Celtic need to speculate to accumulate

We’ll watch plenty of sport over the course of the year, but it’s going to be a struggle to find an environment in which the tension was as palpable as it was at Celtic Park for the final ten minutes of Celtic’s league showdown with Hearts last Saturday afternoon.

The cameras panned to the stands on several occasions when the sides were locked together at 1-1 and the expressions were all the same, even if at that stage Hearts were on course for a historic league triumph and Celtic were going to come up agonisingly short.

Things changed rather dramatically in the minutes that followed with the Celts scoring twice late on to win the title in scarcely believable fashion.

The emotion around the success is as romantic as it comes; bringing back a club legend in Martin O’Neill to steer the club out of choppy waters and win the league – with cup final to come this weekend – is the stuff storywriters dream of when conjuring up movie scripts.

O’Neill’s achievement is one that has few parallels in sport and for those with a soft spot for Celtic, it’s a story filled with that lovely sense of nostalgia.

All of that being said, while Celtic might win the double this weekend to cap off a truly remarkable few months, there must be some separation from the emotion to call it what it is. This was a shambolic campaign on so many levels – only salvaged by the Midas touch of the man from Derry and the ineptitude of Celtic’s Old Firm rivals, Rangers.

The warning signs were there. Having covered Celtic’s two-legged Champions League play-off with Kairat of Kazakhstan last summer, which now feels like a lifetime ago given all the water that has passed under the bridge since then, it was obvious things weren’t right from the off.

In that play-off, which was worth at least €20million to qualify for the league phase of the Champions League, Celtic were a blunt force. Neither side was able to break the deadlock in 210 minutes of football. That in itself was a damning indictment of the situation Celtic found themselves in – but little was done to remedy the problem.

It was abundantly clear that a failure to invest in the squad had left the then manager, Brendan Rodgers, seriously short in attacking quality and it came home to catch them as they lost on penalties. Celtic dominated the ball but had no cutting edge or flair in the final third, which made both matches absolutely turgid stuff.

Rodgers gets a raw deal for some of his comments, but he was spot on in calling for more investment in the playing squad. This frustration eventually led to his departure in acrimonious circumstances last autumn, but the fans anger was largely directed at the board and those in charge of the purse strings for not loosening them a little further.

The first O’Neill interim stint was followed by the comical spell in charge, all of 33 days, of the largely unknown Wilfried Nancy, who was woefully out of his depth from minute one and lost six of his eight matches.

That Celtic have managed to win the title given all that has happened this season is a minor miracle – and also underlines the lack of quality in the Scottish Premiership where Rangers, too, have endured a dreadful campaign similar to Celtic’s, with fans turning on the club, especially during Russell Martin’s hap-hazard spell in charge at Ibrox.

In the context of the financial struggles Rangers have experienced over the years, Celtic’s owners have done a very good job in a macro-economic sense. The club is prudently run, spending very little on players and selling players on for decent money. In advance of this season, for example, Nicolas Kuhn made a €19million move to Como but the most Celtic dished out was €6million for Tunisian winger Sebastian Tounketi.

Reports around the club’s financial state at the end of 2025 suggested that Celtic had something in the order of €77million in the bank in cash reserves. In an era of football clubs spending wildly and without any real safeguards in place, that’s impressive. However, the owners must now consider the next steps.

Ironically, mismanagement will have caused considerable financial distress this season. The failure to invest in the playing squad prior to the Champions League play-off arguably cost Celtic millions and the managerial changes will have cost money too, with payouts to those shown the exit door.

The Scottish Premiership is not at the level of the English Premier League, but Celtic has so much going for it. Parkhead is sold out each week; they have a great chance each season of claiming all the domestic trophies on offer; there is the prospect of European football each season and, most importantly from a revenue point of view, they have a brand that is recognisable the world over.

Celtic have all the tools necessary to become a regular participant at Champions League level. That doesn’t mean they can win the Champions League - because Celtic’s revenue is still very modest compared to most clubs in the competition – but it does mean that they can be competitive on the European stage. Indeed, in their last Champions League proper appearance, Celtic caused Bayern Munich plenty of headaches in their knockout round fixture.

The Celtic owners must recognise that this season, for all of the feel good factor they are now experiencing, they got lucky.

In order to ensure they remain at the top of the table, Celtic need to get their manager in place for next season soon and back him in the transfer market with proper investment in the playing squad.

The club has always been capable of building on its success but this season should remove any element of complacency amongst the club’s hierarchy about its place in the game.