Title defence begins with hurdles
Having waited for the Commonwealth Games to end, Celtic now enter what is being called the "Fun and Games" - a Glasgow variation on the Olympic ethos. The main event is the dash to judgement, starting tomorrow night with the visit of Dundee in the first match of the Scottish Premiership title defence.
Supporters are convinced that if last season's team could win the league, then this one, with a £17million striking partnership, should retain the title as a near certainty. Martin O'Neill, however, was far more reserved at his Friday press conference, and he is right to be cautious. He has not been handed a baton in a relay race; he has been handed a ticking bomb.
Only Celtic could play their first game of the season at the same time as selling two major players, Arne Engels and Alistair Johnston, while facing a Champions League qualifier with enormous financial implications in two weeks on limited resources. The shortage is immediately visible in defence: Auston Trusty is absent and Liam Scales is suspended for the Dundee match. As O'Neill said, there is Utopia and then there is real life - and being two prominent players down before a ball is kicked is the latter.
Board's ambition under fire
O'Neill's observation that Celtic would still need players even if Engels and Johnston remained was telling. The lack of numbers in the building points to a board lacking ambition and energy. No wonder the manager said, "I'm never confident." No wonder chief executive Michael Nicholson misses pre-season home matches.
The people O'Neill works for would dampen the confidence of the most cock-eyed optimist. He is left to trumpet the party line about being "close" to new signings - a refrain heard across successive transfer windows. Fans, however, look at a team that overcame every disadvantage last season and see legitimate grounds for believing Celtic are in a better place now. The old "that was then, this is now" psychology applies.
The No.9 shirt and the defensive blind spot
The wearer of the No.9 jersey at Celtic should be a player of particular bearing. The inscription on the interior wall on the way to the tunnel says the club's shirt does not shrink to fit lesser players. The last man to wear the number under O'Neill before last Tuesday's record signing was Junior Adamu, a loanee from Freiburg who was a player of almost limitless inefficiency. Kasper Hogh, the new arrival, has cost the kind of money that compels him to be a monumental upgrade.
Hogh, though, is not in a marathon; at the Fun and Games, you have to sprint to win medals. Some supporters may believe that if Celtic could be champions with Adamu on the premises, then adding Hogh and the £6m Camilo Duran puts the finishing line in sight before the race has started. At the same time, it is typical of Celtic to pay a fortune for two strikers while doing nothing to shore up a defence in clear need of reinforcements. O'Neill will, in his private moments, acknowledge this oversight as a potential threat to his team.
O'Neill's position remains a curiosity
In many respects, it is a nonsense that O'Neill begins the new season as manager. By what criteria should he still be in the job other than the absence of a succession strategy? Is he too old, or is it no longer a young man's game? Is he too back in the day for a data-driven business, or is that not what it is about? Surely he must be too exhausted, mentally and physically, to replicate last season's three-legged race that put him above Hearts and Rangers.
Yet O'Neill won two trophies while turning 74, in spite of every hazard placed in his way. There was inner turmoil, pandemonium in the stands and the challenge of Wilfried Nancy. His achievement, incredible at the outset and outrageous in the end, established two facts: it enshrined him in Celtic folklore and it defied the laws of gravity for someone of a supposedly sedentary age and disposition. It also meant he won one more trophy in one chaotic season than Derek McInnes has managed in 19 years.
So is O'Neill a freak of nature, as opposed to a force of nature? McInnes has set a low bar after Friday night's disappointing start at Tannadice. Last season also brought acts of escapology and insinuations of favouritism for Celtic's manager.
Tomorrow, O'Neill will have the undivided attention of those drawn to a unique story. Dream and white, so to speak? Or green with envy because others might be better? On your marks.
