SUNDAY'S Big One in the Scottish capital saw the Hoops travel to Tynecastle to face off in a third showdown this season against pacesetters Hearts, with the season virtually over for Martin O'Neill's side should they succumb to a defeat.
Celtic took to the field just three days after they managed to claim a highly creditable point at Bologna. It keeps their European aspirations alive with a very winnable home game remaining against a frankly awful Utrecht side on Thursday evening. It's not often that Celtic fans can say three points in Europe are demanded and expected – but that is the cold, hard truth.
In northern Italy O'Neill managed to conjure up the kind of performance which has been sorely missing from this set of players for a long time. Had it not been for the stupidity and pettiness of Reo Hatate in the first half in giving the referee an easy decision to reduce the away side to ten men, all three points would likely have returned to Glasgow.
Rangers did Celtic a solid by winning their first European game of the season against Bulgarian champions Ludogorets at Ibrox, keeping the Bhoys in the qualification running after matchday seven, and putting Celtic's future in this year's competition firmly in their hands with that Utrecht fixture looming.
After 70 gruelling minutes of intense defending in Bologna, Celtic immediately turned their thoughts to clawing back that six-point deficit in Edinburgh – or at the very least ensuring that it didn't stretch to a daunting nine.
Despite leading twice in the game, Celtic were eventually pegged back to a 2-2 draw late in a game which saw the Scottish champions on the wrong end of a stunningly inept performance by ref Stephen McLean. He was railroaded into handing Auston Trusty a red card by VAR official John Beaton, even though the briefest glance at the replay shows that McLean had an absolutely perfect view of an incident which he rightly deemed a yellow. There was nothing in the replays he watched that showed McLean a single thing that he didn't see in real time.
I don't like to blame referees for match outcomes. Celtic blew a lead twice with their failure to cope with Hearts' artillery tactics and Daizen Maeda played arguably the worst game I've seen from him in the Hoops. But Martin O'Neill was pretty clear on the red card.
“The sending off, of course, has a major part to play in the last 20-odd minutes," he said after the match. "I must admit there was a controversial moment, the red card.
“And it’s no more a red card than a blue card. It wasn’t an obvious goalscoring opportunity – that’s the thing. If it was going straight to goal I could maybe understand it but it was going away so the player had to come round."
The result left Celtic third, still six points off the top, with Rangers leapfrogging them into second spot. But Celtic fans have been handed a sliver of hope in an absolute dog of a season by O'Neill grinding out results in brutally testing games that Wilfried Nancy would certainly have lost, and in the face of at least one atrocious refereeing decision. Rapt attention is now being paid to the dying days of the January transfer window.
Attacking prospects Tawanda Maswanhise and Kasper Hogh both continue to ply their trades away from Parkhead – at Motherwell and Bodø/Glimt respectively. The Steelmen striker is joint SPFL top scorer and a proven Premiership performer, his capture in particular would delight the faithful. Will he and/or the hugely promising Hogh be brought on board, or are the fans destined for another stomach-churning disappointment in the next few days? Recent windows don't paint a pretty picture.
On the upside, Tomáš Čvančara made an instant impact against Hearts, showing well at times with his back to goal and providing a thrilling assist for Yang to tuck away the second goal. But while the early signs with the Czechia forward are pleasingly positive, so far he and Julian Araujo are the only January additions to a threadbare squad.
The next five league fixtures ahead of the March 1 Glasgow derby are crucial and there's no reason why Celtic can't go into that game in a much better position. The Hoops are at home to Falkirk, Livingston and Hibs in that time, with away trips to Aberdeen and Kilmarnock. It may be tempting fate but it simply needs to be said – the points haul from those games should and must be substantial, not least because Rangers and Hearts will face off at Ibrox in that same period and one of them is going to take a hit.
The big difference between the sides right now is ambition. Celtic have hmmed and haahed, whilst Hearts and Rangers have proactively improved their squads. Dermott Desmond's purse strings seem to be drawing tighter than ever at a time when they need to be dramatically loosened.
Celtic managed to earn a 2-2 draw in Bologna
Bottom line? If the Celtic board give O'Neill even a part of what he needs, there's no reason why Celtic can't be the team to fear again at the split. But Michael Nicholson's name is one I utter in my sleep, and although my wife get's worried that he's competing for my affection, it's quite literally the opposite.
How many CEOs do you know have to get their permission slip signed? The position of CEO at Celtic Football Club is truly just a facade. In practice, Nicholson has as much power as the tea lady, and at least she doesn't need to call Uncle Dermy to ask if it should be Thompson's or Twinings in the pot.
The infuriating thing is that to a money man like Desmond the imperative to spend money is compelling. Imagine if you will that Celtic finish the season third. With no European football to turboboost the income stream, what then? What plan is put into effect? The answer is none. There is no plan.
Nicholson knows that his almost £900k per year role is a gig he won't get anywhere else, which is why he won't stand up to the big boss. And so the club doesn't answer ultimately to the fans, it answers ultimately to the London Stock Exchange.
The board have got away with it for so long that when Hearts hooked up with Jamestown Analytics to change the picture and disrupt the status quo, they succeeded with an ease that makes a mockery of Celtic as an institution. Given the vast financial gulf between the clubs, whether Hearts will continue to do so is entirely up to Celtic. But there's absolutely no reason at this point why the Jam Tarts should be particularly worried.
Nicholson famously said last autumn that Celtic have to be "world class in everything we do." That seems like rather a lame joke now – unless of course 'world class' continues to be defined by the club as keeping the biscuit tin tightly shut while hoping that your poorer rivals continue to be slightly worse than you. That's something that Celtic have excelled at on the domestic and European stages for too long now, but Nicholson and Desmond seem hell-bent on taking it to an entirely new level.
The transfer window is drawing slowly to a close. If only the same could be said of Nicholson's tenure as CEO.
