Martin O’Neill has attempted to shoot down a claim by Graham Spiers that Celtic were holding up the appointment of his coaching staff.
It is an explanation that requires a heavy pinch of salt.
As he is want to do O’Neill has taken the blame for the delay when suspicious eyes were staring in the direction of the Celtic boardroom.
Never before this century has the Celtic board been under greater scrutiny.
Everything moves at a snails pace inside the club. Hardly surprising when Michael Nicholson drains a salary as Chief Executive Officer.
In a meeting with fans last October Nicholson confirmed that transfer deals are emailed to Non Executive Directors for approval.
It is a set up that no genuine CEO would put up with. No competent business would employ Nicholson as CEO or pay him £17,000 a week.
From sacking Wilfried Nancy on January 5 Celtic made no inroads to appointing a successor.
They hoped that interim boss O’Neill would stay on, allow the board to kick the decision further down the road.
Shaun Maloney and Mark Fotheringham were essential to Celtic’s double success.
From the moment that the Scottish Cup was won work should have been underway towards planning for season 26/27.
Fotheringham was out of work. Maloney reverted back to being the Professional Pathway Manager.
O’NEILL WATCHES TIME SLIPPING AWAY FROM THE BADLY NEEDED CELTIC REBUILD
From May 24 to June 26 the Celtic backroom staff consisted of Gavin Strachan who was working on a move to West Brom.
Fans were concerned about the lack of purpose and direction. A month was wasted.
It was very easy to blame Nicholson.
Typically O’Neill has decided to protect his CEO, blaming himself for the delay in appointing his trusted assistants. Not every fan will accept his explanation.
The Daily Record reports O’Neill saying:
All this thing about the backroom staff, that is totally down to me delaying, seriously.
That’s the point. So it was my fault as much as anything else because there were roles going elsewhere.
If a new manager were to step into the football club, obviously he’d want his own staff and things like that.
It was my delaying to see whether I wanted to do it or not, that was one of the reasons.
He knew exactly who he was dealing with, it’s on him! He’s known Desmond for years & knows the stranglehold he has on the club, I wont have any sympathy for the Martin’s been let down angle, if he cared about Maloney & Fotheringham he shouldn’t have signed his deal without them
— Derek Turner (@DerekTu06950845) June 24, 2026
Spiers had claimed
I will hazard this guess…that O’Neill is deeply frustrated by the goings-on at Celtic this summer, to a point of near-despair.
Shaun Maloney and Mark Fotheringham, his two trusted assistants, both highly valued by O’Neill, were asked to come back and take up the reins on reduced terms.
This is quite the temerity by Celtic, to ask the men who helped land last season’s unlikely Double, to come back on wage-cuts. It also seems to me a sheer disrespect for O’Neill, the architect of Celtic’s most recent success, to treat his valued assistants in this way.
Spiers has been the journalist closest to O’Neill for more than 20 years. He regularly hosts ‘An Evening With Martin O’Neill’ sharing tales from the past.
O’Neill’s explanation today is stretching things too far.
THE TIMELINE AS CELTIC WAITED AND WAITED ON MALONEY AND FOTHERINGHAM DEALS
Celtic’s media messengers got the story on June 5 that O’Neill was continuing as Celtic manager.
On June 11 the club confirmed O’Neill as manager but tellingly there was no word on his coaching/backroom staff.
On June 24, three days before Celtic restarted pre-season training Spiers shone some light on the issues delaying the appointment of the backroom team.
With his massively increased workload Maloney was looking for a salary in line with the expectations on him.
Watching the match against Shelbourne it was Maloney talking tactics to the players during the two water breaks.
Finally at 8.30am on the day Celtic returned to training the club announced that Maloney, Fotheringham and Stephen McManus would be part of the coaching team.
New job titles were used in the brief announcement. Two days later Celtic announced that Ross Grant was joining the coaching team from Hearts.
Having delayed the appointment of O’Neill then his assistants Celtic are now struggling against time to rebuild their squad.
It took until July 4 to announce a new contract for Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain.
Tonight O’Neill’s has announced that he was still in talks and hoping to secure new deals for Kelechi Iheanacho and Marcelo Saracchi.
Deals for the Ox, Iheanacho and Saracchi could have been tied up weeks ago. They could have been at pre-season training on June 27.
Almost two weeks have been wasted.
O’NEILL TAKES DEFENDING NICHOLSON TOO FAR
O’Neill seems to delight in shielding a dysfunctional club from scrutiny and criticism.
As Brendan Rodgers discovered corporate Celtic won’t hesitate to blame their manager when things go wrong. Even a manager that delivers 11 out of 3 trophies and 12 Champions League points.
Many Celtic fans will be concerned by the extent O’Neill will go to deflect valid criticism away from an infrastructure that has barely changed or been upgraded in the last 20 years.
It will be no surprise whatsoever if Spiers is hosting ‘An Evening With Martin O’Neill’ at some future date.
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