When you’ve looked for something for so long in vain, there inevitably comes a point where you start to doubt its very existence.
Conditioned to watching a side in green and white play football with verve and purpose, Celtic supporters have spent the majority of this season anticipating its timely return.
With the business end of the campaign now upon us, they are still waiting.
Martin O’Neill, whose team face St Mirren in the Scottish Cup semi-final on Sunday, isn’t yet in the camp which believes that this squad simply no longer has another gear to engage.
‘We’ve played some ties against European sides that are decent sides, you know?’ he said.
‘I know Bologna got well beaten there by Aston Villa the other night, but for us to have gone there, down to 10 men, still compete and get out with the draw was impressive.
Martin O’Neill says the tension of this season’s title race is holding his fragile team back
Martin O’Neill’s stuttering Celtic side have suffered eight defeats in the league this season
St Mirren interim boss Craig McLeish is hoping to upset Celtic in the Scottish Cup semi-finals
‘We did well at Stuttgart, did well at Feyenoord. So, you’re hoping that those sort of performances against very good sides away from home show you there’s something there.’
It’s a perplexing old business. Notwithstanding injuries and the fact that three different managers have been in charge across four different spells in this often-chaotic year, Celtic have occasionally reminded the watching world that they are a talented side. It’s just that they seem to have found new ways of disguising it.
When they won the second leg of that Europa League tie in Stuttgart on February 26, all the talk was of it being a turning point.
But they were abysmal in the first half at Ibrox the following Sunday and haven’t come close to producing a five-star 90-minute display since.
O’Neill’s men are due some credit for putting a desperate display in the defeat at Tannadice behind them by narrowly beating Dundee and St Mirren to keep their title hopes flickering. Neither performance, though, was anything to write home about.
The manager has his own theory for the staccato nature of the side’s domestic form.
‘I think there’s just general tension around not just ourselves, but Hearts and Rangers kind of trying to just get over the line,’ he offered.
‘I’ve seen it before. And honestly, the winning of the game is the most important thing.
‘That’s the relief of winning the game — knowing that you can do better. And I would hope that we would. Well, we would have to do better on Sunday. Otherwise, we could lose the game.’
O’Neill may have identified the cause of the problem. Finding a solution could be easier said than done.
A stuttering Celtic side has suffered eight league defeats to this point. That sees them trailing Hearts and Rangers.
With just five games remaining, the margin for error is now wafer thin. If tension has been a contributing factor in what’s happened to this point, then surely it will only increase as the winning post comes into sight?
‘We have a group of boys here at this minute who are winners, who have done it,’ said O’Neill. ‘I think the issue I have is that, generally by this time last year, the league was won. So, you’re not really going through that sort of tension.
‘Since I’ve come into both spells, it’s just a matter of chasing the teams. That in itself creates a different dynamic. It’s a different thing. So, players then have to just get used to it.
‘And even players who have won matches might find this a bit strange. But I think, hopefully, we should be able to deal with it, certainly try and play better.’
Some of the faithful have seen enough. Speaking this week, former Celtic striker Frank McAvennie declared that he was bored rigid watching the current lot plod their way through matches. O’Neill has a degree of sympathy for his viewpoint.
‘If you’re asking me about an honest assessment of us, I think we could play quicker. I think we could,’ he said.
‘I think we could take, let’s say, four passes instead of six to get to the same spot. That would be my interpretation of my team. I think we could get there quicker.
‘I don’t know how many games Frank has seen, but at the end of the day, it’s his opinion.
‘Celtic can be better. Celtic Football Club will be better. Hopefully, they’ll be a better side next season — be able to compete from the start and things like that.
‘So, yeah, I think that any criticism that’s delivered to us, mostly, is probably fair at the end of the day. So, I’m not really bothered. It doesn’t really matter.’
His record in the Scottish Cup first time around was formidable. Celtic beat Hibs in 2001 to secure a first treble since 1969, saw off Dunfermline in 2004 to claim the double and defeated Dundee United the following year in what proved to be his final match in charge of that spell.
Yet, characteristically, O’Neill still finds it hard to expunge the memory of a dramatic loss to Rangers in 2002.
‘That one was really hard to take,’ he reflected.
In the here and now, the fervent hope of all concerned is that something clicks.
After defeat in the League Cup final in December which O’Neill watched from afar, the threat posed by St Mirren this weekend won’t need stressing.
Now under the interim charge of Craig McLeish, the Buddies are eminently capable of defeating Celtic at the national stadium for a second time this season.
Given what’s at stake — the chance to bow out with a trophy on May 23 — you suspect O’Neill would forgo the elusive sparkling performance for another week if it meant progression to the final.
‘I don’t think we are good enough to dream that far down the line,’ he said. ‘If we can win the game, it definitely would have a positive effect. No question about that.
‘Similarly, and quite the opposite, I suppose, it (a loss) could have a poor effect on us. But we’re going all out to try and win the game.’
