Short-term pain, Long-term pain?

Has Celtic, a slow, reactive, pedantic organisation, painted themselves into a corner as the summer dealings ramp up?

Celtic and Martin O’Neill finally agreed a one-year contract with, and this could be crucial, the option for another year. Ultimately both parties need to agree to trigger it, as O’Neill characteristically joked to The Herald.

Five managers at the current World Cup are 70 years old or more – pop quiz, can you name them without Googling? 70 may be the new 50 in terms of managerial longevity at the top level.

Remember some of the great names of British football management and their retirement ages from club football?

Jock Stein was 55, Bill Nicholson also 55, Don Revie 57, Bill Shankly 60, Matt Busby 61 and Bob Paisley 64.

None of them would be considered “old men” today.

But my concern isn’t so much O’Neill’s age, whilst it opened the door to some nostalgia, more the likely contract length and what this may mean for Celtic.

In theory any manager is one game from the sack. Or may get a better offer or upset the major shareholder so much that he leaves overnight with a flaming missive in his ear on the club’s website. Stuff happens.

So, in that sense, a club is always 24 hours away from a drama around securing a new manager and what that means to the playing style, coaching staff, and whether the current players fit in with the new manager’s plans.

But Celtic have walked into a specific situation, and the early evidence suggests they have not adjusted internal policies and practises to reflect.