Truth stranger than fiction as O'Neill leads Celtic from hostility to happiness

At the start of the season, with Rodgers seemingly imperious, the notion that the septuagenarian was going to return to Parkhead not just once but twice, and steer home a troubled club, would have been outlandish. Truth, sometimes, is stranger than fiction. And Celtic's truth has been wild. O'Neill has ensured a happy ending, but so much of what went before was angry and divisive. Hostility reigned supreme until an uneasy truce towards the end of the season. It all kicked off with that Champions League exit at the hands of Kairat Almaty. Two games, zero goals and a transfer window that enraged the supporters. Celtic won four games out of 12 in Europe. The summer arrivals: Kieran Tierney, Isaac English, Ross Doohan, Benjamin Nygren, Callum Osmand, Hayato Inamura, Shin Yamada, Jahmai Simpson-Pusey, Michel-Ange Balikwisha, Marcelo Saracchi, Sebastien Tounekti and Kelechi Iheanacho. Only five of those made it into double figures in league appearances. Others rarely, if ever, featured. Rodgers said a few of them were "club signings", the inference being that they weren't his choices. His rhetoric caused ructions behind the scenes. It would spill out in public soon enough. Rodgers, agitated and agitating about the business done in the market, infamously likened his squad to a Honda Civic rather than the Ferrari he wanted to drive. In October, Celtic lost 2-0 to Dundee and 3-1 to Hearts and he resigned. …