Martin O'Neill Had Scathing Take On Celtic Stars Before Shock Return

While last night’s news that Brendan Rodgers had departed his role as Celtic manager did not come as a massive surprise, there were plenty of eyebrows raised over the club’s move to replace him on an interim basis.

Martin O’Neill is set to make a sensational return to the club, taking over Celtic on a temporary basis over 20 years after his previous spell in Glasgow came to an end. He will be assisted by former Hoops star Shaun Maloney.

The move to bring the former Ireland boss back to the club certainly came as quite the shock, with the 73-year old having last been out of the game since his brief spell at Nottingham Forest came to an end in 2019. He will be tasked with turning around what looks in danger of becoming a disastrous season for the club, who already sit eight points behind Hearts in the Scottish Premiership.

In fact, O’Neill himself had been far from impressed with the current bunch of Celtic players in recent weeks.

Martin O’Neill Had Scathing Take On Celtic Team Before Shock Return

Martin O’Neill’s involvement in football over the last five years has been largely limited to media appearances, including a regular slot on talkSPORT alongside presenter Jim White. He actually appeared on that show as recently as yesterday, where the topic of Celtic’s loss to Hearts over the weekend was inevitably raised.

Speaking on talkSPORT on Monday, he admitted that the current group of Celtic players left plenty to be desired, especially when it came to their lack of physicality.

It was going to be a difficult game for Celtic, Hearts are on the rise at the minute. I know at this time last year Aberdeen had won a host of games and you knew that was never sustainable, they just couldn’t do it.

Hearts is a different kettle of fish here, really. They are strong and have a bit of backing too. They are physically strong.

That has been a concern of mine for some time about Celtic. Celtic can still play some beautiful football, but you’ve got to counter or add to that by being a bit physical. When teams are physical against you, you’ve got to be able to do that.

Brendan is right in that you’ve got 29 games to go and Celtic have been there before. You’ve got to just settle down, they lost that game. Yeah they’ve lost their way a little bit at this minute, Hearts are riding high, a long way to go…

Celtic at this minute are not that physically strong. They can actually lose games, whereas before they looked invincible in matches…

At this minute, Celtic are in a wee bit of trouble. This is the best time for any club outside the Old Firm to go and win (the league).

O’Neill would actually go on to suggest that Hearts beating Celtic and Rangers to the title this season would be a good thing for Scottish football. You get the sense that those feelings may have been reversed on the back of his return to Parkhead.

It remains to be seen how long Martin O’Neill’s Celtic return will last, although it would not be a surprise to see him be given control of the team until the end of the season.

It should be a very interesting period ahead for all involved with the Glasgow club.

Martin O’Neill Had Scathing Take On Celtic Stars Before Shock Return

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