Lambert Says O'Neill Exit Wouldn't Surprise Him, but Sack Would Be "Shocking"

Paul Lambert says he wouldn't be surprised if Martin O'Neill decided to walk away from Celtic, but insists he would be "shocked and disappointed" if the club chose to sack him instead.

O'Neill, 74, has said he'll use the international break to take stock of things following back-to-back defeats to Rangers. Those Old Firm losses came either side of a home defeat to Ferencvaros in the Europa League, adding to a difficult run that also included a shock Champions League collapse against LASK in August, when Celtic threw away a 4-0 aggregate lead.

"I will reflect on the games," O'Neill said. He returned as permanent Celtic manager for a second time this summer after two spells as interim boss last season, during which he delivered a league and Scottish Cup double.

O'Neill, who won seven trophies during his first spell in charge between 2000 and 2005, when Lambert was still playing for the club, didn't shy away from the criticism.

"I'm not immune from criticism. Absolutely and utterly far from it," he said. "I think there's every reason to ask 'can you turn this round? Can you change the whole thing?' I have to kind of look at the bigger picture at this minute."

Lambert, who still regards O'Neill as Celtic's best manager since Jock Stein, admitted the current struggles could push him toward walking away on his own terms.

"It wouldn't surprise me if he left. I don't think he needs it," Lambert said. "I'd be shocked and disappointed if Celtic sacked him. I think they give him the option, if that's what's on his mind, if he did want to walk away. He's got enough credit in the bank. It wasn't that long ago people were shouting for a statue for him, so I don't think you can go from one extreme to the other. If he wants to go, then he goes himself."

Lambert pointed to O'Neill's track record last season as proof of what he's brought to the club, having steadied Celtic on two separate occasions following the departures of Brendan Rodgers and Wilfried Nancy.

"They were hanging on by a thread and he turned that around," Lambert said. "There was only one person who could rescue Celtic last season and he did that. I'd bet any money that he hasn't changed anything from how he was then."

Lambert also turned his attention to the players, criticising individual performances in the Rangers defeats and taking particular issue with comments made by defender Cameron Carter-Vickers, who described Celtic as playing "too random" and said the team needed to get "a script and stick to it."

"The players need to take responsibility," Lambert told BBC Radio Scotland. "I watched the game and dear oh dear... That was cringeworthy, the stuff from Carter-Vickers. I thought 'hang on, you're not making a movie'. Solve the problem yourselves. When something is not going right, you look to rectify it, you don't look to a manager to say 'do this or do that'. I thought that was bang out of order, coming from someone who's been a decent player for Celtic."