Shaun Maloney has lifted the lid on the days after Martin O’Neill publicly admitted he would take time to think about whether he was the right man to continue at Celtic.

That run raised questions around the direction of the team, but Maloney insists there was no drawn-out uncertainty inside the coaching staff.

Speaking ahead of Thursday night’s Europa League clash with Celta Vigo, Maloney said O’Neill made his mind up quickly and moved straight into trying to fix the areas he felt needed work.

He said: (Celtic FC YouTube), “It was fine. I think Martin made a decision pretty quickly and then started speaking about how we wanted to improve the sides in games like tomorrow, in games like Benfica, in obviously big games and domestically, how he saw the team and how he thought we could be better. That happened really quickly.

“For us as staff, it was fine. That was within a couple of days. It’s our job to take his vision of how he sees the team and try and coach the team in that vision. Pretty quickly, you have to get on with that.”

That period came before the international break, and Maloney admitted the timing may have helped Celtic reset after a rough run.

He added: “It was a really tough week before the international break, really difficult. It probably came at a really good time for us to reset. You could figure out what the first nine or ten games looked like.

“Obviously, there were some things we had to improve quickly, particularly without the ball. We’re still trying to improve on those things. With the boss, it was fine. It was a couple of days and then straight to it.”

Celtic have shown signs of a response since then, with improved domestic performances against Motherwell and Hearts.

The 7-1 win over Hearts gave the support something to enjoy, but Maloney made clear there is still work to be done, especially in Europe.

Asked whether he shared any doubts over the direction of the team, he said: “Not with the boss or the staff. You have three big defeats in a week. You have to bring the Champions League qualifier into that. I think there’s some things within the team of how we perform that we have to get better at. We have to get better at them really, really quickly.

“We have in the first week back, but as the first half of Benfica showed, we’ve still got a fair bit of work to do.

“We’re a really good attacking side. I don’t think that’s an issue. I think it’s the other side of the game. We’ve improved, but we’ve still got a fair bit of work to do. Yeah, that was pretty much it.

“It was tough though. That week before the international break, you lost to your biggest rivals twice and your first European game. It was tough for everyone.”

O’Neill may have had doubts for a brief spell, but Maloney’s version of events is clear enough. Once the decision was made, the focus shifted quickly to fixing the team.