The questions around Celtic used to be about ceiling. How high could they climb under Martin O'Neill? How far could his force of personality drag them when the football frayed at the edges?
Right now, the questions are far more basic. Can they defend? Can they run? Can they even trust themselves?
From Ibrox shellacking to Budapest bruising
If Sunday at Ibrox felt like a jolt, Ferencvaros turned it into a pattern. Another heavy defeat. Three more goals shipped. The same old chaos.
The performance in Budapest was riddled with the kind of absent-minded errors that have become grimly familiar. Midfielders switched off. Defenders retreated rather than reacted. On the ball, Celtic looked timid and imprecise, unsure of their angles, short on conviction in even the simplest pass-and-move.
When they did rouse themselves, it came in fits and starts. At 3-1 down, there were long-range efforts and speculative hits, not the kind of sustained, high-tempo assault that used to define them under Ange Postecoglou. That Celtic side hunted in packs, overloaded flanks, dragged defenders into blind alleys and punished hesitation.
This was a pale imitation. Slower. Softer. Easier to read.
The crowd knew it. The players looked like they felt it.
Echoes of Celtic’s darker European nights
The defeat dropped Celtic into a familiar nightmare. The football, at times, was a grim throwback to some of their most chastening European failures of recent years.
- Cluj.
- Copenhagen.
- Sparta Prague.
- Legia Warsaw.
- Salzburg.
- Maribor.
Different nights, different managers, but the same hollow feeling of a team unravelling under pressure.
On Thursday, the energy levels sagged early. Ferencvaros didn’t need to be extraordinary; they simply needed to be organised and alert. The boos from the away end told their own story, a support watching a side that looked devoid of answers.
The numbers only deepened the frustration. Celtic had 62.5% of the ball in the first half and still went in 2-1 down. That kind of possession without purpose used to be somebody else’s problem in Glasgow. Now it’s theirs.
The second goal summed it up: hesitancy over a loose ball, a half-hearted attempt to stop the cross, then confusion and panic in the box. It was the sort of goal poor sides concede. Celtic made it look all too easy.
Strikers starved, leaders lost
Up front, the issues are multiplying.
Camilo Duran, preferred through the middle ahead of Kasper Hogh, had just eight touches before the break. Eight. In his favoured role, he drifted through the game, a distant figure when Celtic needed a focal point.
This was supposed to be the bright new face of the attack, a player who had thrown himself into life in Glasgow with enthusiasm. Now he looks subdued, starved of service and confidence.
Hogh’s case is even more stark. The striker who once bullied defences for Bodo Glimt – scoring against Man City, Atletico Madrid, Inter Milan, Sporting, Porto, Jagiellonia and hitting a hat-trick against Olympiacos – now resembles a completely different player. His first touch is betraying him. The runs he used to make with certainty now look hesitant. Chances aren’t arriving.
One goal in eight Celtic games is a brutal return for an £11m signing. O'Neill has not yet found the system or the service to unlock him.
Behind them, Callum McGregor, the constant in so many Celtic rebuilds, is suddenly looking unsure. The captain who usually knits everything together appears to be searching for his own bearings, never mind everybody else’s.
O’Neill’s flat tone, flat team
O’Neill has built his reputation on solving problems. His first spell at Celtic brought trophies and swagger. His return last season brought order to chaos, a late surge to the title built on resilience and a refusal to buckle.
That run-in side were not always fluent, but they were ferocious competitors. They didn’t lose when it mattered. They didn’t fold.
That spirit feels distant now.
After the Ferencvaros defeat, O’Neill spoke of frustration, failure and psychological damage. He talked about how nights like this can hit a group hard, how they test character. He vowed to “get ourselves together” for Rangers on Sunday, but his delivery betrayed him. The words were there; the spark wasn’t.
His assessment of the performance was accurate enough, but he didn’t sound like a man brimming with solutions. The flatness of his tone matched the flatness of his team. Leaden. Stale. Drained.
For a manager whose personality has so often been the engine of his sides, that is perhaps the most worrying sign of all.
Arzani’s sting and Keystone Cops defending
As if Celtic needed any more salt in the wound, Daniel Arzani provided it.
The former Celtic player, who came and went in Glasgow with barely a ripple, found acres of space on the left during a Ferencvaros counter-attack. Colby Donovan had over-committed upfield and was left sprinting hopelessly back, chasing shadows.
What followed was a damning snapshot of Celtic’s current state. Gaps everywhere. Panic nowhere near the ball. Arzani had time to measure his effort, pick his spot and whip a magnificent shot into the top corner.
There was more structure in the Keystone Cops than in Celtic’s defensive transition. It was embarrassing, and it looked it.
A broken team on the brink of an Old Firm reckoning
McGregor admitted afterwards that the team is “a little bit broken” at the moment. That felt generous.
Right now, Celtic are short of ideas, conviction, composure and physical edge. They lack creativity in the final third and ruthlessness in both boxes. The stomach for a fight that carried them through last season’s run-in has gone missing.
O’Neill, too, looks like a man searching for inspiration. His career is littered with recoveries from difficult spells, and instinct says he will strain every sinew to drag this one back as well. But there is a lot to mend, and not much time to do it.
Five conceded against LASK. A desperate outing at Ibrox. Now this in Europe. Rangers will be licking their lips at the prospect of facing a wounded rival at Celtic Park.
The old warning says: beware the backlash. The reality is harsher. Right now, nobody knows if this Celtic side still has one in them.
Sunday will give us the first real clue.
