Chris Sutton has urged Martin O’Neill to use his current position of strength at Celtic Park this summer…
The ex-Bhoys striker turned pundit, who covers Scottish football for Sky Sports and writes weekly in his newspaper column about all things regarding the Hoops, reckons O’Neill will never have this kind of clout again.
The Irishman stepped into the firing line for his old club’s principal shareholder Dermot Desmond, after he and his acolytes drove the club’s season into the wall, going from one catastrophic decision to the next.
That particular chaos didn’t halt O’Neill frog-marching the club to a Scottish Premiership title and domestic Scottish Cup glory, despite the lack of support from the suits in January.
Sutton reckons his old gaffer must press home this advantage
Sutton has now beseeched his old gaffer to press home this advantage, when it comes to the recruitment this summertime.
“You’re never as strong as you are when you first come in as manager,” he insisted. “So he’s always at his strongest now. I wonder if there is a stand-off, in terms of Martin saying, ‘well look what I’m being left with. I’ve won you a League. I’ve won you a Cup, with a squad which was very low on confidence.’ So there needs to be a big overhaul.”
“Back in 2000, he brought myself in, he brought Joos Valgaeren in. Celtic spent the best part of £20 million. Alan Thompson, Neil Lennon… you know, so there was such a big overhaul.
“Rangers had won the League by 19 or 20 points. But let’s not get away from the fact that Celtic are still in a bit of a pickle and fans wanted to see progress in the Champions League.”
Speaking to Kris Boyd on the Warm-up, Sutton reckoned the next rebuild will be considerably more than what O’Neill spent in his first season at the club, adding: “Celtic are going to have to spend more than they did back in 2000. And maybe that is the conversation and why it isn’t done.
“Surely Martin is thinking, ‘well, you know, we need quality in the door.’ And that is going to cost. So, you know, I just find the whole situation really strange.”
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Paul Gillespie
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1 Comment
We all know that we need a major rebuild, the only people who don’t know that is the board. When Brendan was the manager he said at every transfer window we need quality. What did the board do give him players he didn’t ask for, not giving him the quality that we needed. I hope the board back Martin and give him whatever he needs we have the money. I just don’t want to see Martin getting thrown under the bus buy the board. Martin deserves a chance of doing well in Europe