| Martin O’Neill Homepage |
Touch of Clough in O’Neill’s winning Old Firm formula
By John Greechan
Robbie Williams was already used to having his path strewn with shimmering compliments when, a couple of years ago, he was on the receiving end of praise from Martin O’Neill. So he could not have expected the then Leicester manager’s further explanation of why he was such a fan.
To paraphrase, it went along the lines of ‘You can’t sing, you can’t really dance – but you’ve made something out of what little talent you’ve got, becoming the most successful of all the fellas in Take That, brilliant’.
Apart from reinforcing his status as the natural successor to Brian Clough, at least verbally, that little interlude revealed something about the affable Irishman’s idiosyncratic approach to football management.
Put simply, he makes players – and teams – better than they have any right to be. This pupil of Clough did it at Wycombe, achieved even greater success at Leicester – and has now begun to spin gold from straw at Celtic, a club mired in perpetual crisis until his arrival this summer. The weekend’s 6-2 trouncing of Rangers, a result which sent shock waves through all of Britain and sent the defeated side scurrying into the transfer market, was the most compelling evidence yet that O’Neill’s methods can work in even the most demanding environment.
To gain an insight into exactly how O’Neill gets his mojo working, you need only know a little about recent events in the dressing room at Parkhead. Arguably the most important speech he has ever delivered came there three weeks ago, when he gathered the entire first-team squad for a meeting which would change the mindset of a group left demoralised and demotivated by the John Barnes experiment.
‘Gentlemen,’ declared O’Neill, ‘I will always be 100 per cent honest with you and the Press. But in the coming weeks you will hear me tell a lie. When asked by the media if we can win the League, I will say no, that we are too young and still developing as team and manager. ‘Disregard it. We will win the League. Some of you believe it already and all of you will believe it shortly.’
Perhaps not quite up there with Henry V at Agincourt – but powerful stuff all the same. It was also exactly what the team needed after two years of division and disorganisation under, first Dr Jo Venglos, and then Barnes, as Rangers consolidated domestically and progressed in Europe with Dick Advocaat at the helm.
More mind games were to come on the eve of O’Neill’s first Old Firm game, when he called the squad together, looked every player in the eye individually and delivered concise instructions about tactics, then asked the group if they were going to win. Only when a resounding cry of ‘yes’ had died away did the manager reveal that, had any player hesitated or uttered a treasonous ‘maybe’, they would have been dropped on the spot.
In the tunnel before the game, O’Neill had injected so much enthusiasm into his players that they were screaming as they waited for the Sky director to let them take the field. Their opponents did not know how to respond and, after Celtic’s win, one of the Rangers players privately confessed: ‘Standing in the tunnel, seeing and hearing the Celtic players so fired up, we knew we would lose.’
But O’Neill is more than just a cheerleader, a Mr Motivator who restricts himself to praise and pumping up players. A mere 45 minutes into his first game in charge of Celtci, his charges 2-1 down to European giants Bray Wanderers, he walked into the dressing room, took off his glasses – a sure sign of an explosion to come, as the Leicester boys will testify – and let fly.
Celtic and Scotland star Paul Lambert, a European Cupwinner with Borussia Dortmund, admitted: ‘That’s when we knew that this guy had it, that he was for real.’
After the Bray game, O’Neill displayed his ruthless streak by singling out Brazilian defender Rafael to tell him: ‘We are the same, you and me.’ The smile on the South American’s face disappeared when the manager, in front of the team, added: ‘I’m 48 and I can do everything you can do.’
Rafael has not enjoyed much playing time since.
Neither has Eyal Berkovic, the cornerstone of Barnes’ recruitment plan but long suspected as a disruptive element in the squad, played a significant part as O’Neill put spirit ahead of even the most outrageous talent.
He took a major chance by spending £6million on Chris Sutton, just as he had gambled on Stan Collymore at Leicester and, long before him, the likes of Steve Guppy. Sutton has responded with five goals in four games, pushing him to the fringes of the England squad.
O’Neill loves a lost cause, a player no-one else rates, and it is remarkable to note that Celtic winger Bobby Petta – not exactly a star at Ipswich and a total flop in Glasgow last year – is now the subject of encouraging noises from Holland boss Louis van Gaal.
