With two returns in the 2025/26 Scottish Premiership campaign, the domestic title trophy this year is going to go down to the wire as Celtic are just not giving up under legendary, and serial winning gaffer, Martin O’Neill.
Given the spell under former manager and bizarre appointment, Wilfried Nancy, we have simply lost too many games this season to be any closer to the top, and in not eeking out a few extra points by turning those defeats into more consistent draws, we remain three points off Heart of Midlothian who occupy top spot. However, we share 21 wins a piece with 31 matches played and we remain well placed after the second phase split to lift that all important trophy once again – and with games against the top two still to come it is in our hands and then we can look towards adding the Scottish Cup trophy to our campaign.
The question that remains outstanding as we head closer to the end of May, the summer off season, our preparations for what we all hope will be a less headline worthy campaign and fans begin to look for the best place to buy Premier League tickets, is simply who will our new gaffer be?
At 74 years old, taking caretaker and interim charge this year was one thing, but nobody expects the Northern Irishman to try and work his way through next year, and he should not. With it seeming that Robbie Keane was a favourite for a while, this last week the speculation rumour mill has brought Roberto Martinez back to the fore.
The 52 year old current Portugal international manager is said to be interested in returning to club football having joined the world stage back in 2016, initially as Belgian international boss, and Celtic would be an interesting prospect for him, particularly as we would expect to offer him the chance for a plethora of trophies and winners medals that he could add to his collection before he hangs up his managerial clip board.
Timing wise it may be problematic as he intends to see out his time with Portugal and will not entertain the possibility of leaving his position until they have competed at the upcoming World Cup in North America, however, as we look for a proper rebuild after the struggles that we have seen play out through this campaign, a more substantial and generous deal bringing him into Parkhead could be done – especially if better weighted towards sustained and consistent future European success given the financial riches and bonus that would again bring us.
We are unlikely to be the only suitor for him though, and an educated guess would say that he would want certain promises to be made when it came to transfer funds, before he was willing to commit and sign on the dotted line – but that applies to most, if not all, top level managers these days so should not be overly troublesome really.
With a Scottish wife and the obvious ties to Scotland, as well as having worked with current assistant gaffer Sean Maloney at Wigan Athletic and Belgium, it would all help get a deal over the line if he is of interest to us. Not long before we find out now.
