"I have always said that in any football club, if you have only got a little to spend, spend it on the best manager you can. Everything is down to the quality of the manager."

These are the recent words of the chairman of Leeds United, Peter Ridsdale. The forum he used to expound his theory was the Financial Times. The reason they are quite so prominent in an article about another football club, Celtic, is that the most important director at Parkhead, Dermot Desmond, offered a very similar analysis of the state of Celtic three weeks into a new season and with the first decisive Old Firm game looming. Above all else, these are financial times at Celtic. The man charged with the money, and thus the club's destiny, is Martin O'Neill.

O'Neill, remember, is the man Ridsdale wanted for Leeds before they got David O'Leary. O'Leary, meanwhile, is a man Celtic inquired about before they signed O'Neill. Wobbling clubs looking for keystone personnel have only a limited shortlist to choose from.

Leeds feel they have the right man in O'Leary - Wednesday's £15 million victory in Munich reinforced that belief - and according to Desmond, after the deflating experiment of John Barnes and Kenny Dalglish last season, Celtic have now appointed the key man who can lead them to a prosperous future. But it is one, Desmond said, that does not lie solely in Scotland.

Desmond, whose largest single shareholding in Celtic will increase to 19.15 per cent in a few months, thinks Celtic's future lies in the north Atlantic - or the European league of that name - a league Desmond said could start as early as the autumn of 2002. And then maybe, in the longer term, south of the border in England.

Though possibly a good deal closer than many realise, both options feel a long way away compared to tomorrow and the first visit of Rangers to the O'Neill-led Celtic. Closer, too, is Celtic's 4-0 capitulation at Ibrox in April that gifted Rangers their 12th title in 14 seasons. Celtic are playing catchup with their neighbours, yet Desmond, when asked to describe the state of the club four and a half months on from that defining defeat, replied: "Terrific, and I'll tell you why."

In an echo of Ridsdale's words, Desmond continued: "I believe we have an outstanding manager now and the manager is the most important person at a football club. I don't know how long it will take Martin O'Neill to transform the football club, six months, 12 months, two years, but he will.

"He is a complete individual. As far as assessing what's required for Celtic, he's intelligent, he has achieved, he understands football and he understands footballers. He also understands value, there is an awful lot to Martin O'Neill.

"The only person who could compete with Martin O'Neill is Alex Ferguson. I think Martin will prove that. He is the central figure, our General, no player is bigger than Martin O'Neill. That's why I feel confident of the future of Celtic.

"A football club must have a person like that. If you look at the transformation of Manchester United, it took place under Alex Ferguson. If you look at Liverpool, it was Bill Shankly, at Spurs it was Bill Nicholson. One man."

But then this time last year, with John Barnes coaching, Celtic won eight out of nine league matches and Kenny Dalglish was the supposed one man, back at the venue where he first became a legend. "The dream team," said Desmond, "or we thought it was the dream team, Kenny Dalglish coming back to Celtic with the opportunity to win championships in Scotland as he did in England.

"But it didn't work. It was a dream. It was nostalgia. This is different, this is the person for Celtic. My personal opinion is that Martin can take Celtic to a higher level, to championship victories whether they be Scottish or North Atlantic."

To those unfamiliar with the proposed North Atlantic League the concept is as follows. The biggest clubs from the smallest - economically-speaking - European leagues, Portugal, Holland, Belgium, the Scandinavian countries and Scotland, form a new league in the hope that it can generate the kind of income raised in the biggest leagues - England, Italy, Spain and Germany.

Celtic and Rangers would be Scotland's initial representatives. The increased television revenue from the North Atlantic League would mean that Celtic and Rangers would be able to compete financially with the likes of Manchester United and Barcelona in the Champions League, which North Atlantic League clubs would still enter.

Celtic and Rangers would leave the Scottish League but would continue to play in the Scottish Cup, thereby maintaining a link with the past. The winners of the new Scottish League, Hearts for example, would be eligible to apply for entry into the North Atlantic League.

The revolutionary proposal could have legal and logistical difficulties, and is also partly dependent on receiving UEFA's blessing, but Desmond called change of whatever variety "a necessity. We have to re-balance. You have in Scotland a situation where Rangers and Celtic dominate both on and off the pitch. There is an exception every 10 or 15 years, such as Aberdeen when they had the resources, but those resources weren't mainly financial. Now that is the case.

"We're taking a disparity in Scotland and trying to re-balance. And in Portugal or Sweden there are clubs that are at least as dominant. I haven't got involved in detailed negotiations - I'm a non-executive director - I'm really talking about the principle, but the North Atlantic League I see as acting for clubs like Celtic, Rangers, Benfica, Ajax. I think it will create a spectacular demand.

"People have recognised the merits of such a league; the strengths are pretty obvious. UEFA also recognises that there is merit in such a league. Celtic is a club that must look towards its improvement on and off the field and that is hugely determined by finance. But it is also determined by the competitive nature of the football on the field."

So spectacular does he foresee the demand, he said: "It'll be the English league that wants the Scottish teams."

That is further down the line, but a question all football supporters should be asking is why Sky television, NTL and the Granada Media Group have spent so much money buying stakes in so many vanguard clubs in England and Scotland over the past 18 months. A new breakaway league is not merely a boardroom fantasy, it could make television a lot of money through advertising.

While accepting that the boards at Parkhead and Ibrox are catalysts for change, Desmond argued that it will be inevitable because it is being pushed by developments in technology. Effectively, television's commercial power now overrides national boundaries, the traditional geographical football unit.

"All barriers are changing," Desmond said. "The markets are changing. They are being changed by television, by technology, by mobile telephones. These developments will have a huge impact on the way people look at football. A lot of it is being dictated by TV advertising. It is fundamental."

Watching Celtic play Benfica in a league match on a Sunday night in the Stadium of Light on one of the new WAP mobile telephones may sound like a terrifying idea to many, but Desmond believes the time will come. Last Thursday night, Celtic's UEFA Cup tie with Jeunesse was transmitted live on the internet, another technological innovation that Celtic can market to the Diaspora.

The process of overall change is "self-fulfilling" to Desmond, but he was uncertain as to whether winning the Champions League would ever supersede the emotional exhilaration Lazio, for example, got from winning Serie A last season. As he said: "Football isn't science."

Italy, though, has a dynamic, competitive league. Scotland does not, Holland does not. Ultimately, it is the weakness that motivates the desire for change, yet the North Atlantic League, while maybe a necessity, is not a certainty.

But some form of change seems inevitable if Celtic and Rangers are not forever to be marooned, huge fish amongst tiddlers, unable to exploit their vast fan-base economically. That may sound an unduly capitalistic way to look at football, but that's the reality.

Last season Celtic received £2.5 million from television, which, in a European context, is less than Steve McManaman's annual salary at Real Madrid.

It has been notable that there has been no groundswell backlash from Celtic and Rangers supporters. There is a widespread realisation that the status quo is failing everyone in Scotland.

But on days like tomorrow history takes over. As Desmond acknowledged: "If we lose six games in a row then there will be a different agenda, and it won't be the North Atlantic League. But we have to look at the bigger picture."

Standing in the middle of it, pointing to a greener future, is Martin O'Neill. As Ridsdale said: "Everything is down to the quality of the manager."