It would be safe to say that most Celtic fans enjoyed Martin O'Neill's interim stint as the manager of the club. For the older ones, it was a chance to relive what many consider the club's glory days of this century. For the younger ones, it was a chance to see what the legend is all about. And he certainly did not disappoint the supporters, that is for sure.
In eight matches in charge, O'Neill guided Celtic to victory in seven of them. Considering the circumstances he arrived in, that is mighty impressive to say the least.
And by the time he left, most would have preferred to see him remain in the job for the rest of the season. The club had picked up momentum and him leaving came with the danger of that being derailed.
In fact, it looks like that is exactly what has happened. Celtic lost their first game with Wilfried Nancy as manager. And it was not only against Hearts, who are challenging for the league title, but also a team that is completely out of form.
'Rest of the season' - Celtic fans won't like Martin O'Neill revelation
All of us had been led to believe that O'Neill was keen to get finished with the job as soon as possible. But it looks like that might not have been the case. At least not by the time he actually departed.
Mark Fotheringham served as a coach during O'Neill's spell. And as reported by The Scottish Sun, he said:
"Martin won’t tell you this, but I’m going to say it.
“In my mind, he was really up for the challenge of going and winning titles and cups for this club again.
“The more it was going on, the more enthusiastic he was getting.
“He could easily have carried on for the rest of the season. In fact, he could have done it way beyond it."
If O'Neill was indeed up for the challenge of managing Celtic for longer then the board have gotten Nancy's appointment completely wrong. At the very least the timing of it.
Nancy immediately finds himself managing against teams like AS Roma in the Europa League, a top-of-the-table clash against Hearts and the Scottish League Cup final vs St Mirren. That can be a daunting task for any manager, especially one with no prior experience of managing in Europe or at a club the size of Celtic.
Someone like O'Neill could have done much better in these circumstances. If Nancy was definitely going to be the man in the hot seat then he should have been brought in after the League Cup final and eased into the job.
Now, there is a real chance that the fans might lose their trust in the new manager after his first three games in charge, depending on how the results go. That is never a position that you want to put someone in. This has to go down as another misstep on the part of the board.