It’s been almost a month since Celtic completed one of the most dramatic title wins in recent Scottish football history.
Yet somehow, the reaction in some quarters still hasn’t settled down.
Let’s be clear about one thing: Celtic won the league fair and square.
Hearts were great for much of the campaign and pushed Celtic all the way to the final day. But title races are decided over an entire season, not one controversial decision, one match or one afternoon at Celtic Park.
If Hearts wanted to be champions, they needed to pick up more points during a run-in that ultimately cost them.
The Edinburgh side won just one of their final seven away league matches. That sole victory came against a nine-man Hibernian side.
Those dropped points cost them.
Yet there remains a strange narrative in some corners that Hearts were somehow robbed of the title.
Craig Gordon labelled the outcome an “injustice“, while debate around the Motherwell penalty decision continues to rumble on weeks after the season ended.
Now, however, there may be a new winner in the race for the most remarkable take.
With Derek McInnes heavily linked to the Rangers job, Rangers Review journalist Derek Clark described him as:
“A title-winning manager without the medal.”
Read that again.
A title-winning manager. Without the title. Without the medal. Without actually winning the league.
Normally, if a manager doesn’t receive a league winner’s medal, there is a fairly obvious reason for that.
It’s because somebody else won the league. In this case, that somebody else was Celtic.
I enjoyed Jonny’s impassioned case for Derek McInnes on today’s show.
He’d be my choice also.
Barring the obvious Rangers connections, what he achieved with Hearts last season was remarkable. A title-winning manager without the medal. https://t.co/fzFTSCH9i1
— Derek Clark (@derekclarksport) June 12, 2026
Arne Engels’ equaliser against Hearts, Daizen Maeda’s late winner and Callum Osmand’s stoppage-time goal sealed a 3-1 victory that secured the championship and sparked scenes of celebration across the east end of Glasgow.
That wasn’t a technicality. That wasn’t an administrative decision. That was a football team winning the title on the pitch.
Nobody is denying Hearts had a good season.
But there is a significant difference between pushing for a title and winning one.
One earns admiration and the other earns a medal.
While football often deals in fine margins, calling someone a “title-winning manager without the medal” feels like a whole new category of coping.
Nearly a month on from Celtic’s title triumph, the debate clearly isn’t going away anytime soon.
Eminently suitable for the Ibrox job, as a bona-fide runner up he will fit right in.
Oh well then, let’s congratulate Wilfred Nancy on being a Champions League winning manager without a medal…….(;-0)
Another few FACTS the Scottish mainstream media won’t go near…..
1. Within those last 7 games 3 were against the bottom 3 clubs without a victory.
2. Season 2025/2026 witnessed Celtic FC play FIFTEEN games more that the ugly cousins fae Midlothian.
SSshhhhhh…….
HH
The Huns already have a manager without a title winning medal, in Danny Rohl, they don’t need any more.
the only concern should be that Martin O’Neil has the resources he requires and the backroom staff he wants and total unity within the club and support , otherwise nothing will have been learned or resolved
Least Del boy knows the songs
even better when it shows peoples true colours sad sad people
I was hoping Slippy G was in the running, but torn faced McInnes will do for now, he just LOVES losing to Celtic.