Tribal rivalries were forgotten about in Scottish football this week when Celtic responded to fevered online speculation and confirmed their manager Martin O’Neill had “undergone a small procedure in hospital”.
O’Neill was certainly very much in the thoughts of Derek McInnes, his opposite number at Rangers, when he spoke at his pre-match press conference ahead of the Europa League qualifier against Jagiellonia Bialystok in Poland on Wednesday night.
“It goes without saying that it's not the best of news,” said McInnes. “Hopefully Martin is okay, both him and his family. I'm sure he will be back to work, if he can, as soon as possible.”
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Those sentiments were shared across the country regardless of allegiances. The animosity that exists between different factions in the Scottish game is always shelved, albeit only temporarily, at such moments. Sporting matters are put in their proper perspective and common decency prevails.
Yet, the Parkhead club’s supporters and directors have other reasons for wanting to see the Northern Irishman, whose assistant Shaun Maloney confirmed was back at home and in fine form when he spoke at the pre-match press conference at Lennoxtown yesterday, make a rapid recovery.
Celtic’s chances of successfully negotiating their impending Champions League play-off double header against LASK of Austria, booking their place in the league phase of Europe’s premier club competition and securing a £40m pay day will be greatly enhanced if the septuagenarian is back in the technical area.
O’Neill, a double European Cup winner with Nottingham Forest during his playing days, excels in continental competition. He treated the Scottish champions’ supporters to some of the best nights of their lives during his first spell in charge. The highlight was unquestionably reaching the UEFA Cup final in Seville in 2003.
But he showed he had not lost his Midas touch last term during his two separate stints in temporary charge. Despite taking over several months into the season and inheriting an underperforming team, he oversaw a 3-1 win over Feyenoord in a Europa League league phase match Rotterdam. It was his club’s first away win in Europe since 2021.
He followed that up by drawing 2-2 with Bologna in Italy, thrashing Utrecht 4-1 at home and progressing to the knockout round play-off. Bundesliga outfit Stuttgart proved too strong to overcome after that. Still, his men signed off with an away win, their first triumph ever on German soil.
Fans of Scottish clubs love nothing more, as was evident from the social media output of Hibernian supporters once again on Thursday evening as Hearts were mauled by Benfica in a Europa League qualifier in Portugal, than seeing their domestic rivals getting humiliated by foreign opponents.
They should really be hoping - given the damage another raft of wretched results has done to Scotland’s coefficient, the metric which determines how many clubs from a country compete in UEFA competitions and what round they enter - that O’Neill returns to work soon and can mastermind what would be a hugely important Celtic triumph.
Records have been broken during the 2026/27 campaign. Alas, they are not those which anyone involved can be proud of. The 6-1 reverse that Hearts were on the receiving end of in midweek, for instance, was their joint heaviest in Europe.
Meanwhile, Rangers, beaten 2-1 by Jagiellonia, have now lost their last seven away games on the continent and conceded goals in their last 13. That has never happened before in the 70 years since they made their European Cup debut against Nice of France way back in 1956.
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There are mitigating factors here. Wouter Vrancken at Tynecastle and McInnes over at Ibrox were only appointed this summer. Both men are still trying to settle in to their new surroundings, fill the considerable voids left by key players who have departed and help new signings to integrate into their starting line-ups. Form and results should improve going forward.
No Jambo seriously expected their heroes to get a result in the Estadio da Luz in Lisbon against hosts who have spent €12m bringing in Enzo Barrenechea from Aston Villa, €17m landing Jakub Kaminski from Cologne and a cool €20m acquiring Heorhiy Sudakov from Shakhtar Donetsk during the close season. So some context is required.
It should not, too, be forgotten that Hibs beat Shkendija of North Macedonia at Easter Road and Motherwell drew with HJK Helsinki over in Finland in their respective Conference League outings. It is not all doom and gloom, not entirely.
That said, embarrassing showings against minnows from lesser football nations and ignominious early exits from Europe in the qualifying rounds have become as much of an annual tradition in the Scottish game at this time of year as the Loving Cup ceremony at Ibrox every January.
There has almost, with clubs still insistent on rebuilding their threadbare squads with unknown and often inadequate imports from abroad every year, been a managed decline. Maybe it is time for a bold new approach.
The challenges which Scottish clubs face rearing their own young footballers as well as their failure to deal with the many problems they have head on and make the changes which are required are addressed by former SFA head of men’s elite strategy Chris Docherty elsewhere on these pages today. His words make for sobering reading and should be concerning for anyone who cares about the health of our national game.
John McGlynn has shown just what can be achieved domestically by putting his faith in homegrown talent at Falkirk during the past few years. Perhaps a few more managers should follow his laudable lead. They do not appear to be making much headway in Europe persevering with the same tired strategy.
The SFA have invited every SPFL club to to attend a "critically important" meeting about the future of the sport in St Andrews next month. Those in attendance should listen carefully to what is said - and act.
