Celtic have been ranked as the worst-coached side in the Scottish Premiership by an AI-driven study, despite winning the league title last season. The analysis, part of the latest Global State Of Football report by AI technology PLAIER and the University of St. Gallen, evaluated over 200 clubs across 14 leagues following the 2025/2026 campaign.
The report assessed clubs on four key metrics: squad quality, sporting director efficiency, coaching efficiency and finance stability, to determine how a club is run in relation to their finances and at what cost. Celtic received the only F grade in the Premiership, with a score of -1.16, indicating they underperformed their squad quality despite being crowned champions.
Tumultuous season with three managers
The ranking follows a turbulent season at Parkhead that saw three different managers take charge. Brendan Rodgers started the campaign before a public fallout with principal shareholder Dermot Desmond led to his departure. Martin O'Neill then returned on an interim basis.
Rather than keep the veteran manager, Celtic appointed Wilfried Nancy. That move proved ill-fated, and O'Neill returned to steer the club to a Premiership triumph on the final day of the season. After also securing the Scottish Cup to complete a double, O'Neill opted to take on the challenge for another season.
Motherwell top coaching efficiency rankings
In contrast, Motherwell earned the only overall A grade in the Premiership and were named Scotland's club of the season. The club were also the best performing side in the division for coaching efficiency under former boss Jens Berthel Askou, with a grade of 1.53. That placed him ahead of the other two A grades awarded to David Gray at Hibs (1.12) and Derek McInnes at Hearts (0.92).
Askou had been viewed as one of the leading candidates to replace O'Neill after his second interim stint last season. However, after he took charge of Toulouse, the battle for the Celtic job narrowed to O'Neill and Robbie Keane before a final decision was made.
Board left to ponder what could have been
Askou has since emerged as a candidate to take charge at Crystal Palace after Pierre Sage was axed, leaving the Celtic board to consider what might have been had he not moved to Ligue 1. O'Neill is currently contracted until the end of the season, and the club look set to search for the 74-year-old's successor in the summer.
Speaking following his 11 months in Scotland, Askou was coy on whether Celtic had offered him the job, telling Open Goal: “I don’t want to talk about what other opportunities might have been. I will let people speculate about that. I am here now, and I am happy about that. I feel it’s a very good decision I have made.”
In a positive for Celtic, they were named as the league's only A grade for financial stability, with an estimated profit of around £33 million.
