Robbie Keane or Martin OāNeill? Celtic are asking the wrong question
Celtic are set to hold talks with both Martin OāNeill and Robbie Keane this week over the vacant managerās position at the Scottish champions
After a tumultuous season with three managerial changes and two separate interim stints from club legend Martin OāNeill, Celtic somehow emerged from the 2025/26 season with a league and cup double. Now, attention for the Parkhead club turns to hiring a new head coach for the coming season.
After getting the last permanent appointment, Wilfried Nancy, spectacularly wrong, the club know they must act carefully and smartly, but also swiftly to give the new manager the best possible chance of preparing for the new campaign and those vital Champions League qualifiers in mid-to-late August. With the World Cup just days away, that could also affect the speed of football business globally this summer.
Luckily for Celtic, theyāve known since early January they would need to hire a permanent manager this summer. Announcing OāNeill as interim manager until the end of the season gave the club the luxury of five months to search high and low for the right candidate before the season ended.
A wasted opportunity
However, it seems that neither has that time been well spent nor has the net been cast very wide. It appears there was very little movement in the managerial hunt until the season was over and the underwhelming two-man shortlist includes the 74-year-old OāNeill who everyone had assumed would, surely, be returning to his retired life after earning a fairytale send-off.
Reports this week and last, on the other hand, indicate that the permanent job may well be OāNeillās if he wants it. A five-month recruitment process, only to come up with the interim manager, who was only in post as a favour, as the preferred candidate.
While OāNeill undoubtedly deserves huge credit for instilling a winning mentality that saw Celtic overturn a nine-point deficit and overtake Rangers and Hearts in the league table in unlikely fashion, he remains someone who before this season hadnāt worked in football management since 2019 and who still hasnāt had a full start-to-finish season in club management since his final season with Aston Villa in 2009/10. Football has changed a lot since then and it is hard to argue that charisma can bridge the gaps he himself admits are present in his knowledge of modern coaching over the course of a full season.
OāNeill or Keane is not the question Celtic should be asking
If the latest reports are correct, however, the job is likely OāNeillās to take or leave and he will hold talks with the club this week. Celtic will also be meeting with the other candidate on their list: Robbie Keane.
The Irishman spent five months on loan at Celtic as a player in the second half of the 2009/10 season, scoring 16 goals in 19 games in a trophyless season for the Bhoys. While his arrival in January 2010 was met with euphoria, there is huge scepticism over his suitability for the managerās job.
Keane is a free agent after leaving Hungarian side FerencvƔros where he spent 18 months and won two trophies. In his only full season in charge, however, he came second in the league despite having vastly superior resources to his rivals, leading many observers to mockingly comment that he finished second in a one-horse race.
Many Celtic supporters, as well members of wider society, have also already criticised Keaneās decision to remain in charge of Israeli side Maccabi Tel Aviv during the most recent conflict in Gaza. The ethics of choosing to return to a country that much of the world was accusing of genocide even then makes Keane a PR disaster, even if you ignore his inadequate CV.
The question is, though, why are Celtic seemingly making a straight choice between two candidates who donāt seem up to the job? The board are asking the wrong question, meaning that either answer will be unsatisfactory.
Looking further afield
The clubās approach to this process is bereft of ambition in a fashion that is difficult to comprehend. After a historically competitive season in Scotland and with Celtic holding the lure of Champions League football, the managerās job should be an attractive one.
Before hiring Brendan Rodgers for the second time in 2023, the other names in discussion were Andoni Iraola, Enzo Maresca and Francesco Farioli. All were reportedly interested and keen on the job, and all of them have gone on to be successful at other clubs.
This isnāt to say that Celtic necessarily made the wrong choice in 2023, as Rodgers delivered back-to-back doubles and took the club further in the Champions League than they had been in over a decade. The alarming thing for Celtic fans is the disparity in the quality of the shortlist three years ago and now: where are the current iterations of Iraola, Maresca and Farioli?
The only other candidate being seriously mentioned, with reports on Wednesday suggesting the club also plan to meet with him soon, is Craig Bellamy. Arguably the most exciting candidate of the three in the frame, he still has nowhere near the experience of calibre you would expect for someone in contention for the Celtic job.
It isnāt too late for the Celtic board to cause a surprise, but the coming days may determine the clubās fate this season. Will past mistakes be learned from, or will a lack of ambition see the club fall further behind in Europe?
