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Martin O'Neill and Shaun Maloney announced as the full-time permanent management team at Celtic . Or a new boss and staff taken into Parkhead during the international break to get started. Celtic need to be decisive. And be decisive now. It just needs to be one or the other and fast. It can’t just float along because there is too much resting on it. There needs to be a clear plan and clear vision of what is going to happen in the next few months. Let me put my cards on the table right now. With my hand on my heart, I hope my old boss finishes up after tomorrow’s game against Kilmarnock. Before anyone starts slaughtering me or saying I am not being fair, let me explain why. Martin O’Neill is a legend at Celtic for what he did during my time there as a player. I owe him plenty myself for signing me as I wouldn’t have experienced the whole thing or enjoyed such a wonderful time in my career if he hadn’t done that. He walked back into the club in the wake of the Brendan Rodgers departure and he answered the call with Maloney placed at his side. Now that’s great. It was important to have someone who could unite the club, the fans and bring a bounce into the players. That was achieved. The wins over Falkirk and against Rangers in the semi-final of the Premier Sports Cup ensured no damage done domestically in the very short term. But let’s be frank. This isn’t a short-term situation. This is a big job to get things back on track and the Europa League defeat in Midtjylland just summed that up. Actually, it wasn’t just the defeat. The Danes were top of the table going into the game and losing the game wasn’t the biggest thing, it was the manner of the loss. Celtic were absolutely miles off it. That was as much of a 3-1 hammering as you could get. That scoreline flattered Celtic . Basically, Martin has such a great legacy at Celtic and I wouldn’t want it to be damaged by any more nights like that. It’s hard to think more are not going to follow before this league phase is over because, watching that game in Denmark, it just brought home to me how much needs to be done with the squad. As if it wasn’t bad enough, the fact more players added their name to the injury list just adds to the problems. Celtic are going to need a massive January to get some new faces in the door. Normally, I would be suggesting that the next window is an important one in terms of trying to get guys signed with a view to being bedded in for the Champions League qualifiers the following summer. Yet the truth of the matter is, as it stands, it might have to be a big month just to try and ensure that Hearts are overhauled for the title. There simply cannot be any sort of confusion or lack of clarity on the scenario. Listen, I know there will be some people who say that O’Neill and Maloney until the end of the season would offer some form of clarity and, in some respects, I understand that. It’s certainly a better alternative than the situation just now where no one is actually sure. But even so, how can you be realistically planning for the future and discussing targets and making signings in January when you know the management team isn’t going to be in place six months later? That just doesn’t work for me. I know football changes fast but I feel there needs to be a longer plan in place. Martin and Shaun would be able to pick players and work alongside the recruitment team but that doesn’t really work as an ideal scenario if they are not going to be there five months later. It cannot work that way. Just as an aside, that display in Denmark was a painful one to watch. I’m well aware that Celtic haven’t performed brilliantly on the continent over a sustained period of time and that losing in that fashion is nothing new for the club’s fans. Nonetheless, when you consider that almost exactly a year ago, Celtic were ripping RB Leipzig apart in the Champions League with a brilliant performance of speed, quality and clinical edge, it was a sobering experience to consider just how far they’ve fallen in just 12 months. In fact, it’s nine months when you think of Bayern Munich in the Allianz Arena and running them to within a minute or two of extra time. Midtjylland are not even Champions League. This was Europa League and Celtic looked way behind them in every department. I’m the first one to say domestic football is your bread and butter and that comes first, but you need to have aspirations in Europe and, right now, my old club is going backwards instead of forwards on the continent. I feel it is going to take some fresh ideas. A new manager heading to the club with new staff and new ideas. Maybe the club won’t think that way and will decide that Martin and Shaun are the ones who can take it on from the current position. That’s not my decision but whatever way it goes, all I am saying is there has to be a decision. And it has to be soon because there’s too much going on for this to sit in some form of limbo.
