A year ago, Celtic imploded.

Just a few months after a double-winning season, making it four titles in a row and taking Bayern Munich all the way in the Champions League knockouts, the club ended up in crisis.

Manager Brendan Rodgers walked out on the club after a row with principal shareholder Dermot Desmond, sending shockwaves across world football.

Club legend Martin O'Neill, who had been a pundit for the last six years and is now 74 years old, took the reins temporarily in yet another surprise development to this incredible story.

But how did Celtic get into such a situation, and what happened next?

Late night drama

It was at 9.44pm on Monday, October 27, 2025, that Celtic released a statement on their website entitled, 'Brendan Rodgers leaves Celtic Football Club'.

It was just five paragraphs long, announcing that Rodgers had handed in his resignation and the club had accepted it. It also revealed that former boss O'Neill was taking over on an interim basis with Shaun Maloney, while they began the process to appoint a permanent manager.

This shock news came on the back of Celtic's 3-1 defeat to Hearts at Tynecastle the day before, which meant they trailed the Edinburgh club by eight points in the title race.

Rodgers had become increasingly frustrated with the board and had been very vocal about it.

'Honda Civic' Celtic

The Irishman had hoped the club would build on the success of the previous season which saw them go toe-to-toe with Europe's elite in the Champions League - making it out of the league phase and then very nearly knocking Bayern Munich out in the play-offs.

This time, Celtic had a qualifying play-off against Kairat Almaty to negotiate to reach the Champions League.

The club had made £75m from the previous season's Champions League exploits. There was plenty of cash and Rodgers was expecting investment. The fans demanded investment.

But Celtic went into the tie with Kairat still without replacements for Kyogo Furuhashi, who was sold to Rennes in January 2025 for £10m, and Nicolas Kuhn, who left for Como that summer for £16.5m.

They were beaten by the Kazakh side on penalties. They then also sold Adam Idah, leaving them with just one first team striker - Daizen Maeda - at the club after the summer transfer window.

This sparked mass protests against the board at games and Rodgers appeared to feel vindicated to speak out also about his frustrations with the lack of reinforcements in key areas, where players had departed.

After a defeat to Dundee at Dens Park, he said: "There's no way you'll go into a race and be given the keys to a Honda Civic and say, 'I want you to drive it like a Ferrari'. It's not going to happen."

A week later he was gone.

Rodgers resigns

Celtic's principal shareholder Desmond wanted to meet the manager the day after the defeat to Hearts.

It's understood it was a three-hour meeting in which a major row led to an ultimatum being given by Desmond: get on with the job, or resign - he wasn't going to be sacked.

Rodgers, who had previously promised the fans that this time he would at least see out his contract at Celtic, chose to walk away from the job.

When news filtered through to other board members and club staff, there was absolute shock. Nobody expected things to escalate in the way they did.

The announcement made national and international headlines. What added fuel to the fire was another statement on the Celtic website, written by Desmond, who came out all guns blazing with a character assassination of Celtic's third-most successful manager.

Desmond labelled Rodgers "divisive, misleading, and self-serving," stating that his recent conduct broke the trust placed in him upon his return to the club. The Irish billionaire disputed Rodgers' public complaints about transfer backing, stating that every player signed and sold during his tenure had Rodgers' full knowledge, approval, and endorsement.

He claimed that during the meeting with Rodgers, the Celtic boss could not identify a single instance of the club obstructing or failing to support him.

Desmond said that Rodgers' public narrative created a toxic environment and triggered unwarranted abuse toward board members and executives.

Rodgers, who now manages Saudi Pro League side Al Qadsiah, has still not publicly responded to the claims, nor has he talked about his Celtic exit to this day.

It was a bombshell statement from Desmond on a night that rocked Celtic to the core.

O'Neill returns

Many Celtic fans were in shock as they woke up to the news that Rodgers had left. But it was just as a big shock to find out that O'Neill was the man back in charge of the club.

The then 73-year-old hadn't been a football manager since 2019 when he left Nottingham Forest, and even he revealed his surprise at being asked by Desmond to lead the club.

But he accepted the job and got on with the task, while the club began the process to appoint a permanent manager.

He stressed that he was just back until the club found a new, "younger" manager.

He got a hero's welcome in his first game two days after being appointed - a 4-0 win over Falkirk at Celtic Park. He joked that he didn't know some of the players' names.

Next up, O'Neill had the small matter of a derby match with Rangers in the League Cup semi-final at Hampden Park. In true O'Neill fashion, he won that 3-1 after extra time to send Celtic into a final against St Mirren at the end of December.

The only blip in his initial return was a 3-1 away defeat to Midtjylland in the Europa League, but he more than made up for it with an historic night in Rotterdam as Celtic beat Feyenoord 3-1 last November.

That Europa League win put them in a good position to qualify for the knockouts, while Celtic also notched victories over Kilmarnock, St Mirren, Hibernian and Dundee in the league.

Seven wins out of eight games - O'Neill had more than just steadied the ship by December for the new, incoming boss Wilfried Nancy. He'd taken a fairly flat Celtic team and put them back level on points with Hearts, into a cup final and gave them a huge away win in Europe.

In his 'farewell speech' at Celtic Park on December 3, 2025, O'Neill said: "They (the players) have been absolutely fantastic. It's been a real privilege. I've had the time of my life in the past five to six weeks."

The Hoops boss then sailed off into the sunset and back to London in time for Christmas.

But he wasn't there for long.

O'Neill part III

Nancy couldn't get going as Celtic manager - losing six of his eight games in charge, including the cup final to St Mirren, a top-of-the-table clash against Hearts and at home to Rangers in the New Year Derby.

After only 33 days he was sacked, becoming Celtic's shortest-serving manager.

O'Neill was back exactly a month later. And he had one job: deliver the title.

He did that in the most dramatic fashion against title rivals Hearts on the last day of the season, with three minutes to spare. It was one of the most turbulent and chaotic seasons in Celtic's recent history, but O'Neill made sure it was still a successful one by winning the double.

After taking a break at the end of the season, O'Neill agreed to become the club's permanent manager in June by signing a one-year deal with the option to extend by a further year.

Celtic are still going through the motions on and off the field, but one man they can be grateful for is Martin O'Neill for twice stepping forward in their hour of need and saving their season.