Simon Jordan Urges Martin O’Neill to Show More Steel Amid Celtic Struggles
Simon Jordan has told Martin O’Neill to show more steel after the Celtic manager publicly questioned his own future in the wake of a brutal week for the Scottish champions.
Celtic have been rocked by three defeats in seven days, two of them against Rangers, and four losses already this season across all competitions – the same number they suffered in 35 games last term.
It has been a grim sequence. First, a 3-0 humbling at Ibrox in the Scottish League Cup quarter-final. Then, a 1-0 defeat to Rangers at Celtic Park in the Premiership, a result that snapped their perfect start to the league campaign.
Wedged between those Old Firm reverses came a damaging Europa League setback, as Hungarian side Ferencvaros beat O’Neill’s team in the group opener. The early-season optimism that followed last year’s double has evaporated in a single, chaotic week.
O’Neill, who returned in January as caretaker and then signed a one-year deal in June after guiding Celtic to the Premiership and Scottish Cup, responded to the latest loss with a strikingly candid admission: he is no longer sure he is the right man to lead the side.
“I genuinely will reflect and see,” the 74-year-old said. “It’s a matter of whether I can help the team. If that’s the case – the manager’s supposed to be able to do that. I will have a look at that there this week.”
Those words jarred with Simon Jordan. The former Crystal Palace chairman expected defiance, not doubt.
Jordan told talkSPORT he wanted to hear O’Neill draw a line in the sand after back-to-back defeats to Rangers, not open the door to an exit.
“I've liked to see him being a bit spikier and a bit more robust, rather than sounding relatively defeated in that clip,” Jordan said. “I certainly would have been wanting to say back to them, ‘This has happened, it will not happen again.’”
For Jordan, the introspective tone felt out of character.
“The fact that he's talking about whether he can help the team and whether it's his time – I find that slightly strange of Martin, but he's having a reflective moment.”
Reflective or not, the numbers are stark: four defeats already, a double-winning manager under pressure, and a support base unused to seeing their side out-fought by Rangers twice in a week.
The next response, from both O’Neill and his players, will decide whether this is just a stutter in a long season or the start of something far more serious.