As far as we can tell, O’Neill is not indulging in black magic, or even applying some complicated psychological theory to group dynamics. Something of his style has been taken from Clough, who used to regularly pillory O’Neill for lack of ability by way of motivation, while the rest seems like fairly basic man-management.
The fact that most of his Leicester players could have predicted virtually everything he has done in his first days at Celtic also indicates that he is just sticking to a simple plan.
So maybe his secret lies in personality, hardly a problem area for this part-time BBC talking head. Whatever the miracle quality is, O’Neill has it – and every club in the country wants it.
His remarkable record at Leicester had already assured O’Neill a place at the top of the candidates’ list virtually every time a major Premiership club was seeking a new manager.
In the two years before finally making the rather bemusing leap north to Celtic, he knocked back Leeds, Everton and an emotionally tempting offer to return to Nottingham Forest, where he had enjoyed so much playing success under Clough.
So you can guarantee that, within hours of the next high-profile departure, O’Neill’s phone will be ringing, though most chairmen are smart enough to realise that he is able to pick and choose his next job.
He could opt for Leeds at the second opportunity, should David O’Leary leave for greener pastures in London, or he might even appeal to Arsenal if Monsieur Wenger heads east. And surely the Manchester United board must, with Sir Alex’s retirement looming, look favourably on the record of a man who can balance a budget and engender a fighting team spirit.
In fact, probably the only job he is not in the running for is chairman of Robbie Williams’ fan club.
Republic of Ireland manager Martin O’Neill makes players feel like a million dollars… you would run through a brick wall for him
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-4967548/Martin-O-Neill-makes-players-feel-like-million-dollars.html
History has proved you should never write off a team managed by Martin O’Neill
Ireland reached the 2018 World Cup play-offs thanks to an away win over Wales
O’Neill was the master of the dressing room as Celtic enjoyed major success
By Chris Sutton for the Daily Mail
Published: 22:31, 10 October 2017 | Updated: 22:49, 10 October 2017
You can never write off a Martin O’Neill side. He always backs his teams to the hilt, and as a result his players run through brick walls for him.
I first met Martin at a hotel in Beaconsfield to discuss a move from Chelsea to Celtic in the summer of 2000. I had endured a difficult year in London, scoring just once in the Premier League all season, but straight away Martin told me that did not bother him.
He said that he had followed my career, knew my form would return and that if I worked hard for him, he would back me. It is such belief in his players which inspires them to give that little bit extra to the cause.
When I played for him, Martin was not someone I felt you could get close to. He was difficult to read and you never knew what he was thinking, but when he gave you praise, it made you feel a million dollars.
Martin was the master of the dressing room. He never lost an argument and while he ruled with a strong hand, he was always fair. Henrik Larsson would often bail us out but Martin would not be afraid to rip into him if he felt things were not going right. Equally, he knew when to put an arm around someone who needed a confidence boost.
Where Martin has the X-factor is in his ability to galvanise and lift a group of players. He’s done it pretty much everywhere he has managed.
He took over a Celtic side who had finished 21 points behind Rangers. In his first Old Firm derby, we thumped Rangers 6-2. In next to no time he transformed us into a dominant force domestically while on the European stage we were going toe-to-toe with the likes of Juventus, Liverpool and Barcelona.
Now, with the Republic of Ireland, he has got a group of players from middling Premier League and Championship clubs well and truly punching above their weight.
This is one of the weakest Ireland teams I can remember and yet Martin has taken them to the brink of qualification for the World Cup.
Wales may have been without Gareth Bale on Monday night but what about the players Martin was missing? Without Jon Walters and Shane Long, Ireland had to rely on 34-year-old Nottingham Forest striker Daryl Murphy to lead their line.
In Cardiff, Ireland were extremely well organised, dogged and hard to beat. Martin has had to put up with a lot of stick about how Ireland do not play attractive football but he does not listen to all the outside noise. He does what is necessary to get results.
Martin surrounds himself with people he can trust implicitly. At Celtic, Steve Walford was the coach and John Robertson was his sounding board.
I can imagine plenty of managers would not want Roy Keane in their backroom team given how outspoken he can be but Martin is not worried about reputation. He simply wants the best people around him.
People have unfairly criticised Martin for not ‘coaching’ his teams. When I played for him, I was never left in any doubt as to my role or what was required from me.
Roy Hodgson, who I played for at Blackburn, is one of the game’s best coaches but those skills alone do not guarantee success as a manager. Hodgson did not have the aura that Martin O’Neill possesses.
