Celtic warned they risk losing Scottish football dominance amid ‘poor culture’ claim

Martin O’Neill and his players have come under serious scrutiny following a damaging week which brought back-to-back defeats to Rangers, either side of a Europa League loss to Ferencvaros.

Chris Sutton was among those to criticise Celtic captain Callum McGregor following the latest derby defeat, and Joy has now delivered a wider assessment of the problems facing the Hoops.

Speaking on CBS Sports Golazo, the former St. Pauli and Real Salt Lake defender argued that Celtic’s current issues have developed over a prolonged period, suggesting domestic dominance has masked a failure to make sufficient progress in Europe.

Joy said: “I actually think that why Celtic are in this position has been a result of a poor culture at the football club for a period of time now.

“It’s satisfied with not being one of the best, most challenging opponents in European football because that bleeds into domestic football, where you just accept that the fact that you’re the best team in Scottish football, and they still are, as far as I’m concerned.

“Rangers have still got work to do, and they are making it happen. You can see with the results right now under McInnes they’re going in the right direction, but Celtic have got to be very, very careful because they look like they’ve lost a little bit of a grip on UEFA competition.

“They don’t want to lose a grip on Scottish football in their domination of Scottish football because if Rangers start to dominate now and take over winning championship after championship, it could be a strong and a long way back for Glasgow Celtic to success again.

“They’ve got to correct this very quickly, and I don’t know how you do that.”