Celtic pull Martin O’Neill out of media activities

Celtic have decided to take Martin O’Neill out of media contact.

The hoops boss has spoken regularly to the Daily Record, Sun and Herald over the last 10 days.

Increasingly his views have worried and angered the Celtic support.

O’Neill’s reappointment as manager had most fans thinking that he had agreed to the job with guarantees over transfer activity.

Absolutely not. O’Neill 2026 sounded nothing like O’Neill 2000 when he admitted that he hadn’t put in any demands for support in the transfer market.

O’Neill is happy to put his trust in Dermot Desmond. The man that he wrongly refers to as ‘the owner’.

Asked about seeking assurances over transfer activity Celtic’s media partners the Daily Record reports O’Neill saying:

No, I didn’t. I didn’t put anything at all. I just hope that we can do some business at the end of it all. But no, I didn’t put any assurances.

I can’t turn around and say, ‘By the way, you need to get me 12 players, and if you only get 10, then you’ve broken the trust or something.’ No, not necessarily.

Maybe it’s the fact that I know the owner of the football club for some time and I genuinely believe that he will come up and help when trying to get things over the line, let me put it that way.

Relying on an elderly businessman on a distant golf course to get things over the line is a ridiculously risky policy. Assuming that Celtic can get recruitment off the starting line.

It is why club’s employ a Chief Executive Officer. And even pay them £17,000 a week.

Unfortunately Celtic have Michael Nicholson in that role.

O’NEILL LOOKS ON AS NICHOLSON ADMITS AND EXPOSES HIS FAILINGS

Since O’Neill revealed those details things have gone very badly for the Celtic CEO.

His confession that he can’t cope with agents has gone public.

The easy transfer targets of Kelechi Iheanacho and Marcelo Saracchi have finally decided to go elsewhere. There is only so much low-balling a professional footballer can take.

A perfect storm was brewing ahead of Celtic’s glamour friendly against Middlesbrough.

Rather than sending O’Neill out to defend his blind faith in the useless CEO Celtic gave their manager a break from media duty.

Vil Sinisalo was put up for the media.

Unfortunately the Finnish goalkeeper is prone to tell the truth. In May 2025 Sinisalo revealed that more than 30 missiles were thrown at him at Ibrox including a glass bottle.

O’Neill still hasn’t formally been introduced as Celtic manager. That allows Nicholson to remain hiding in his office.

On the back of a domestic double the manager was nowhere to be seen. The first home match following the dramatic 3-1 win over Hearts. An iconic figure committed to a season in the dug-out. Zilch. Nada. Zero. Not even on the club website.

His appointment as manager was leaked to the Daily Record, Sun and Herald on June 5 at 5pm.

The formal announcement came on June 11 as speculation mounted about Shaun Maloney and Mark Fotheringham. There was no video interview with club media.

HOW CELTIC LET THE CLOSE SEASON PASS THEM BY

On June 27 O’Neill gave an interview with Celtic TV that was as dull and bland as Gerry McCulloch.

Since then there has been a number of interviews with the Record, Sun and Herald. Delivering increasingly dangerous/alarming comments.

The Scottish Cup Final win was eight weeks ago. Few fans would have guessed that Celtic would start the new season even weaker.

Successive landmarks have been missed.

It took 19 days to appoint O’Neill as manager. More than a month to appoint his assistants Maloney and Fotheringham.

No new signings were made for the first day of pre-season training. Or the first pre-season friendly on July 7.

Camilo Duran was announced as a signing on July 10. The previous day he was being pictured with Celtic fans wearing his full training kit.

Less than 10,000 home fans are expected at today’s friendly. They are likely to be outnumbered by the right-wing extremists supporting Middlesbrough, bringing their poison to Glasgow.

WHEN WILL O’NEILL FINALLY FACE A MEDIA CONFERENCE?

The big test now is whether O’Neill does the post match media duties today. It would be no surprise if Maloney was put in front of the cameras and microphones.

Celtic can keep on hiding and pushing the issues back.

O’Neill is clearly compromised. He is getting a huge salary for a 74-year-old, way more than he would get from media appearances, Q and A nights and knocking out autobiographies.

O’Neill must know what he is presiding over. He shared a car from Cork to Dublin two weeks ago with Nicholson and Wilson.

He knows how inept they are.

But it is the manager that faces up to the media. Wilson speaks once a month to Celtic TV, Nicholson hasn’t been interviewed by McCulloch since December 18.

There might be a taster of fan anger at today’s match against Middlesbrough.

That will multiply for the SPFL opener on August 3 at home to Dundee.

The pressure of covering up for incompetence at every level must be getting through to O’Neill. He can’t wait forever on ‘the owner getting things over the line’.

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