Watching Alex Oxlade Chamberlain curl home that exquisite winning goal against Livingston this week, made me think that this gifted footballer might just be a difference maker as the season reaches the decisive phase. Celtic have struggled at times to deal with teams who park the bus and utilise a low block to frustrate them. The art of shooting from the edge of the box seemed to have been somewhat forgotten this season at the antidote to packed defences. The powerful Englishman is no stranger to shooting from outside the box and has demonstrated his skill in this area on a few occasions over the years. The other players’ reaction to his goal spoke volumes too. There was relief that the game had been salvaged, but as they mobbed him, it was obvious they were delighted to have a player of his calibre on their side. Martin O’Neill has organised and motivated a squad that was in honesty running on empty. His second stint at the helm this season has seen all 7 domestic matches won. It hasn’t always been pretty and there have been some late, late heroics to win the games, but there is a feeling that the squad will fight to the very end for the manager. He seems reasonably happy with the business the club did in the transfer window and it has to be said that the squad looks as if it has more depth now. Hopefully we see one or two of our injured players back too as the spring weather arrives and the boss has more options. The mantra now is to win at all costs. An improving Kilmarnock side will provide a stiff test for Celtic on the plastic pitch on Sunday. The Hoops also need to start converting a higher percentage of their chances. In the recent games with Dundee and Livingston, they had over twenty attempts at goal in each game and still only managed to win them in stoppage time. With Adamu, Cvancara, Iheanacho and Maeda all capable through the middle, O’Neill now has more options up front than was the case. Hopefully that’ll pay dividends as the heavy fixture list unfolds. Celtic now have 11 games in the next 4 weeks and squad rotation will be needed. Every game becomes a must win when the league is so tight, but there are more twists and turns to come in this fascinating league season. Hearts have improved as have Rangers but in truth the competitive edge we all wanted to see in the SPFL has come about because of a levelling down, not a levelling up. Celtic allowed a lot of firepower to leave the club without adequate replacements being brought in. Key players were injured and the squad depth and quality were proved inadequate. Brendan Rodgers was dismissed, rightly or wrongly and the board sanctioned the hiring of a manager who knew nothing about Scottish football and stuck dogmatically to his 3 at the back tactic, even when it was clear that Celtic didn’t have the personnel for it and it wasn’t working. Wilfred Nancy was at Celtic Park for 33 days and oversaw the worst run of results in nearly 50 years. Six of his 8 games ended in defeat and 12 league points and a cup final were lost. Such was the defensive chaos under the Frenchman, that Celtic conceded 18 goals in his 8 games in charge. They lost 15 goals in the previous 24 games. Celtic have lost 6 matches in the SPFL this season and 4 of them were lost in that mad month under Nancy. We can but hope that we now have in the tank to recover from that self-inflicted wound. Hindsight is a wonderful thing, but the sensible thing to have done when Rodgers was fired would have been to leave Martin O’Neill in charge for the rest of the season. That being said, he has steadied the ship again and there is all to play for in the league and the cup. We may Ibrox on 2 consecutive weekends, but should Celtic hang in there in the SPFL, we have both Hearts and Rangers at home after the split so all things are possible. New players have arrived and will in time contribute more fully. If they are on loan, then it is likely that they weren’t purchased outright because the new manager arriving in June will doubtless want a say in who comes and who goes. The wind of change is blowing through Scottish football and I feel the Celtic side we see in July will be much changed from the one we are backing now. Hatate and Maeda look likely to be moving on and Schmeichel may decide that it’s time to hang up his gloves. Engels is attracting interest too and we surely won’t resist another £25m bid for him in the summer? The new boss will want a decent budget, and the fans will accept players trying their luck elsewhere provided the revenue raised is spent on replacements of a similar ability. We saw how the downsizing of the last year left the team weaker and that cannot be allowed to happen again. Before we even contemplate season 2026-27, there is still much to fight for domestically this season. It remains to be seen if Oxlade Chamberlain can reach anywhere near the levels he did at Arsenal or Liverpool. If he can, then we’ll have quite a player on our hands. This is the business end of the season; there is little room for error, but despite the trials, tribulations and squabbles, we’re still in there swinging. We might still look back on this topsy turvy season and remember it as a good one. With a bit of luck, we might even recall it as the year of the ox.
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