'O'Neill a whipping boy for club with deep structural issues'

Does Martin O'Neill still want to be the "whipping boy" of a "slightly dysfunctional football club"? As he considers his future following three successive defeats, including back-to-back Old Firm losses, the Celtic manager has plenty to ponder. "If you're talking about whether O'Neill will stay on or not, there's various things he has to consider," says Stephen McGowan, football writer for The Herald. "He has to consider whether he can still get a tune out of this group of players, but also whether he wants to continue being the frontman for this slightly dysfunctional football club. "They don't have a director of football. They've not replaced Paul Tisdale, the head of recruitment. "I'm not absolutely certain if they've replaced Jay Lefevre, who left for Swansea and was the kind of chief scout. Not officially anyway because they don't really communicate, they don't tell you, and that's the point - O'Neil has become this lightning rod for the frustration of supporters because he is the only person putting his head above the parapet. "The directors don't do that. Dermot Desmond doesn't do that. Michael Nicholson doesn't do it. It all falls to O'Neill to almost take that frustration on the chin. "That is one of the concerns I think people have, whether he should continue to be the kind of whipping boy for this club which has more deep structural issues. "The problems Celtic have go beyond the technical area. And I think that's one of the things he needs to ask himself, whether he wants to continue being that guy or whether actually he thinks, you know what, I don't really need this." Listen to more Celtic analysis on Tuesday's episode of the BBC Scottish football podcast