Celtic Should Axe Big-Money Signing vs Rangers — Martin O’Neill Has No Choice
Martin O’Neill is entering the most testing week of his second spell in charge of Celtic. After a summer of heavy spending, a Champions League record broken, and a perfect start in the Scottish Premiership, the Bhoys are about to discover just how far their rebuilt squad has actually come. Sunday’s trip across Glasgow to face Rangers in the Premier Sports Cup quarter-final is the kind of fixture that exposes cracks papered over by routine domestic wins, and O’Neill knows it. Somewhere in the build-up to that game, hidden among team-sheet debates and injury updates, sits a selection call that could define how his side approaches the biggest match of the season so far — and it centres on the identity of Celtic’s starting striker.
A Perfect Start Built on Shaky Foundations
On paper, Celtic’s opening weeks of the 2026-27 campaign look close to ideal. O’Neill’s side have maintained a 100 per cent record in domestic competition, sitting proudly at the top of the Scottish Premiership table while Rangers have spent the early part of the season scrambling to recover from a difficult opening. Yet peel back the results and a more complicated picture appears. Celtic’s Champions League qualifying campaign ended in humiliating fashion against Austrian side LASK, a defeat that raised uncomfortable questions about the squad’s readiness for continental football just weeks after the club had broken its transfer record not once but twice in the same window. Since then, wins over St Mirren and St Johnstone have been anything but comfortable, with both games described as nervy rather than convincing.
That combination — perfect league form paired with unconvincing performances — is exactly the kind of pattern that tends to catch up with a team when the opposition improves. And this weekend, the opposition will do just that. Rangers arrive at Ibrox on the back of four consecutive Premiership victories, three of which have come with clean sheets, a run that has quietly rebuilt confidence at the club after a torrid start to Derek McInnes’s reign. It is the perfect storm for an Old Firm occasion: a Celtic side that has yet to be seriously tested, meeting a Rangers side that is finally beginning to look like itself again.
The Real Cost of Celtic’s Summer Spending
To understand why O’Neill’s selection dilemma matters so much, it helps to look at exactly how Celtic built their forward line over the summer. The headline arrival was Kasper Hogh, a 25-year-old Danish international signed from Norwegian champions Bodo/Glimt for a club-record fee reported at £11million plus add-ons — a deal that eclipsed the money Celtic paid to bring Arne Engels from FC Augsburg back in 2024. Hogh’s résumé reads impressively on paper. He scored 53 goals in 102 appearances for Bodo/Glimt across all competitions, was the leading scorer in the Europa League during the 2024-25 campaign, and played a starring role as the Norwegian club reached the knockout stages of the Champions League last season, netting away at Atletico Madrid along the way. Celtic had tracked him since a January enquiry, when the asking price sat closer to £7-8million, only for Bodo/Glimt’s European exploits to push the valuation up as more clubs — including Norwich City, who reportedly tabled their own bid — circled around him. By the time the deal was finally completed, Celtic had fought off genuine competition to land a forward many in the game viewed as one of the form strikers in Europe.
What makes Hogh’s arrival more significant is the timing. He was not signed in isolation but as the second half of a calculated overhaul of Celtic’s central attacking options, following the earlier capture of Colombian forward Camilo Duran from Azerbaijani side Qarabag. Duran’s deal, worth in the region of £6million including add-ons, looked shrewd business even before a ball was kicked in Scotland. The 24-year-old had enjoyed a breakout season in Baku, scoring 15 goals and providing 10 assists in 48 appearances, five of those goals arriving in the Champions League against opposition of the calibre of Benfica, Ajax, Newcastle United and Eintracht Frankfurt. His performances helped Qarabag make history by reaching the knockout phase of Europe’s premier competition for the first time, and he was named man of the match on his Champions League debut after scoring and assisting in a stunning comeback win over Benfica. Signed as Celtic’s first arrival of the summer window, Duran arrived with a growing reputation as a player unafraid of the biggest occasions — precisely the trait O’Neill may now need most.
Taken together, the £11million outlay on Hogh and the additional £6million spent on Duran represent one of the most significant redevelopments of Celtic’s attack in years. It was, by any measure, a statement of intent from a club aiming to make an immediate impact both domestically and in Europe. But spending big on two forwards inevitably creates a selection headache further down the line, and that is precisely the situation O’Neill now finds himself navigating.
Hogh’s Stuttering Start
There is no doubting the hype that followed Hogh through the door at Parkhead. He wasted little time making an impression, scoring a hat-trick in only his second appearance for the club as Celtic beat Kilmarnock back in August — the kind of instant impact that suggested the club-record fee might prove to be a bargain. Since that afternoon, however, the goals have dried up. Hogh has gone four matches without finding the net in all competitions, a run that has coincided almost exactly with the period in which Celtic’s performances have become increasingly unconvincing. It would be premature and unfair to label a £11million marquee signing a flop after only a handful of quiet games — strikers of his calibre go through spells like this, and his underlying numbers in Norway suggest the goals will likely return before long. But form is form, and Old Firm fixtures rarely wait patiently for a player to rediscover his touch.
