As they slowly dispersed from Hampden and made their way back to the buses, cars and trains, many Celtic fans would have attempted to encapsulate the season which had just ended.
Fair play to any of them who succeeded in doing so without pausing for breath. Seriously, where would you even start?
A campaign which began with a prosaic league victory over St Mirren in the first weekend in August has had more plot twists than a box set of Agatha Christie mysteries.
It’s felt like four seasons in one. Brendan Rodgers in his Honda Civic careering towards the exit door via Almaty with Dermot Desmond then taking a flamethrower to his reputation on official club channels.
Martin O’Neill surreally riding to the rescue 20 years after he last set foot in this corner of the world only to be brushed aside for Wilfried Nancy.
The Frenchman spectacularly crashing and burning after eight games and 33 days. O’Neill returning. The rest is history.
Martin O’Neill gets his hands on the Scottish Cup after completing a remarkable double
Celtic had won the Scottish title 55 times before this year. They’d lifted the double on 13 occasions.
But no season which came before was surely anything quite like this. It was filled with rancour and ill-feeling. It felt chaotic and destined to end in tears until a truce between the supporters and hierarchy was belatedly agreed. Ultimately, almost illogically, it ended in glory.
It doesn’t take much these days for there to be talk of casting men in bronze, but in the case of O’Neill you can well understand the sentiment.
At the turn of the century, the Northern Irishman took Celtic from a dark place to unimaginable heights. He won seven major trophies and re-established the club as a European force. For that alone, he was lionised by its supporters.
What he’s achieved this year might well be his greatest triumph, though.
Managing in a period where the level of anger among the rank and file was such that an AGM was abandoned and tennis balls were thrown onto the field in protest. Guiding the club back into the title race, not once, but twice. In a manner that only the inner sanctum could possibly explain, steeling the group to win seven straight matches and a final when all hope looked lost after that loss at Tannadice in March. Reclaiming the top spot they’d last occupied in September in the 87th minute of the final league game of the season against Hearts. It’s been quite the ride.
Among O’Neill’s many accolades, there is now the fact that he took charge of the first side in the modern era to win the Scottish championship while suffering eight losses – with just two of those on his watch. And all without the sorcery of Lubo Moravcik or Henrik Larsson.
Now 74-year-old O’Neill faces a wait to see what the club plan to do with the manager’s role
O’Neill managed to keep his emotions in check when he cradled the Scottish Cup on Saturday, but he must have felt like he’d slipped into a parallel universe.
A ninth major honour with Celtic arrived seven years after he’d been binned by Nottingham Forest and been consigned to doing punditry from a radio studio. Not bad for a 74-year-old.
His success and longevity in the game does present a quandary for both him and the club’s hierarchy, though.
For weeks now, whenever the subject of his future has been raised, O’Neill has said he’s had to work on the assumption that this will finally be the end of the line for him. Tellingly, however, he’s never closed the door on staying provided those in the heated seats — and one man in particular — are agreeable.
Twice in eight months, Desmond picked up the phone to him believing he was the right man for a crisis. On both occasions, the veteran delivered.
As the confetti rained down on O’Neill on Saturday, there will have been a part of the mind of Celtic’s powerbroker which would have told him to stick with what he knows and ask the manager to go again.
It would scarcely be an unpopular decision. In a summer where the World Cup will unsettle players and clubs, there might be something to be said for a degree of certainty.
Removing all the emotion from the equation, though, retaining O’Neill would be a matter of convenience. Celtic as a club have been down this road far too often in recent times. That’s partly what led their supporters to the point of insurrection.
O’Neill praised the work done by his coaching team and is clear he’s not a long-term solution
From top to bottom, it needs to wipe the slate clean. It needs new people with fresh ideas and a different approach to every facet of its operation. The double which was claimed with the win over Dunfermline was no vindication of what went before.
Whether O’Neill would be open to another role at the club, perhaps working alongside a younger manager in some capacity, only he could say.
But that’s where Celtic’s thinking must be now. They got away with one this year because of the evergreen O’Neill, but it would be folly to simply go again and expect the same outcome.
Many have been the boxer who’s been unable to resist the lure of the ring late in his career. O’Neill is in the rare position of knowing his achievements are set in stone. The judicious thing would be to leave them that way.
It might well have been a different story on Saturday if Liam Scales hadn’t been alert to make a goal-line clearance after early slackness by Alistair Johnston had allowed Callumn Morrison to poke the ball beyond Viljami Sinisalo.
With that scare awakening them from their slumbers, O’Neill’s players got their game heads on.
As much as his side were outplayed thereafter, Neil Lennon was right to be dismayed at the way his side lost two goals by the break.
Johnston’s long ball caught John Tod swiping at fresh air. Daizen Maeda’s chipped finish was excellent.
Arne Engels’ right-foot strike to make it two-nil was venomous, but no defender engaged the Belgian on the edge of the box.
Kelechi Iheanacho’s killer third goal put the tie beyond brave Dunfermline at Hampden
There was a fear among the Pars fans that their side might find themselves on the wrong end of a hiding. To their credit, Lennon’s players didn’t go under.
They would have had Celtic sweating if Sinisalo had failed to get a first to Andrew Tod’s floater. Alfons Amade almost beat the Finn with a curler.
All doubt appeared to have been removed 13 minutes from time when Kelechi Iheanacho’s skill allowed him to prod the ball home for the third.
Full credit to the underdogs, though. They kept going to the last and were richly deserving of the goal which stemmed from Zak Rudden’s enterprise. Josh Cooper’s grandchildren will know that he scored in a Scottish Cup final.
On Lennon’s watch, the Fifers have made it to the semi-finals of the play-offs and the season’s showpiece occasion. They are back on the map. It’s now a matter of building on this.
There was a classy touch by Lennon at the end after he embraced his old mentor O’Neill by raising his fist to the sky like a victorious prize fighter. Unbeaten and unbowed when it counted. For all concerned, it’s probably the way it should stay.