In the five years I spent at Celtic, Martin was loved by everyone from the players to the staff, the cooks to the groundsman. Yet behind all the charisma, there was a steeliness and hunger to get the job done.
‘I’ve spent longer on a sponsored walk than I did as manager of Nottingham Forest!’: 20 years on from their treble at Celtic, Chris Sutton quizzes Martin O’Neill about Brian Clough, Roy Keane and getting the axe
It’s 20 years since Martin O’Neill and Chris Sutton began treble-winning season
Sutton says O’Neill ‘resurrected my career’ with move from Celtic to Chelsea
Brian Clough has been a major influence on O’Neill’s 30 years in management
O’Neill doesn’t plan to walk away from football despite trying spell at Forest
By Chris Sutton For The Daily Mail
Published: 22:30, 2 August 2020 | Updated: 02:44, 3 August 2020
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-8585975/Chris-Sutton-quizzes-Martin-ONeill-Brian-Clough-Roy-Keane-getting-axe.html
Celtic were a broken club in the first half of 2000. They were beaten by part-timers Inverness Caledonian Thistle in the Scottish Cup, a defeat which prompted the Mary Poppins-themed headline: ‘Super Caley go ballistic, Celtic are atrocious’.
They were way off the pace in the Scottish Premier League, finishing 21 points behind Rangers.
Then Martin O’Neill took over. Striker Mark Viduka, holidaying in Australia at the time, told his new manager he wanted to leave.
Celtic manager Martin O’Neill (left) and Chris Sutton recieve the Bank of Scotland Premier league Manager of the Month Award and Player of the Month Award for January 2005
+8
Celtic manager Martin O’Neill (left) and Chris Sutton recieve the Bank of Scotland Premier league Manager of the Month Award and Player of the Month Award for January 2005
RELATED ARTICLES
Previous
1
Next
Celtic 5-1 Hamilton: Odsonne Edouard scores opening weekend…
Controversial rugby star Israel Folau, who was sacked by…
Dani Ceballos refuses to commit to rejoining Arsenal amid…
Harrogate Town 3-1 Notts County: Three-goal flourish at…
Share this article
Share
‘Fine,’ said O’Neill, who sold Viduka to Leeds for £6million and used the money to sign Chris Sutton. In their first season together, Celtic won the domestic Treble, finishing 15 points ahead of Rangers to be crowned champions.
Two decades on, Sportsmail got the pair back together. O’Neill, now a 68-year-old grandfather whose last job saw him back at Nottingham Forest with assistant Roy Keane for just 19 games, reveals he is not finished with football. KIERAN GILL listened in.
CHRIS SUTTON: I couldn’t actually sleep last night Martin because I was nervous about doing this interview. I don’t think I’ve ever asked you a question.
MARTIN O’NEILL: You have. When I was signing you for Celtic, you asked if you could have the same wages as you were on at Chelsea!
SUTTON: You resurrected my career with that move.
Sutton describes his transfer to Celtic in July 2000 as the move which ‘resurrected his career’
+8
Sutton describes his transfer to Celtic in July 2000 as the move which ‘resurrected his career’
O’NEILL: Viduka thought I was going to get down on my knees and say, ‘Please stay with us’. He went on to have a great career. But you got the best out of Henrik Larsson. You took him to another level.
Our opening game was at Dundee United and so superior had Rangers been the previous year, I was asked by a journalist beforehand: ‘If you don’t win today, is that the league over?’
It was incredible. They didn’t expect Rangers to drop too many points! That was some pressure but Henrik opened the scoring, then you grabbed a late winner for us.
SUTTON: Was it a risk joining Celtic? You were at Leicester for five years.
O’NEILL: I got a telephone call from Sir Alex Ferguson to ask if I’d take a call from Dermot Desmond (Celtic’s major shareholder). Dermot and I didn’t know each other at all. But I was interviewed for the job and knew within seconds I wanted to join Celtic.
Martin O’Neill shakes hands with former Nottingham Forest manager Brian Clough
+8
Martin O’Neill shakes hands with former Nottingham Forest manager Brian Clough
As a player, O’Neill won the European Cup twice under the great Brian Clough for Forest, before representing Manchester City, Norwich and Notts County. As a manager, he got his start in 1990 with non-League Wycombe Wanderers, who were recently promoted to the second tier for the first time in their history.
