THE past six weeks at Celtic Football Club have handed the average fan a magnifying glass to inspect the inner-workings of the club they love.
The bigwigs tasked with the decision making looking down on their subjects are no doubt hoping to use Martin O'Neill's return in the same way Will Smith used his memory eraser in the Men in Black movie.
The aftermath of the disastrous Glasgow derby saw Celtic maintain a 48-hour radio silence and when Monday's stock exchange in London opened, an announcement was made soon after that Wilfried Nancy had been relieved of his duties as the boss at Paradise. Paradise is not the best word right now for the home of Scotland's most successful team, given it's more akin to hell on earth for the fans, especially losing a derby in such extraordinary fashion to Rangers.
Shaun Maloney pictured resigning back in 2010 for Celtic
The satirical image of Martin O'Neill on social media said it all: the Co Derry man squeezed into a wall behind emergency glass waiting to be released. And just like clockwork, that is exactly what happened on the Monday evening at 8.30pm when the Celtic FC website announced O'Neill's return for what is now his third spell in charge.
His opening press conference had all the wit and carefully constructed euphemisms for which O'Neill has become famous in his latter years. But in the midst of that, something was different, a slightly more serious and sombre tone.
This time he has returned just in time for the inevitable January transfer window madness – and he's got not an undetermined spell but until the end of the season to do something wonderful. Or not.
The press conferences no longer are get out of jail free cards for the Celtic Board, as O'Neill has made it clear he will not be taken for a fool.
Saturday saw a terrific performance, the Hoops running riot over Dundee United at Celtic Park to reignite their winning form by thrashing their opponents by four goals without reply.
The new – or old – boss has virtually begged his overlords to get the finger out, for lack of a better expression, and bolster a squad which requires the footballing equivalent of open-heart surgery.
Worryingly, what O'Neill has said thus far seems almost identical to any of the managers who took the reins since his initial departure in 2005.
“I am hopeful that we are going to get some people in," he told the media. "But just when you think that something might happen, things change around."
Hopeful. That term haunts the dreams of Celtic fans every time the transfer window opens in football. It circles you, fills you up, gives you this feeling that surely this time they'll get it right, only for the suits to get it so far wrong it would make you laugh in hysterical fashion at the thought that a 'big club' could act so amateurishly.
But amateur hour at Celtic has been an ongoing theme for the past two decades, offset to a huge extent by the ineptitude of their rivals and the miracles wrought by some managers. The club has been a success domestically in the Desmond Dermot years, no doubt, but their maintenance of that stranglehold is made so much more difficult, if not impossible, by the incompetents in the comfortable seats.
It's mid-January, with only half the window left, but again Celtic are relying on agents pushing forward unwanted and out of favour players who would not be worth a shirt even if they were at the peak of their powers.
Take the man who looks to have been parachuted into the recruitment side of things, Shaun Maloney, a Celtic man through and through, and actually someone who has earned his spurs outside of the old 'I used to work here' trope.
Back in his playing days Maloney was a star from the academy, one who Celtic raised, played and then sold to Aston Villa when Martin O'Neill took the reins in Birmingham in 2007.
Maloney's move did not really work out too well, and where did he end up, you ask? Back up the road at Celtic Park for another successful spell. 20 years on, what has changed?
Jota replaced himself 18 months after his disastrous but financially rewarding move to Saudi Arabia. Then we had the alleged sacking of popular goalkeeping coach Stevie Woods, to be replaced that very evening with... himself.
Three of Celtic's seven managers since 2005 have returned to the club for a second spell in charge: Brendan Rodgers, Neil Lennon and now Martin O'Neill (again).
The circus does not stop there either, with the search for a centre-forward being a running sore for a full calendar year at Celtic, since star man Kyogo Furuhashi transferred to Stade Rennais in France for roughly £10 million.
Football 'doctor' Paul Tisdale and his super computer thought they'd found Kyogo 2.0 in the form of Shin Yamada last summer, which Brendan Rodgers labelled a "club signing".
Yamada had one single decent season in Japan when he registered double digits for goals, compared to Kyogo's FOUR consistent years as a goalscorer, averaging 15 goals a season.
So, now that the Kyogo 2.0 project has failed, where does that leave us? Answer: Right back to the same player, with Celtic speaking with Birmingham City over a short term loan move for their former frontman, a move vetoed by Birmingham boss Chris Davies, who wanted no part of a conversation which involved his side losing a forward in January.
And Celtic's urgent and painfully obvious need for new defensive blood has seen the club do what? Bring Stephen Welsh back from his Motherwell loan.
Meanwhile, across the city and in Edinburgh, the cash is being splashed as both Rangers and especially Hearts smell blood in the water.
What's next might you ask? Back to square one we go, and whether the club has any true ambition left for this nightmare season remains to be seen.
I'll leave you with this quote from Celtic's CEO, Michael Nicholson, back in October: "We acknowledge that the Club is not where we want it to be at the moment, that we have not achieved all of our objectives in the summer transfer window and the Champions League, and that mistakes have been made from which we will learn."
The transfer window hope is back again. But every time there's a little less of it.
