Martin O’Neill has revived Celtic but Rangers return prompts a bigger question | OneFootball

And then there were two. In the season and title race that keeps on giving, a story for the ages is developing.

No, no, it’s not that one, as historic it would be for Hearts to break the dominance of the Old Firm and win the league for the first time since 1960.

That’s because Martin O’Neill returning to Celtic, at the age of 74, and winning a fourth title, 21 years after his last in Scotland, would be a pretty decent tale in itself.

Consider where he was a few months ago. When Celtic came calling and O’Neill’s phone rang in late October, the Northern Irishman was sat in the TalkSport studio singing the praises of Hearts, the league leaders, after their excellent start to the season.

At that point it was largely assumed O’Neill was retired. The previous month saw the release of his book, The Changing Game, where he appeared rather unimpressed by some of football’s emerging trends - sporting directors and data analytics among them. In an interview with the Guardian, O’Neill called the measurement of expected goals (xG) “total nonsense” and a "clueless development”.

Evidently, O’Neill had not attempted to reinvent himself in the six years spent between his last position in management at Nottingham Forest and returning to Celtic following the acrimonious departure of Brendan Rodgers.

O’Neill was raised as a player by Brian Clough, and he is objectively an elder man, so any attempts to be anything other than old school would have been futile.

But the call O’Neill first received was to steady a club lurching into crisis while the search for a new permanent manager began.

He surpassed even his own expectations to win seven of his eight games and reduce Hearts’ eight-point lead down to just goal difference, and appeared to ride off into the distance with a team tracksuit packed into his suitcase.

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(Getty Images)

Perhaps if Celtic had trusted the twinkle in O’Neill’s eye, the impact and respect he immediately fostered from his players, and the sense of purpose he had brought in that initial caretaker spell, they would have avoided the disaster that followed.

Wilfried Nancy’s eight-game tenure, with six defeats, brought Celtic back to where they started. O’Neill’s phone lit up once more, and he was back in charge just 33 days after he had left.

And now here we are. Celtic have four games remaining in what has been a nightmare of a season, and yet O’Neill could steer them to a Premiership and Scottish Cup double. The final run starts on Sunday and with Rangers, in what will be O’Neill’s 28th Old Firm.

For O’Neill, it will be business as usual. He is experienced and wily enough not to be flustered by the occasion, and the stakes in this most unique of title races. In March, after Celtic fought from behind to claim a 2-2 draw at Ibrox, O’Neill scoffed at having to break up some pushing and shoving between the players at full-time. “Me, at my age,” he sighed, scathingly. “It was feeble, on both sides.”

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O’Neill was in the middle of a ‘feeble’ flare-up between Celtic and Rangers players (Getty)

Part of the allure of O’Neill, after all, was his memory of what Celtic and this fixture used to be. It stands in stark contrast to what Hearts could achieve under Derek McInnes, if they become the first champions outside of the Old Firm since 1985, but then Celtic losing the understanding of what they are helps explain how they found themselves in that mess to begin with.

Winning 13 out of the last 14 titles in Scotland while being separated from Europe’s elite inevitably led to some distortion. To be successful, Celtic had to learn how to sell well but Rodgers became frustrated when that money was not reinvested into his side. At the start of the season Celtic were simultaneously complacent of their position while also fearful of spending before Champions League qualification was secure. It was not the first thing they would get badly wrong this campaign.

Nancy must have had something to offer as a coach, but the timing of his appointment immediately before hosting Hearts and playing the League Cup final against St Mirren suggested a complete misunderstanding of what was required at the time. Celtic lost both games, and it still got worse. O’Neill has stabilised them again, keeping the pulse going: a double from this stage would be a wonderful achievement for him, a confounding one for Celtic.

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Celtic defeated Hibs last weekend to remain three points behind leaders Hearts with three games to play (PA)

But it would not reveal anything about Celtic’s long-term future. Hearts are forward-thinking and have a plan. They believe they are ahead of schedule, too.

If Celtic want to get back to winning titles in Scotland while developing a model that allows them to be competitive in Europe, they have to be looking in that direction as well. How do they get there? O’Neill, surely, cannot be part of that equation for long. But, for now, he continues to be just what they need. For now, beating Rangers and taking the title race down to the final five days of the season is all that matters.