This board could deliver son of God - or even Jordan Larsson - to O'Neill before the bell for last orders and still they wouldn't be buying any redemption with masses

Ten years ago, the club had Rodgers and his Invincibles... today Celts are operating with a squad of Unreliables. Which is why, with 13 days of window left, it is already too late to salvage what little remains of hierarchy's own reputation

- KEITH JACKSON

In a season of unprecedented self-sabotage, perhaps the strangest plot twists of all are still to be revealed.

In spite of themselves, over the next 13 days Celtics hair-on-fire board could yet help Martin O'Neill pull off what would surely be celebrated as one of the club's most unlikely Mills and Boon style title wins of all time

And yet here's the kicker.

Even if they do belatedly spring into action and allow the caretaker to turbocharge his DeLorean for the second half of the campaign, it's already too late for them to salvage what little is left of their own reputation.

It’s become increasingly difficult to offer up any form of coherent defence for the slapstick way in which another open market has been mishandled.

Had they bungled their business once or twice over a protracted period of time, they could trot out the old line these things happen in January, a notoriously difficult month in which to make deals.

The problem, however, is this hardly constitutes a one-off event.

Rather, it’s a pattern of repeated behaviours and a succession of misfirings that, when taken in the round, looks very much like a deliberate, managed decline.

Ten years ago, they had Brendan Rodgers and his Invincibles.

Today, Celtic are operating with a squad of Unreliables.

With one or two notable outliers, like the initial recruitment drive under Ange Postecoglou or the summer splurge to back the returning Rodgers in 2024, they have downgraded on a consistent basis.

Whether that’s down to complacency or incompetence is not even relevant any longer.

Dermot Desmond's wrecking ball approach means, either way, this crumbling regime has become so glaringly unfit for purpose, the real reason behind this unfathomable demise is now neither here nor there.

They've gone past the place where an explanation changes anything meaningful.