Martin O’Neill Won a Double a Year After Rodgers Quit Celtic

• Brendan Rodgers resigned as Celtic manager on 27 October 2025 after a three-hour meeting with principal shareholder Dermot Desmond ended in an ultimatum.
• Martin O’Neill took over twice and won the league and cup double, clinching the title against Hearts with three minutes to spare on the final day.
• O’Neill, now 74, signed a permanent one-year deal in June with an option for a further year.

The 9.44pm Statement That Rocked Celtic

Exactly a year ago tonight, at 9.44pm, Celtic published a five-paragraph statement titled “Brendan Rodgers leaves Celtic Football Club”. Rodgers had handed in his resignation and the club had accepted it. The same statement named his replacement: Martin O’Neill, a pundit for six years and a manager out of work after leaving Nottingham Forest in 2019, would take over on an interim basis alongside Shaun Maloney.

A few months earlier Celtic had won a double, made it four league titles in a row and taken Bayern Munich all the way in the Champions League play-offs. Now the club was in crisis.

A Honda Civic and a Three-Hour Row

The trouble started in the summer. Celtic had banked £75m from their Champions League run and Rodgers expected it to be spent. The fans demanded the same. Instead the club went into a qualifier against Kairat Almaty without replacements for Kyogo Furuhashi, sold to Rennes for £10m in January 2025, or Nicolas Kuhn, who left for Como that summer for £16.5m. Celtic lost to the Kazakh side on penalties. Adam Idah was then sold, leaving Daizen Maeda as the only senior striker once the window closed. Supporters protested against the board at games.

Rodgers spoke out. After a defeat at Dundee’s Dens Park he said: “There’s no way you’ll go into a race and be given the keys to a Honda Civic and say, ‘I want you to drive it like a Ferrari’. It’s not going to happen.” A week later he was gone.

The day after a 3-1 defeat at Hearts left Celtic eight points behind the Edinburgh club, Desmond asked to see him. The meeting lasted three hours. Rodgers was given an ultimatum: get on with the job, or resign, as he was not going to be sacked. Rodgers, who had promised fans he would see out his contract this time, walked away.

Desmond’s Statement

Club staff and board members were stunned. Then came a second statement on the Celtic website, written by Desmond, which labelled Rodgers “divisive, misleading, and self-serving”. Desmond said every player signed or sold on Rodgers’ watch had his full knowledge, approval and endorsement, and claimed Rodgers could not name one instance of the club failing to back him. He also accused Rodgers of creating a toxic environment that brought abuse for board members and executives.

Rodgers now manages Al Qadsiah in the Saudi Pro League. He has not responded publicly to those claims, and he has not spoken about his Celtic exit to this day.

O’Neill Takes the Wheel, Twice

O’Neill, 73 at the time, said himself that he was surprised to be asked. He stressed he was only there until Celtic found a “younger” manager. His first game, two days after his appointment, brought a hero’s welcome and a 4-0 win over Falkirk, and he joked that he did not know some of the players’ names. Next came a League Cup semi-final against Rangers at Hampden Park, won 3-1 after extra time. A 3-1 win over Feyenoord in Rotterdam followed in the Europa League. By December he had won seven of eight games and put Celtic back level on points with Hearts.

At his farewell speech on 3 December 2025, O’Neill said of the players: “They (the players) have been absolutely fantastic. It’s been a real privilege. I’ve had the time of my life in the past five to six weeks.”

Wilfried Nancy took over and lost six of his first eight games, including the cup final against St Mirren, the top-of-the-table game with Hearts and the New Year derby at home to Rangers. After 33 days he was sacked, the shortest reign in Celtic history. O’Neill returned exactly a month later with one job: deliver the title. He did it against Hearts on the last day of the season with three minutes to spare, and the cup came with it.

A Club Still in Motion

After a break at the end of the season, O’Neill agreed in June to become permanent boss on a one-year deal with the option to extend by a further year. Celtic remain unsettled on and off the field, but they owe a debt to the man who stepped forward twice in their hour of need. Their next game is at Falkirk on Sunday 1 November.

WRITTEN BY

Jarrod

Jarrod Partridge is the Founder of Futbol Chronicle and an accredited journalist with over 30 years of experience following international football. A member of the AIPS International Sports Press Association, Jarrod has covered matches at stadiums around the world, bringing first-hand insight to every match report, player profile, and tactical analysis he writes.

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