Martin O’Neill has issued a stark reminder to Celtic, urging them to consider this season as a critical turning point—a far cry from the board’s reassuring message last September, which insisted that everything was progressing smoothly with no need for concern or change.

This week, O’Neill’s insights have been quite revealing. His observation that the rise of teams like Hearts and possibly Motherwell, alongside a rejuvenated Rangers backed by American investors, might have caught Celtic off guard, suggests that the reigning champions may have been resting on their laurels after years of domestic supremacy.

O’Neill’s carefully worded appeal to the club’s January recruits, encouraging them to make a significant impact in the campaign’s final stretch, also struck a chord, especially after securing another narrow win at Pittodrie.

Rangers and Celtic have both struggled to meet expectations this season

The situation was hardly O’Neill’s doing. Thrust into a challenging role following the exits of Wilfried Nonsense and Paul Tisdale, he faced the daunting January transfer window with limited prospects. O’Neill and his assistant, Shaun Maloney, had to scramble to pull together potential deals, often relying on their phones to make things happen.

It was almost surreal. Imagine the audience’s interest in a candid Q&A session with O’Neill, who was brought back by Celtic not once but twice at the age of 73, as he tried to steer the club through turbulent times, alongside seemingly absent figures like CEO Michael Nicholson.

As previously mentioned, Celtic’s current plight doesn’t warrant sympathy. Whether this situation will jolt an outdated and disconnected leadership into action remains uncertain.

Across the city at Rangers, the wake-up call for their chairman Andrew Cavenagh and his US consortium came in October when the need for a police escort out of Falkirk after 17 games of slapstick made it crystal-clear Russell Martin could no longer remain as manager and would have to be followed out the door by CEO Patrick Stewart and sporting director Kevin Thelwell.

Celtic boss O’Neill and Ibrox manager Rohl face the possibility of a trophyless season

Cavenagh, to his credit, took action. By then, though, the accusation that everyone in the management structure had also been guilty of underestimating the Scottish game was established and pretty much justified. Too many guys brought in from English football just weren’t cutting it.

Joe Rothwell has already gone. Max Aarons and Nasser Djiga won’t be around much longer. Penny for your thoughts on Manny Fernandez and Thelo Aasgaard. Questions also remain over Djeidi Gassama and even Youssef Chermiti.

The £10million-plus dished out in January on Tuur Rommens, Ryan Naderi and Tochi Chukwuani – plus whatever it took to secure Andreas Skov Olsen on loan – to bolster the squad inherited by new boss Danny Rohl was a statement of intent.

However, you’re looking at something in the region of £40m having been spent since last summer. For a team that’s still sitting third in the Premiership, can’t beat Livingston and bottle it when 2-0 up at home against Celtic.

Rohl has to take the blame for those players retreating into their shells during that second half last weekend. In Sunday’s Scottish Cup quarter-final against O’Neill’s men at Ibrox, the German is under real pressure to prove he is the right kind of coach to take Rangers forward.

Everyone there has work to do, though. Although overshadowed by events at Celtic, their season has been a total mess as well. For all that spending, the defence remains deeply suspect and should have been further strengthened. There has been no long-term replacement for Thelwell either, with Stig Inge Bjornebye brought in on a short-term advisory role in December.

Any strategy that might have existed was blown out of the water. Who knows if anything truly solid has been created since? Fortunes are certainly still being spent with punters still split over the long-term worth of this latest change of direction.

Hearts set the pace at the top of the league with a fraction of the budget of their Glasgow rivals

Meanwhile, Hearts, the ultimate example of a fan-run club, carry on pushing the envelope at the top of the table with a fraction of the Old Firm’s budgets, but a solid manager in Derek McInnes, a squad of players punching above their weight and a recruitment department boosted by Tony Bloom’s Jamestown Analytics already seen to be working months and windows in advance.

At Motherwell, another fan-led operation, a head coach in Jens Berthel Askou – brought in specifically to put bums on seats – has worked miracles in setting his stall out from the very beginning and refusing to budge.

The Fir Park side are the most attractive side in the country and it is just such a shame they went out of the Scottish Cup to an expensively-assembled yet awful Aberdeen, who now appear to have chairman Dave Cormack back bumping his gums centre stage after a spell out of the spotlight.

Falkirk are still in the tournament, though, and what an advert it would be for doing things right – rebuilding steadily from League One after years of rank bad management – if they could go on to win it under the excellent John McGlynn.

In truth, the Old Firm lifting nothing this season could be the best thing to happen to Scottish football. If Hearts or Motherwell won the title and the likes of Falkirk won the cup, what encouragement it would give to others in terms of what can be possible if you get organised, make a plan, stick to it and steer a steady course. Just do things properly.

Jens Berthel Askou’s Motherwell have been a revelation this season

The league, as a whole, is already attracting wider attention due to the emergence of new title challengers. That, if sustained, can lead to better TV deals, new sponsorship arrangements. It is almost certainly going to make Scotland a place more players will want to play in, particularly with Hearts sure to beef up their recruitment and spending as the Jamestown method becomes embedded.

It’s not just about the so-called smaller clubs, though. It’s about the Old Firm too.

O’Neill’s words, you see, speak to a wider point. Celtic and Rangers need to be made to know that they cannot allow themselves to sleepwalk into another season like this. They need to know they can’t get away with this again. Ending the season empty-handed feels like the kind of brutal slap in the face it will take to really make them understand.

They should be the flagbearers for the game here. Although Hearts may play a prominent role in future too, it is they who will be depended upon to lift the national coefficient from the position it has slumped to. They need to be politically strong at European level, too, and footballing achievement plays a part in that.

They’ve both been all over the place in recent years. The shellshock and fall-out of neither of them winning anything – particularly if clubs operating in exemplary ways benefit – might be what it takes to give Scottish football the Great Reset it requires.