O’Neill’s decision to start Hogh as a lone striker in Celtic’s most recent outing, leaving Duran on the bench, will now be scrutinised heavily in light of Sunday’s fixture. It was a selection that made sense on the surface — the club’s record signing deserves every opportunity to justify his price tag — but it also overlooked the fact that Duran has been the more productive, more incisive forward across the opening weeks of the campaign.
Duran’s Electric Opening Act
While Hogh’s Celtic career has stalled, Camilo Duran’s has taken off in spectacular fashion. The Colombian has been directly involved in nine goals in his opening nine appearances for the club — six goals and three assists — a return that places him among the most productive attacking players in the entire Scottish Premiership so far this season. Several of those goals have already drawn admiring glances from pundits and supporters alike, with commentators north of the border noting that his tally already includes some genuinely eye-catching finishes rather than simple tap-ins. It is exactly the kind of form Celtic hoped they were signing when they moved to beat off suggestions that his valuation could rise further following his exploits with Qarabag.
Duran’s underlying story only adds to the case for starting him. He arrived in Scotland as a player with something to prove — a forward who had bounced between Portuguese lower-league sides before finding his level in Azerbaijan, and who has consistently spoken about wanting to test himself on bigger stages. His decisive performances in the Champions League last season, including that man-of-the-match display against Benfica, suggest a player who does not shrink from occasions that matter. If ever there were a fixture design to test that reputation, it is a first Old Firm derby of the season, played out in front of a raucous home support and without a single travelling Celtic fan inside the stadium to lend vocal backing.
Why the Old Firm Demands Confidence Over Reputation
Anyone who has watched Celtic and Rangers collide over the years understands that these fixtures are rarely decided by tactical nuance or possession statistics. They are, more often than not, shaped by fine margins — a moment of individual quality, a piece of composure in the box, a striker willing to gamble on an opportunity that a more cautious player might shy away from. That is precisely why the identity of Celtic’s starting forward matters so much heading into Sunday’s meeting.
Handing the nod to a player low on confidence, however talented and however expensive, risks Celtic going into the biggest game of their season so far with a blunted edge in the final third. Duran, by contrast, arrives at Ibrox full of self-belief, riding the best form of his Celtic career, and with a track record of delivering against high-pressure European opposition. O’Neill would not be making a statement about Hogh’s long-term prospects by leaving him out for one match; he would simply be recognising that, right now, one striker is in the kind of form that suggests he can produce something out of nothing, while the other is searching for it. Given the stakes involved, that distinction is difficult to ignore.
None of this is to say Hogh should be written off, or that his omission — if it happens — should be read as a permanent demotion. Strikers signed for club-record fees are almost never dropped for good after one barren month, and Celtic’s coaching staff will be well aware that confidence in front of goal can return as quickly as it disappears. But for one specific fixture, with so much riding on the outcome, the case for starting Celtic’s most in-form forward rather than its most expensive one looks compelling.
Rangers’ Own Reasons for Confidence
It would be a mistake to view this Old Firm clash purely through the lens of Celtic’s attacking selection, because Rangers arrive at Ibrox with genuine momentum of their own. Derek McInnes’s start to life in Govan was anything but smooth. His appointment in the summer, arriving on the back of a title challenge with Hearts, was followed by a difficult opening to the season that saw Rangers collect just one point from their first two Premiership fixtures and suffer early exits from both Europa League and Conference League qualifying — including a chastening defeat to Jagiellonia Bialystok. Questions about his suitability for the role began to circulate almost immediately, with some pundits suggesting his position could come under serious threat if results did not improve quickly.
Since that low point, however, Rangers have looked like an entirely different side. Four consecutive Premiership victories — over Aberdeen, Motherwell, Falkirk and St Mirren — have steadied the ship considerably, with three of those wins arriving via a clean sheet. What stands out about the run is not just the results but the manner of them: narrow, disciplined, defensively resolute performances built around a settled back four, even if the goals have often arrived by the finest of margins. Rangers have conceded just two goals in their last five domestic outings and only one in their last four, a defensive foundation that McInnes has clearly prioritised as he works out how his side is best equipped to compete. The victory over St Mirren, sealed by a stoppage-time winner from Bojan Miovski after Rangers dominated the game territorially, extended that sequence and sent confidence at Ibrox soaring heading into the derby.
McInnes has been open about wanting his Rangers side to play on the counter, using pace and directness in wide areas to hurt opponents in transition rather than trying to dominate possession outright — an approach shaped in part by the makeup of his current squad. He has also had to contend with significant injury setbacks in attack, with both Lawrence Shankland and Youssef Chermiti sidelined for extended periods, forcing him to lean on alternative options such as Miovski and new arrivals Kevin Kelsy and Badredine Bouanani, both of whom joined on deadline day. Despite those absences, McInnes has managed to engineer a run of results that has transformed the mood around Ibrox in the space of a few short weeks, and he will see Sunday’s cup tie as an opportunity to prove that his side’s revival is no fluke.
