{"id":1911,"date":"2026-06-07T18:12:25","date_gmt":"2026-06-07T18:12:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/racingsport.xyz\/?p=1911"},"modified":"2026-06-07T18:12:25","modified_gmt":"2026-06-07T18:12:25","slug":"martin-oneill-a-no-brainer-for-celtic-now-major-rebuild-awaits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/racingsport.xyz\/?p=1911","title":{"rendered":"Martin O’Neill a ‘no-brainer’ for Celtic \u2013 now major rebuild awaits"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Tasked with a rebuild of such scale, it is crucial Celtic do not repeat the mistakes of last season.<\/p>\n

Incomings were left until the end of the summer window, by which time they were already out of Champions League qualifying.<\/p>\n

Michel-Ange Balikwisha was brought in for a significant fee after weeks of talks and failed to have any impact.<\/p>\n

Celtic were left with an imbalanced squad that lacked depth, particularly in forward areas, and supporters expressed anger at the board at both the lack of investment and urgency.<\/p>\n

The Champions League play-off round – the stage at which they were beaten by Kairat Almaty – is looming large on 18\/19 August this year.<\/p>\n

It was not just in the summer where Celtic’s business flattered to deceive. <\/p>\n

When O’Neill returned for his second interim spell after Wilfried Nancy’s sacking, he spoke frequently of the need to supplement his squad<\/a> in the January window.<\/p>\n

And yet none of the players signed on loan in January featured after the split. Some were injured, others evidently not rated or trusted by O’Neill.<\/p>\n

That trend simply cannot continue this summer and Lambert believes O’Neill will play a big part in reshaping the squad.<\/p>\n

“Hopefully he gets the players he wants to carry the club forward,” Lambert said.<\/p>\n

“It’s a big summer for Celtic. I think what happened last year has given them a fright. What he did was galvanise things and I’m pretty sure he will have the last say on which players come in.”<\/p>\n

Again, forward areas will likely be the priority, especially if Maeda does leave.<\/p>\n

Celtic still have not effectively replaced Kyogo Furuhashi – who left two years ago – as their main striker, while Jota’s quality in wide areas is unable to be harnessed because of long-term injury.<\/p>\n

Celtic’s attacking output has clearly regressed. In the 2024-25 title-winning campaign under Rodgers, they scored 112 league goals. Last term, they managed just 73.<\/p>\n

Still, O’Neill can look back to the summer of 2000 – his first at Celtic – for inspiration. <\/p>\n

Chris Sutton, Joos Valgaeren and Alan Thompson – three hugely successful figures for the club – were all signed under the Northern Irishman’s watch, before Neil Lennon followed in the January of 2001.<\/p>\n

A summer window that replicated that one would go a long way to reshaping Celtic’s squad and easing any simmering unrest among the club’s fanbase.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tasked with a rebuild of such scale, it is crucial Celtic do not repeat the mistakes of last season. Incomings…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1912,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1911","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sport"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racingsport.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1911","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/racingsport.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/racingsport.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racingsport.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racingsport.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1911"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/racingsport.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1911\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racingsport.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1912"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racingsport.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1911"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racingsport.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1911"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racingsport.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1911"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}