Celtic's Struggles Continue Amidst Uncertainty
Celtic’s unraveling feels sudden. It isn’t.
The 3-1 defeat by Ferencvaros in their Europa League opener was not a freak bad night in Europe. It was the latest chapter in a slide that has stripped away the certainty that once surrounded Martin O’Neill. For a support that has long treated his resilience as a given, faith is now being stretched thin.
Four days after being taken apart at Ibrox, Celtic shipped three more goals, looked soft again in midfield, and defended as if the basics were optional. Pass and move? Sporadic. Intensity? Flickers. Work-rate, conviction, accuracy on the ball? Nowhere near the standard of a team with serious European or domestic ambitions.
At 3-1 down, they tried to rouse themselves. Shots flew in from distance, hopeful rather than planned, the product of frustration rather than structure. The tempo never truly lifted. The press never really bit. The best Celtic sides of recent years used to suffocate teams; this one lets them breathe, and then lets them play.
Under Ange Postecoglou, Celtic’s identity was unmistakable. Aggression. Imagination. Relentless pace. Forwards and wingers dragged defenders into places they hated. Risk was embraced, not feared. What O’Neill is overseeing right now feels like a faded photocopy of that era – all the outlines, none of the colour.
O’Neill’s words match the mood
Scottish football can flip on its head in a week, and Sunday’s Old Firm sequel at Celtic Park still carries its own uncertainty. Home advantage, wounded pride, and the sheer necessity of a response make it hard to write Celtic off.
But the evidence is piling up. Five goals conceded against LASK. A grim experience at Ibrox. Now this European setback, complete with echoes of some of the club’s darkest continental nights.
There were flashbacks everywhere. Cluj and Copenhagen in 2019 and 2020. Sparta Prague in 2020. Names like Bayo, Bolingoli, Klimala, Ajeti, Duffy and Laxalt linger in the memory as symbols of drift and disarray. The performance against Ferencvaros sat neatly in that lineage: flat energy, loud boos, and a team that looked bereft of ideas.
O’Neill fronted up afterwards. He spoke of frustration, failure, and the psychological damage that nights like this inflict. He vowed to “get ourselves together” for Rangers. But his delivery was subdued, his tone weary. He listed Celtic’s shortcomings, yet never sounded like a man brimming with solutions.
For a manager who has built a career on fixing problems – from his trophy-laden first spell to the way he dragged last season’s chaos into order – it was jarring. The personality that once made Celtic combative and obstinate has lost some of its edge. Not long ago they were ugly to play against and almost impossible to beat on the title run-in. That ferocity now feels distant.
Possession without purpose
The night actually started reasonably well. Celtic had the ball, moved it around, and seemed in control. Then they conceded a soft goal. They clawed their way back with a flash of quality, only to retreat into the same timid patterns that have become their undoing.
Safe passes replaced ambition. The spark faded. Fire and emotion flickered but never burned.
The second Ferencvaros goal, just before half-time, was the kind that poor sides concede. Hesitation at the loose ball. Weak resistance to the cross. Confusion and disorganisation at the finish. Celtic dominated the ball – 62.5% possession in the first half – and still trailed 2-1.
Up front, the numbers told their own story. Camilo Duran, preferred through the middle to Kasper Hogh, had just eight touches in that opening period. He was in his favoured role but barely influenced the game. The forward who arrived in Glasgow full of zest and enthusiasm now looks a shadow of that player.
Hogh’s situation is just as troubling. This is a striker who scored against Man City (twice), Atletico Madrid, Inter Milan, Sporting, Porto, Jagiellonia and Olympiacos (three times) for Bodo Glimt. At Celtic, he looks awkward, his first touch unreliable, starved of chances. One scoring appearance in eight games is a brutal return for an £11m signing. O’Neill has not yet found a way to unlock him.
Even Callum McGregor, the heartbeat and standard-bearer, is drifting. The captain’s influence has dulled, his certainty dimmed. O’Neill has the experience to address it, but the clock is ticking, and his current demeanour hardly screams conviction.
Old faces, new pain
If there was a script Celtic fans feared, it involved Daniel Arzani scoring against them. Football obliged.
Arzani, a former Celtic player whose time at the club passed in a blur of unfulfilled promise, found himself in acres of space on the left after a brutal counter-attack. Colby Donovan had over-committed in attack and was left sprinting desperately to recover. He never got close.
Arzani waited, picked his moment, and whipped a stunning shot into the top corner. It was clinical, almost casual. The move exposed Celtic so badly that the comparison to the Keystone Cops did not feel exaggerated. Organisation vanished. Shape disintegrated. Ferencvaros did not need a second invitation.
By the final whistle, the checklist of what Celtic lack was damning. Ideas. Conviction. Composure. Physical presence. Psychological strength. Creativity. Ruthlessness. Above all, the stomach for a fight.
The manager does not look immune to it. O’Neill has rebounded from difficult spells before, enough times that there’s a tendency to assume he will again. This, though, is a substantial repair job. The squad is not just underperforming; it looks, in McGregor’s own words, “a little bit broken”.
Rangers will have watched it all with interest. A wounded rival is still a dangerous one, and the old warning about provoking a backlash will echo around Ibrox. But the opportunity is clear. Another blow on Sunday and the narrative of this season in Glasgow could tilt sharply.
Celtic Park will demand a response. The question is whether O’Neill and his players can find one – or whether this week marks the point where doubt about their direction hardens into something far more serious.
