Towards the end of Celtic’s latest defeat to Rangers, the Sky Sports cameras cut away to a familiar, bearded face in the main stand.
Roy Keane sat glowering into the distance, flanked by his former Ipswich right-hand man Tony Laughlan.
After another dishevelled performance against their oldest rivals, Martin O’Neill spoke of taking time for a period of self-reflection. He will talk to the board of directors – code for Dermot Desmond – and discuss whether his race is now run.
It never takes long for rumours to start, and Keane’s Parkhead appearance set the WhatsApps flying. The Irishman’s last management job was 15 years ago and the idea should be too silly for words. The way Celtic run these days, you rule nothing out.
O’Neill’s post-match remarks made him sound like a man preparing to cash in his pension pot. And, for both parties, that might be for the best now.
Celtic’s manager is 74 and, after recent health procedures, he can’t possibly be enjoying this. The time has come to ask himself if he still has the energy and the drive to turn around an analogue football club muddling by in a digital age.
Despite that £80 million burning a hole in the bank, Celtic are a team with nothing in the tank. They roll over weaker teams in the SPFL, then fold like a pack of cards when they come against a challenge from middling sides such as LASK Linz, Ferencvaros and Rangers.
Whenever Scotland’s champions found themselves in a bit of self-inflicted bother in the past, controlling shareholder Desmond reached for his mobile phone and pushed the bat button.
A green beam lit up the skies over London’s King’s Road bearing a silhouette of Martin O’Neill. And back came the old bhoy to mop up the mess.
The second coming of Brendan Rodgers brokered a Desmond crucifixion. The Blessed Martin put down his coffee and stepped in as the interim Messiah.
When a wild punt on Wilfried Nancy blew up in his face, the Grand Old Duke of Cork summoned his beacon of hope back to Glasgow once more.
Like any decent superhero movie, there was a happy ending when the caped crusader led the club to a league and cup double at the end of the season.
In hindsight, that’s when the credits should have rolled. He should have picked up his lifetime achievement gong and focussed on preserving his legacy.
Accepting the job on a permanent basis, O’Neill offers Desmond no comfort blanket to tug on this time. The billionaire owner can hardly call him up and ask him to come in and wipe the blood from the floor when he’s the one wielding the scalpel.
In football, sentiment counts for nothing. Younger fans, many of whom have known nothing other than success, regard O’Neill’s achievements from 20 years ago – or even May – as yesterday’s news.
Faced by the vitriol, disrespect and ageism of recent days, one of the club’s iconic figures should probably tell everyone where to go and go back to sipping Danish espressos on the King’s Road.
If he still needs money, he can move upstairs and help his old mucker Roy – or whoever it may be – to tutor a negligent board on the need to sign players before a Champions League qualifier. Or he can earn a few quid resuming his once-a-week spot on the White and Jordan Show on TalkSPORT.
The last thing he should be doing is placing his tactical trust in coaches who failed to cut the mustard at Wigan, Hibs and Huddersfield Town. Or trying to make the best of a transfer window which flagged up deep-rooted structural issues at the very top of the club.
Record signing Kasper Hogh has now scored in just one of his nine appearances. One of 10 new signings, only two made the bench yesterday while four failed to make the matchday squad.
When Arne Engels left they failed to replace him, signing Danish midfielder Thomas Sorensen on loan and spending £3.4million on the lesser-spotted Joel Van der Berg instead. Neither has made any impact whatsoever.
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They signed a third-choice Wolves goalkeeper who flapped his way through 90 minutes at Ibrox and promptly lost his place. They signed a rookie Chelsea left-back who was nowhere near fit, and a rookie Stamford Bridge striker on loan to split the cost of a flat.
If O’Neill signed off on those deals, then it’s only right that he shoulders his share of the blame for that, just as he must accept responsibility for the tactics and in-game management of the last three defeats.
Outclassed at Ibrox last weekend, Celtic reverted to the 3-5-2 which served him so well in his first spell as manager. He had to try something.
Win, and the move would have been a bold act of genius. By trying to play Rangers at their own game – and losing – it became an act of desperation from a manager losing the trust of supporters.
Strip it down, and this week has told the story of two managers and sweet redemption for one of the pair.
The last time Derek McInnes left Celtic Park, he was straight on the Hearts bus after the bleakest, most disconsolate day of his football career.
O’Neill and his team had found a way to snatch the league away in the final minutes in May. And the post-match chaos ensued.
The only prospect of a pitch invasion yesterday came from the handful of angry Celtic fans who hung around a half-empty stadium to boo their shapeless team from the pitch after they played, once again, like a team of individuals who had met five minutes before kick-off.
Once again, Celtic were disjointed. Once again, they were outworked and outplayed and out-muscled by a better team.
Ryan Naderi bullied Celtic’s three at the back and ran them ragged. Dujon Sterling won every duel. Dan Neil picked up every second ball and rendered Callum McGregor’s midfield decline painfully evident.
Olwethu Makhanya looks a decent piece of business in defence. Fortunate to avoid an early red card after a ropey start, Emmanuel Fernandez was barely tested for the rest of the game.
Lumping long aimless balls up the pitch, Celtic played to the strengths of their opponents – and when O’Neill switched formations or personnel, he looked like a man throwing jelly at the wall.
Wind back the last 180 minutes, and a superb save from Colby Donovan early in yesterday’s second half was pretty much all Rangers keeper Ivor Pandur had to do.
Celtic have now played four big, critical games this season and lost all four by an aggregate of 12-3. Rangers mustered eight shots on target to Celtic’s one, and 15 shots to the five of their dishevelled opponents. They should have won by more than a single goal.
When O’Neill told Sky Sports that there was little between the teams, he was deluding himself.
The Ibrox side were streets ahead and, if he’s brutally honest, Celtic’s veteran manager will take some time and come to the conclusion that the task of closing the gap should fall to someone else.