SUTTON: Was becoming a manager always in your mind?
O’NEILL: No. Never. I was always good at giving advice to others and not taking it myself. I remember asking John O’Hare, a great centre forward for Derby who came to Forest towards the end of his career, ‘What are you going to do?’ I should have been asking myself that.
SUTTON: I suspect Clough had an influence on you as a manager.
O’NEILL: Clough was the most charismatic manager in England, maybe Europe. He was unpredictable, volatile, mercurial — every adjective you want to use. He’d say something to us on Monday, contradict himself on Friday, but I’d believe both of them. As a manager, it would be difficult not to have taken a lot from him.
O’Neill reflects on past glories at Nottingham Forest with Brian Clough in 1997
+8
O’Neill reflects on past glories at Nottingham Forest with Brian Clough in 1997
SUTTON: Was he approachable?
O’NEILL: I picture this scene where Cloughie would come down the corridor at the City Ground. There was a little washroom which was badly lit and the door was always open. Larry Lloyd, who was a big lad, would dip into that room to disappear so Cloughie could have a free run down the corridor. But when you got that praise from him, you felt a million dollars. I never asked anybody for advice after becoming a manager. If I was going to ask anybody, I’d have asked him. But I’d have known Brian’s answer: ‘Get on with it yourself, young man.’
SUTTON: Tell me about Wycombe.
O’NEILL: I’d gone for an interview with them in 1988 and failed. But I was doing commentary for an FA Cup match between Liverpool and Norwich at Carrow Road and met Alan Parry, the commentator who was also on the board at Wycombe. They were interviewing for the job. Alan later called me to say it had been given to Kenny Swain. But Kenny turned it down the following morning! Wycombe had plans to become a Football League team and I got the chance to take them there.
SUTTON: How did you apply for jobs back then? Did you have an agent?
O’NEILL: I’ve never had an agent. I wrote hand-crafted letters which I thought were funny and good, but they were obviously thrown in the bin! Chesterfield, Mansfield, Stockport… I wasn’t even getting a reply. On one occasion I got a reply from Bradford City after Trevor Cherry had lost his job in 1987 but they were concerned about me being a novice. At Wycombe, it all changed for me. I loved that club and I still do. It’s great to see young Gareth Ainsworth doing so brilliantly.
O’Neill poses for a photo in the dressing room at Adams Park, home of Wycombe Wanderers
+8
O’Neill poses for a photo in the dressing room at Adams Park, home of Wycombe Wanderers
SUTTON: In those days, the manager would be completely in charge of the club. What would Cloughie have made of the game these days with directors of football and chief executives?
O’NEILL: I think he would have found that difficult! Jock Stein, the greatest manager Celtic have ever had, would have found that difficult. Bill Shankly, Don Revie — all of these people would have found it difficult. But you have to adapt. This idea that managers of a certain vintage don’t want to change is utterly untrue. You have to adapt, otherwise you go under.
I was in charge at Leicester, at Celtic, at Aston Villa, where the chairman of the club was Randy Lerner, whose father had owned the Cleveland Browns. He wanted to make his own mark on football and thought there were parallels between Cleveland and Birmingham.
He felt Villa was a club he could do something with, and he put me in charge.
But at Sunderland and Forest, I was absolutely not in charge because other people wanted to run the clubs.
Manchester United legend Keane was not one to shirk a tackle and he can be just as cutting in the Sky Sports studio. But none of what Keane says surprises O’Neill. Keane was his assistant for five years with the Republic of Ireland before joining him at Forest last year.
O’Neill patrols the touchline at the City Ground with his assistant Roy Keane in 2019
+8
O’Neill patrols the touchline at the City Ground with his assistant Roy Keane in 2019
+8
SUTTON: I was with Roy for two weeks at Celtic. I didn’t say much to him in case he ripped my head off. People think he has a short fuse and can be wild. Is that perception fair?
O’NEILL: I’d say that perception would be pretty well correct.
SUTTON: Then why have him as your assistant?
O’NEILL: We’d done some work together on TV. He divided opinion as a player with the national team, particularly that incident in Saipan ahead of the 2002 World Cup when he walked out after a fight with Mick McCarthy.
But he’d been a fantastic footballer and an iconic figure.
He was a driving force for Manchester United and he didn’t just drive them on for a year — he did it for a decade.