Speaking ahead of the match, McInnes made clear how significant he considers the occasion, framing it as a chance for Rangers to re-establish themselves as genuine contenders domestically. He acknowledged that no side realistically dominates an Old Firm fixture for the full ninety minutes, stressing instead that both teams will have their spells and that game management will be crucial. It is the kind of measured, experienced perspective that suggests McInnes, for all the early-season scrutiny, has a clear sense of what this fixture demands.
The Backdrop: Fans Banned, Tensions Still High
Sunday’s derby will also be notable for what will be missing from Ibrox rather than what is present on the pitch. For the first time in the fixture’s long history under the current arrangement, no Celtic supporters will be inside the stadium, following a decision by Scotland’s football authorities to ban all away fans from every match between the two clubs for the remainder of the season. The move followed a formal review into ugly scenes that marred last season’s Scottish Cup meeting between the sides, when both sets of supporters invaded the pitch and clashes broke out between rival fans. Prior to that incident, both clubs had operated under an agreement guaranteeing a five per cent away allocation for domestic fixtures at Ibrox and Parkhead, an arrangement that has now been suspended entirely for Old Firm matches specifically.
The decision has proven deeply controversial, drawing criticism from supporters of both clubs as well as from the managers themselves, but it has also found support in some quarters of the Scottish game. Keith Wyness, the former chief executive of Aberdeen, gave his backing to the ruling in comments to Football Insider, describing the pitch invasions that prompted the review as evidence that the fixture had become simply too volatile to risk significant away contingents inside the ground. Wyness argued that the governing body had little choice but to intervene decisively, framing the ban as a necessary, if unwelcome, corrective measure rather than an overreaction. He also expressed hope that the ban could ultimately serve as a turning point, paving the way for allocations to be reinstated in future seasons once trust between the clubs, their supporters and the authorities has been rebuilt.
The absence of travelling fans adds an unusual dimension to Sunday’s fixture. Ibrox will be at full voice, but only from one end, and the atmosphere — while doubtless still intense — will lack the direct confrontation of noise that typically defines these occasions. For Rangers, who go into the game full of confidence after their recent run, the missing away contingent has been described in some quarters as a quiet advantage, removing a layer of hostility that Celtic’s players might otherwise have fed off on their travels. For O’Neill’s side, it means adapting to an Old Firm atmosphere unlike any they will have experienced before, without the visible and vocal backing of their own travelling support to lean on in difficult moments.
What’s Actually at Stake on Sunday
It is worth remembering that Sunday’s fixture is not a Premiership league encounter but a Premier Sports Cup quarter-final — a straight knockout tie in which defeat ends the run immediately rather than simply costing points. That raises the stakes for both managers considerably. For McInnes, already facing scrutiny over his start to the season despite the recent upturn in form, a win over Celtic would represent a major statement and a significant step toward silencing his early critics. Reports in the Scottish press have suggested some believe a defeat here could start an uncomfortable conversation about his long-term prospects at Ibrox, regardless of how much credit his recent four-match winning run has earned him. A win, by contrast, would be the kind of result capable of transforming the entire tone of his tenure heading into the busy autumn schedule.
For O’Neill, the calculation is somewhat different. Celtic remain unbeaten domestically and sit clear at the top of the Premiership, giving him a stronger platform from which to approach the occasion. But a cup exit at the hands of a resurgent Rangers side, so early in the season, would represent a damaging psychological blow — proof, in the eyes of doubters, that last month’s uneasy performances against lesser opposition were a warning sign rather than a blip. It would also intensify scrutiny on his summer rebuild, a project already under the microscope given the sheer scale of investment in Hogh and Duran. Getting his attacking selection right, then, is about far more than simply picking the in-form player. It is about sending a message — to his own squad, to the Ibrox crowd, and to a Rangers side eager to prove its own revival is real — that Celtic’s perfect start has been built on substance rather than fortune.
The Bottom Line
Every Old Firm fixture carries its own weight of history, tension and expectation, but this one arrives at a particularly delicate moment for both clubs. Rangers are riding a wave of momentum built on defensive solidity after a torrid opening to the season, desperate to prove their revival under Derek McInnes is more than a temporary upswing. Celtic, despite their perfect domestic record, go into the game carrying the nagging suspicion that their results have flattered performances that have grown increasingly unconvincing since the opening weeks of the campaign.
Against that backdrop, Martin O’Neill’s selection at centre-forward takes on outsized importance. Kasper Hogh remains a hugely talented forward and a player Celtic will expect plenty from over the course of a four-year contract, but a four-game goalless run heading into the most demanding fixture of the season so far is difficult to ignore. Camilo Duran, meanwhile, has been nothing short of sensational since his summer arrival from Qarabag, backing up his big-game pedigree from the Champions League with an electric start in Scotland. With no travelling Celtic support inside Ibrox to lift the team through a difficult afternoon, O’Neill may feel he has little choice but to trust the player currently delivering, rather than the one still searching for his best form. In a fixture this unpredictable, decided so often by moments rather than momentum, that difference could prove decisive.
