O’Neill retains Celtic support despite ‘painful’ double derby defeat

Syndicated reporting provided by Stats Perform and reviewed by the SoccerNews editorial team.

Martin O’Neill retains the support of Celtic chief executive Michael Nicholson, despite openly questioning his own future following a pair of Old Firm derby defeats to Rangers.

Celtic went down 1-0 at home to their arch-rivals in the Scottish Premiership on Sunday, with Ryan Naderi’s first-half goal proving decisive.

That result ended Celtic’s perfect Premiership start after six straight wins to begin the season, and it came just seven days after they were beaten 3-0 at Ibrox by the same opponents, in the Scottish League Cup quarter-finals.

It is just the third time in the history of the Old Firm derby that Rangers have faced Celtic in back-to-back games across all competitions and won both, having now done so in September 1960 under Scot Symon, in April 1998 under Walter Smith and this month under Derek McInnes.

Those two defeats came either side of a losing start to Celtic’s Europa League campaign, as they were comfortably beaten by Ferencvaros, by a 3-1 scoreline on home soil.

O’Neill openly pondered his future after the second loss to Rangers, saying in a post-match interview: “It might be time to wrap it up.”

But, in a statement issued alongside the club’s financial results on Tuesday, Nicholson said the Celtic hierarchy remains united in its support of O’Neill.

“Having started well in the Premiership this season, we experienced disappointment in the Champions League play-off,” Nicholson wrote.

We spoke to Martin O’Neill after today’s match.#CELRAN | #CelticFC pic.twitter.com/uzLhu68YsU

— Celtic Football Club (@CelticFC) September 20, 2026

“Reaching the league phase of the Champions League is an objective for us all, and we are sorry not to have achieved it.

“On top of that, the losses in the last week have been painful for us all.

“We will now come together and support Martin and the players, as we focus our efforts on achieving success domestically and in the Europa League.”

O’Neill delivered the Premiership title at the end of a turbulent 2025-26 season for Celtic, which saw him have two separate spells as interim boss following the exits of Brendan Rodgers and Wilfried Nancy. 

He delivered three Premiership titles (in 2000-01, 2001-02 and 2003-04) in his initial five-year stint with Celtic, from 2000 to 2005, also losing the 2003 UEFA Cup final to Jose Mourinho’s Porto.

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