last-16 as well as reaching the play-offs for the 2018 World Cup.
With two consecutive home games in the league either side of a League Cup semi-final against Rangers and a Europa League tie against Midtjylland, O'Neill is well-placed to at least revive the league campaign.
He said on Tuesday he believes he has inherited a good team that is struggling with injuries and a lack of confidence.
"They are a good side and just are not used to losing some football matches so maybe a little bit confidence has been lost but the players are really decent players," he said.
"I really am genuinely looking forward to working with them."
However, he knows that any stock he has with fans — and by extension the board — will dissipate if he doesn't hit the ground running until a long-term successor is found.
"Obviously I want to try and win the game, which is the most important thing," he added.
"If there is some sort of clapping for me, I'm well aware in this game that lasts about 15 minutes so at the end of the day, you have to win and that's what we have to do.
"Celtic has always had that DNA… they have to win."
O'Neill at least understands the job in hand; a Falkirk side that has scored as many goals as the Hoops this season stands in the way of him making a winning start to that task at Celtic Park this evening.
See More: Brendan Rodgers, Celtic, Martin O'Neill
