Martin O’Neill brings his usual Midas touch to Celtic

In partnership with

The Celtic Star

·17 November 2025

Martin O’Neill brings his usual Midas touch to Celtic

Martin O’Neill proves that positivity can get results in football…

Daizen Maeda celebrates with Kasper Schmeichel. Celtic v Kilmarnock, Scottish Premiership Celtic Park, 9 November 2025. Photo Mark Runnacles IMAGO /Shutterstock

Brendan Rodgers was on the whole great for Celtic, to argue with that would just be plain daft, or perhaps just following instructions from up high, his master’s voice and all that. Thankfully the modern day Celtic fan media are collectively more independent and clearly capable of stating their own opinions, good, bad or indifferent.

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If you read James Forrest on The Celtic Blog one day you could find yourself thinking that’s a load of complete nonsense whereas a day or two later you couldn’t agree more with what he has to say. It generally worth finding out one way of the other and that applies to many other writers, for instance Niall J on The Celtic Star and there are numerous podcasts worthy of a listen.

Johnny Kenny opens the scoring. Celtic v Kilmarnock, Scottish Premiership Celtic Park, 9 November 2025. Photo Mark RunnaclesIMAGO /Shutterstock

Anyway back to Brendan Rodgers and to me it was rather obvious that his style of football was, whilst not drastically effecting results greatly, holding us back from a realising our true potential in an offensive sense, this season in particular. Brendan was of course correct to call out the board for their transfer window failings but as often happens an incoming manager – worthy of the job – can often get a turn out of a squad whose confidence was affected by the disharmony, the atmosphere around the club and the bizarre automobile references that really was the final straw.

That has been reflected in results and performances under our interim manager Martin O’Neill, domestically speaking at least. Under Brendan we were a pale imitation of the free flowing side of this time last year, and had scored only 22 goals since the start of the campaign, 16 of those domestically.

Celtic interim manager Martin O’Neill during the Premier League match between Celtic and Kilmarnock at Celtic Park on November 09, 2025. (Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)

The games we were winning this season under Rodgers, were settled by the odd goal, we even endured our fair share of goalless stalemates. It’s hard to remember a time when Celtic actually had so many goalless draws, not surprising as the club has won 13 titles in 14 seasons and you do that by scoring plenty goals as the support celebrated each one like a tidy win at a licensed online casino in the United Kingdom.

Yet when we look at that the goals scored stat under Martin in a domestic capacity, we’ve scored 11 in just three games, including two comprehensive 4-0 wins and three against theRangers. That’s the difference and that’s why Celtic supporters are encouraged by Martin’s second tenure in the Parkhead hot-seat, which could last just a little bit longer than initially expected.

Martin O’Neill has delivered as he has always done for Celtic. There’s a massive improvement in the football the the atmosphere, and it’s no fluke as anyone paying attention to the side under Martin’s leadership will see that they have developed a more positive outlook when it comes to the offensive side of the game. The possession for the sake of possession days are over and once again Celtic are going all out to attack.

Johnny Kenny of Celtic celebrates scoring the opening goal during the Premier League match between Celtic and Kilmarnock at Celtic Park on November 09, 2025. (Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)

As a result the Celtic players are not only creating more chances, but are more effective via the wide areas. The number of times the ball ends up back with our central defenders has deceased sharply under O’Neill’s tactical tweak which has paid great dividends as four points have been gained on Hearts over the past week or so, thanks to Martin O’Neill’s approach.

You only have to notice the difference in stats of Johnny Kenny to prove the point. Johnny was struggling badly under Brendan, and now he has four goals in as many games, that’s not a coincidence, that’s just more competent service and a style that suits him and many more in Celtic colours, including record signing Arne Engels. Did you see that assist for Daizen Maeda against Kilmarnock and his unstoppable penalty, which was the last kick of the match in another 4-0 win.

Arne Engels of Celtic celebrates after he scores his team’s fourth goal from the penalty spot during the Premier ship match between Celtic and Kilmarnock at Celtic Park on November 09, 2025. (Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)

Kenny’s reward can be seen in his call-up to the Ireland squad after initially not being named. His goalscoring form at Celtic has clearly been noted.