Dermot Desmond speaks so infrequently about Celtic in public that when he does everyone connected to the club and to the broader world of Scottish football pays attention. One man, however, should he choose to, could ignore Desmond and not even Desmond himself would feel slighted.

There are many different angles from which to view the achievements of Martin O'Neill at Parkhead, but the fact that Desmond and his fellow directors at Celtic feel able to leave O'Neill to his own devices while they concentrate on matters other than football tells as much as any perspective.

Thus, when asked to describe in general terms his opinion of a season that to date includes one trophy, a 19-point advantage over Rangers in the league and which is now short odds to deliver a first Celtic Treble for 32 years, Desmond's instant reaction was: "I don't have to think about the football." It was an oblique but meaningful tribute.

The offloading of that responsibility is in marked contrast to last season when Celtic collapsed embarrassingly to Inverness Caledonian Thistle in the Scottish Cup and Rangers in the Scottish Premier League. Then the Celtic board had everything to worry about.

Desmond's response is further evidence that in professional football everything stems from success on the field. "I don't have to think about the football or the management side of it," he said in a week the league title came into sharp focus. "First of all Martin has brought in his own coaching staff in John Robertson and Steve Walford, but he has unified them with the existing staff.

"He has also done that on the field with his signings, he's filled key positions. I don't really need to think about it because I know Martin is so intensive. He's not going to listen to my opinion anyway."

Desmond sounded far from unhappy about that. After all, following the nightmare of the dream team of Barnes-Dalglish, any Celtic progress this season was going to be a lift.

Desmond had told The Irish Times last August: "I don't know how long it will take Martin O'Neill to transform the football club, six months, twelve months, two years, but he will." Nine months on and O'Neill has been midwife to the birth of that change, an enormous Celtic baby called optimism.

"I obviously knew there would be significant changes because Martin's a significant presence," he said. They are such that Desmond defined Celtic's mission statement from now as: "Our aim is that over the next four or five years we can attain the same position as Manchester United of being regular and winning competitors in European competitions." This time last year the aim was to lose less dishonourably to Rangers.

Having in August described O'Neill as Celtic's "General", it is no surprise that he sees O'Neill as central to the fulfilment of the new manifesto. There will be some, however, who will find it puzzling that Celtic will not try to capture O'Neill's commitment to that time-span in a written contract, but Desmond does not appear to believe totally in the power of contracts. He is trusting O'Neill's emotional affinity with the club. It is a reciprocal relationship.

There is also the factor that when Desmond said O'Neill had "taken ownership of the club mentally", he was highlighting the authority, if not autonomy, O'Neill possesses already. O'Neill has control at Celtic and the power to justify the club's potential.

He also has money to spend, though naturally Desmond did not say how much. O'Neill knows, of course - Desmond said the manager's relationship with the board was one of "continuous dialogue" - and it does not seem unrealistic to suggest that O'Neill will have at least the same again as the £20 million sterling he has spent this season.

Take away the £6 million recouped for Mark Viduka, plus £1 million for Vidar Riseth and O'Neill's net spend is £13 million - £1 million more than Rangers paid Chelsea for Tore Andre Flo.

Eyal Berkovic and Mark Burchill are possible sales over the summer, but Celtic will need to plan for a Champions League campaign. That requires bodies and Celtic do not have enough. There will be one qualifying round to negotiate. Leeds United reckoned that their qualifying victory over 1860 Munich was worth £15 million to the club. Look where they are now.

"It will be nice to be in it," said Desmond of the Champions League, "that's the first thing. But to say that we have a team strong enough to win the Champions' League would be outrageous. I'm not going to anticipate the budget there will be, but there will be no surprises for Martin.

"We are looking at the resources that will have to be made available if we are to be competitive in Europe. But we're a public company, reliant on generating results on and off the field. We're beginning to do that on the field but off it we're still running at a deficit.

"Yet we have done certain things such as retain our media rights. We set our task last year to rebuild the club on and off the pitch. We have now got a new chief executive [Ian McLeod] and I hope he performs as well as the new manager. But when you win the league, then that's history. As a club we won't be complacent. I still recognise the power of Rangers Football Club."

Desmond then quoted the Mr Micawber line from David Copperfield which, paraphrased, is: Sixpence profit, result happiness. Sixpence debt, result misery.

"There's no point being a bankrupt," Desmond added. "People take a simplistic view of football expenditure, but when you buy a £5 million player and give him a five-year contract at £1 million a year, then that's £10 million, not £5 million. We can't make Celtic the size of Manchester United. We have a Celtic budget."

He still believes that it will be enlarged by an alternative European league for the second tier of domestic leagues. He has not been put off by the rejections emerging from UEFA concerning the proposed North Atlantic League. "We're a Scottish club committed to Scottish football but we need success at a macro level. We've got to be competing in a more competitive arena.

"I consider our approach to be about getting more money into Scottish football as a whole. It is a fraction of that in England, Spain or Italy. No matter what UEFA say, you've got to recognise the reality. And it can happen outside UEFA. The Premier League went outside the Football League: Who's the stronger now? I still think there will be a pan-European development that will recognise our reality."

That reality is almost incomprehensibly attractive when compared to the Inverness moment 14 months ago, though when asked if he had been confident about Celtic being remodelled by O'Neill to the extent that a title challenge was realistic, Desmond replied: "I was, I was very confident. I believe that at the start of the league Celtic were 3 to 1 to win it.

"I backed them at 3 to 1 to win because that was the wrong price. For the last four to five weeks the bookies have wanted to settle with me." He laughed at the thought of them sweating nervously.

Three more points today and all will be settled. Including Celtic. No sweat, just glow.