Celtic’s impressive collection of domestic trophies over the past two decades is akin to discovering a sunken Spanish galleon’s hidden treasure, which makes the current situation seem surreal to many observers.

With 43 trophies secured over 26 years, one might assume complaints would be scarce for a club with such an impressive record.

However, the complexities lie beneath the surface. Consider the £77 million resting in the bank, juxtaposed with an underprepared squad facing Kairat Almaty in a Champions League qualifier with £40 million at stake.

Communication issues add another layer of complexity, as evidenced by the £800,000-a-year chief executive’s disappearance while the club’s official website is used to attack the reputation of its most celebrated living manager.

To further complicate matters, the club’s leadership seems to be alienating fans, with the most vocal supporters currently barred from entering the stadium.

Junior Adamu keeps Celtic in the Scottish Cup with a stoppage-time equaliser at Celtic Park

Ethan Hamilton celebrates the goal that looked set to take Dundee into the quarter-finals

New signing Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain was paraded before kick-off at Celtic Park

Aside from these challenges, everything else appears to be running smoothly.

For long enough, anyone tuning into the match with Dundee yesterday evening with only a sketchy knowledge of the current state of play would have been able to join the dots.

The side on the park in green and white were woeful for 90 minutes and more. A team are always the embodiment of the way a club are being run. This, largely, was why somewhere around 10,000 supporters opted to boycott the affair.

Celtic got away with it in the end, but the wider picture was unchanged and will remain so until there is meaningful change in Glasgow’s east end.

As he prepares to meet various disaffected supporters’ groups in the coming weeks, interim chairman Brian Wilson will need to offer more than empty platitudes and promises of jam tomorrow.

Heaven knows where the Celtic board would be right now if it wasn’t for Martin O’Neill.

Having once answered the call from Dermot Desmond following Brendan Rodgers’ messy departure, he would have been within his rights to politely decline when an offer to return was made after the Wilfried Nancy debacle.

The advancing years have clearly not diminished O’Neill’s ability to get every last drop out of the players at his disposal. That’s 12 domestic games unbeaten over both spells this season, an extraordinary return given how limited the current squad are.

Even the 73-year-old must have felt this was not to be his day, though, as his team struggled with so many of the fundamentals for long enough. They seemed startled by Dundee’s bright start and were incapable of getting any head of steam up.

With neither Yang Hyun-jun nor new boy Joel Mvuka winning their individual battles on the flanks, Tomas Cvancara was starved of meaningful service.

Reo Hatate and Paulo Bernardo failed to put their stamp on proceedings, too. At the back, Liam Scales looked remarkably unsure of himself. Collectively, Celtic were wholly uninspiring.

Dundee would have hit the front before they did had it not been for Julian Araujo’s diligence on the line preventing Luke Graham’s side-footer finding the rigging.

When they did go in front four minutes after half-time, it was not ill-deserved. Ethan Hamilton’s nimble footwork came before he unleashed a beauty into the top corner from the edge of the box.

It would have been game over soon after had Kieran Tierney not popped up behind Viljami Sinisalo to prevent Tony Yogane from finding the net.

What happened next spoke to O’Neill’s enduring ability to whisper some words in a player’s ear and make them feel 10 feet tall when they cross the white line.

Seb Tounekti started his Celtic career like he meant business, only to struggle thereafter.

His display after being introduced on 70 minutes evoked memories of the way O’Neill turned around the fortunes of wingers like Bobby Petta all those years ago.

The Tunisian international’s failure to initially get the better of Brad Halliday didn’t deter him from taking him on again and again.

With the game already beyond the five additional minutes and Celtic on their way out of the Scottish Cup, Tounekti had no margin for error as he dropped a shoulder and slid in a cross which Junior Adamu converted with an audacious backheel.

You had to feel for Dundee as they steeled themselves for an additional 30 minutes. Steven Pressley’s side had performed commendably up until that point.

It seemed, though, that their heads were not yet back in the game as Tounekti worked a one-two with Luke McCowan two minutes later and buried the ball beyond Jon McCracken. 

Celtic were never losing it from that point onwards, with the outcome preventing the anger which had bubbled up in the main stand in the second half being taken to the front door later in the evening.

For all Celtic are a club divided, the fervent hope of all concerned will be that O’Neill can somehow navigate a course to the most unlikely league and cup double. Despite the failings behind the scenes, that’s not yet beyond them.

While Mvuka didn’t do a great deal in the 45 minutes he was afforded, Adamu looked lively.

Cvancara and Araujo certainly have pedigree and Benjamin Arthur should do a job at the back if required. The return of Marcelo Saracchi after a hamstring injury was another positive.

Paraded before the game, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain is clearly a gamble. The 32-year-old, who was signed as a free agent, won the lot across his spells with Arsenal and Liverpool. But there’s an obvious concern about a player with an unfortunate injury record who last played for Besiktas last May.

No matter how it all unfolds, acquiring five loan signings and a free agent midway through a season isn’t a sign of ambition. It’s pure desperation — an admission that so much that went before was so wrong.

Even if the veteran manager somehow pulls this tumultuous season out of the fire, the feet of those at the helm will deservedly remain held to it.