Simon Jordan urges Martin O’Neill to show defiance amid Celtic struggles

Simon Jordan has told Martin O’Neill to show more steel and less self-doubt after the Celtic manager publicly questioned his own future in the wake of a grim week for the champions.

Celtic have crashed to three defeats in seven bruising days, two of them against Rangers, and the mood around the club has darkened fast.

It started with a 3-0 humbling at Ibrox in the Scottish League Cup quarter-final. Celtic were outplayed, outfought and out of the competition. Then came a 1-0 loss to Rangers at Celtic Park in the Premiership, a result that snapped their perfect start to the league season and cut deep into the support’s early optimism.

Wedged between those Old Firm setbacks, Hungarian side Ferencvaros turned up in Glasgow and left with a Europa League win in the group opener. One bad result became a pattern. One bad week has become a warning sign.

O’Neill’s team have now been beaten four times in all competitions this season, already matching the total number of defeats they suffered across 35 games last term. The contrast is stark. So is the scrutiny.

The 74-year-old signed a one-year deal in June after returning in January as caretaker and driving Celtic to a Premiership and Scottish Cup double. That run back to the top looked like a renaissance. Now it feels like a question.

After the latest loss to Rangers, O’Neill admitted he would step back and think hard about whether he remains the right man to lead the side.

“I genuinely will reflect and see,” he said. “It’s a matter of whether I can help the team. If that’s the case – the manager’s supposed to be able to do that. I will have a look at that there this week.”

Those words jarred with Jordan. The former Crystal Palace chairman wanted defiance, not introspection.

“I've liked to see him being a bit spikier and a bit more robust, rather than sounding relatively defeated in that clip,” Jordan said on talkSPORT.

He argued that a Celtic manager, especially after back-to-back defeats to Rangers, should have drawn a line in the sand.

“I certainly would have been wanting to say back to them, ‘This has happened, it will not happen again.’”

For Jordan, O’Neill’s willingness to publicly question whether it might be “his time” felt out of character.

“The fact that he's talking about whether he can help the team and whether it's his time – I find that slightly strange of Martin, but he's having a reflective moment.”

Reflective or not, the next result will decide whether this is just a wobble in September or the start of something far more serious for Celtic’s season – and for O’Neill’s final act in the dugout.