Another European defeat has left the Mail Sport columnist with lingering doubts about the boss

In this line of work there are times when you have to be a big boy, sit up straight and admit your mistake.

You don’t hide behind the excuse that error is an occupational hazard. It is a moral obligation to own up and tell the truth.

So I owe Martin O’Neill an apology. It turns out I was only 50 per cent correct last Sunday when I wrote here that I thought O’Neill’s side were a busted flush in domestic and European football and he was a man, regrettably, out of his time.

After a re-think, I’d say Celtic are now a total embarrassment in European competition and living on their nerves in the league when it comes to the retention of their title.

Last week, I wondered if Martin might have offered his resignation after Celtic’s Europa League trouncing from Benfica.

And I highlighted several other managerial ‘offences’ to strengthen my case, such as Celtic’s failure to qualify for the Champions League and their elimination from the Premier Sports Cup by Rangers. What happened next?

On the same day that my hyper-critical assessment of Celtic’s performances when it really mattered went into print, Martin’s side obliterated their next opponents by a 7-1 margin and strengthened their position at the top of the table.

A total eclipse of the Hearts, to paraphrase the title of the late Bonnie Tyler’s biggest hit. Or, if you prefer a more graphic description, a public execution, live on television without political intervention. What happened next?

If chasing shadows was an Olympic event, O’Neill’s side would have won gold against Celta Vigo on Thursday night.

The breathtaking win over Hearts was supposed to be a platform from which Celtic’s season would gain momentum.

It was actually a trap door they fell through while exposing the poverty of the squad at O’Neill’s disposal and the lack of a work ethic among players for whom Celtic have paid millions of pounds.

It re-enforced my argument that Martin is now, sadly but emphatically, insufficient for Celtic’s needs. Apologies like mine can be based on the mistaken impression that I was the one who was wrong in the first place. I wasn’t wrong.

O’Neill is the human shield for a hierarchy who have no idea how to run a modern club and are content to let Martin speak on behalf of the principal shareholder, chief executive, finance director and any other passer-by in a blazer and tie

But his appraisal of the defeat from Celta Vigo was an insult to the intelligence.

It is one thing to be a diplomat. It is another entirely to be economical with the truth in the mistaken belief that no one will assume the right to challenge your remarks out of respect for past reputation.

To say that the manager could not have asked any more from his players, for example, was patently laughable. To say it was a tight game was a fictitious measurement.

Duplicity only adds insult to injury. Celtic Park emptied long before the end of the game for a reason.

The fans who thought they’d seen a dramatic transformation, because of what happened last Sunday against Hearts have now been outed as delusional.

One Celtic fan on the radio prior to kick-off against the Spaniards described the Europa League as a competition in which Celtic could “experiment” with team selection because progress was immaterial. There are none so blind as those who can not see.

Meanwhile, the Green Brigade, and other like-minded fans, deserted the game in protest over Celtic’s indifference towards the modern world.

They know there is no structure and no strategy concerning the future.

O’Neill’s continued presence vouches for that being the case.

Martin is two up in the three-game domestic series I dubbed “Methuselah versus Modernity”.

He’s comprehensively beaten Motherwell and Hearts by out-manoeuvring two head coaches, Alfred Johansson and Wouter Vrancken, while being decades older than both men.

O’Neill can do Three-in-a-Row if he goes to Easter Road this afternoon and defeats a Hibs side under Marink Reedijk, who was still of primary age when Martin first became Celtic manager and won a Treble in his inaugural season 26 years ago.

The dismissal of a succession of younger men by someone who the NHS would categorise as a geriatric would at least offer proof of time not having passed Martin by altogether.

If nothing else, Celtic will depart the capital, win, lose or draw, still on top of the table because Rangers altered the dynamic of the league’s progression by dropping two points in Dundee last weekend.

The question is, for how long will that remain the case and is my apology to O’Neill about to be struck from the record entirely on the grounds that the season in its entirety is in a state of collapse?

The forensics surrounding the noon kick-off in Leith suggest anything other than a win for Celtic would be, to use the imaginative description coined by Rangers’ manager Derek McInnes, after his team’s draw at Dens Park, like a balloon popping.

It is the top side in the Premiership against the bottom team.

Celtic have yet to lose a league match away from home while Hibs are chasing their first win at Easter Road since they defeated Kilmarnock last April. Eight home games have yielded a single point since then.

A side intent on retaining the league title would consider themselves as being overwhelming favourites to win the match.

And a manager who wants to have at least one foot in the door marked “redemption” would surely see anything other than a win as an undeniable anti-climax.

The thinking behind my inclination to apologise was based on making an inaccurate assumption.

I thought Martin had, to use the peerless expression I first heard from a former player who became a much-missed newspaper colleague, a “great future behind him”.

But it’s now up O’Neill to prove me, and many others, wrong. Starting at noon today.