Could O'Neill turn down one last crack at European elite?

For his next trick, Martin O'Neill proposes to make a league and cup double appear right out of thin air.

He's already halfway there, of course, having nudged Hearts into second place in the Premiership in those final few incredible minutes of that epic winner-takes-all encounter for the ages.

Cruel? Not if you're in any way connected with Celtic. More wins, more points, more goals scored. Further evidence of the Northern Irishman's magic touch.

It first appeared at the end of October when, after successive domestic defeats to Dundee and Hearts, Brendan Rodgers resigned. With a swish of his wand, O'Neill swapped coffee shops on London's King's Road for six wins in a row domestically, including making Rangers disappear from the League Cup at the semi-final stage.

He then left the stage with a flourish while Wilfried Nancy did a magic trick of his own, making Celtic's entire prospects for the season appear to vanish into thin air. Twelve Premiership points from 18 went up in a puff of smoke, leaving the Parkhead side lurching towards irrelevance.

Cue the wizard's return for a second coming. Celtic were six points behind leaders Hearts and level with a resurgent Rangers who'd just scored three unanswered second-half goals in the derby at Parkhead. Crisis time? In breezed O'Neill once again, full of self-effacing charm and very much up for the chase.

And chase he did. Ten matches unbeaten until defeats to Stuttgart and Hibs threatened to ruin his encore. In the 14 subsequent games, the magic only wavered once, at Tannadice.

The spell held firm everywhere else, including trips to Ibrox on league and Scottish Cup duty which resulted in a hard-earned point and safe passage to the semi-finals respectively.

Needing, realistically, to take maximum points from his final seven Premiership matches, 21 were duly collected as Celtic pipped a frazzled Hearts to the finishing line in the most memorable league finish in decades.

Dunfermline will need the performance of their lifetimes to stop this O'Neill-fuelled Celtic juggernaut at Hampden on Saturday.

With supporters, players and potentially several key board members in his thrall, has the wily old magician worked his way into concocting something more permanent from his second interim spell?

After failing to get past the Champions League group phase in the early 2000s with the likes of Henrik Larsson, Chris Sutton, Paul Lambert and his Hampden counterpart this Saturday, Neil Lennon, at his disposal, could Martin O'Neill turn down one last crack at the European elite?

Could the blazers at Celtic really send him packing if he fancied trying his luck for one more season?

He'd need a big whack of investment and potentially an entirely new squad. If the wizardry hasn't worn off by the close of play at Hampden on Saturday, however, the clamour to leave the sorcerer to his fiendish work may well prove irresistible.