Overall we felt we could come in and resurrect Ireland.
We qualified for Euro 2016, beating the world champions Germany along the way. Roy had his own opinions which he didn’t mind forcing through and that’s fine.
I thoroughly enjoyed it. It was a great journey. In the media, you and Roy both have a good, caustic sense of humour. Roy is always worth listening to.
O’Neill spent only 164 days in charge of Forest, the club where he made 371 appearances in midfield. It felt like fate to get the job. But on June 28, 2019, O’Neill’s sacking was confirmed. Just 18 minutes later, Sabri Lamouchi was announced as his successor.
O’NEILL: I hadn’t even left my dressing room by the time the new manager was announced. They obviously had a plan in place, so good luck to them.
SUTTON: Was there a romantic element to taking over at Forest? You don’t seem the type.
O’NEILL: I can’t believe you and I worked together and you’ve got me so wrong. You think I’m logical when I’m totally illogical, and I’m utterly romantic about the game. I thought I could turn Forest around. If I thought I was only going to get 19 games, then I wouldn’t have done it.
In my one week of pre-season, I signed Sammy Ameobi on a free transfer. Arguably he and Ben Watson have been their two best players this season.
SUTTON: Forest blew it on the Championship’s final day, missing out on a play-off position on goal difference. I can’t help wonder where you might have taken them. Did you feel let down?
O’NEILL: To only get 19 games was disappointing. It was no time at all. I’ve spent longer on a sponsored walk from Land’s End to John O’Groats than I did as manager of that football club!
O’Neill was given just 19 matches as Forest boss before being sacked in June 2019
+8
O’Neill was given just 19 matches as Forest boss before being sacked in June 2019
SUTTON: There was an accusation that you aren’t a training-ground manager. I know what I think of that. How do you respond?
O’NEILL: I remember as a young player walking from the City Ground to the training ground with the Forest youth team coach, Bert Johnson. He told me: ‘If you get a reputation for being an early riser, you can lie in bed all day.’ That’s absolutely true.
What happens in life is certain labels are bandied around and they stick. Clough was never considered to be a training-ground coach, yet he was one of the greatest. He made points which stood the test of time, like telling full backs the first job they have to do is shut the winger down. Or prevent him for as long as possible from crossing the ball, then at least it gives the centre backs a chance to recover.
I improved players who wanted to improve and I had a great eye for a player. That wasn’t a fluke.
When I was at Wycombe, I was on the road the whole time. I had my daughters doing their homework in a social club at VS Rugby because I’m watching them play. I saw Muzzy Izzet play every second Monday night at Kingstonian for Chelsea’s reserves. I did the miles. I did the work.
SUTTON: One final question. Are you finished in football or are you ready to get back in?
O’NEILL: I’ve got a real zest and great enthusiasm for the game. I have no doubt I will be back in some capacity.
Exclusive: Martin O’Neill reveals the secrets to his success – and why he will always be in Brian Clough’s debt
The Telegraph
Luke Edwards
8 November 2017 • 5:12 PM
Martin O’Neill is on the brink of another odds-defying triumph as Republic of Ireland prepare for their World Cup play-off against Denmark. In an exclusive interview with Telegraph Sport, he reveals his blueprint for management.
Personality
As a player at Nottingham Forest, Martin O’Neill was part of one of the great underdog stories, forming an integral part of the side which won two European Cups under Brian Clough.
It is an experience he still draws on decades later. It fuelled his success at Leicester – where he won two League Cups as a manager – and his determination to inspire an Ireland team, lacking world class players, to punch above their weight.
“There are comparisons with the job I did at Leicester and what I’m doing at Ireland – it does bring out something in my personality,” O’Neill told Telegraph Sport. “That love of the underdog. I had that as a player at Nottingham Forest too, when we won the league and the European Cup. Those were the great days of my playing career, under Brian Clough, and that stays with you as a manager.
“Clough used to play on that in the media, the underdog thing, but he never gave a feeling of inadequacy to the players. Far from it, in fact. The best managers do that.”
Indeed, empowering players – and making them feel valued – lies at the heart of the O’Neill philosophy.
O’Neill won the league and the European Cup with Forest
O’Neill won the league and the European Cup with Forest Credit: PA
“Football is about the players,” he said. “When we were growing up, the dream was to be a cricketer or a footballer – it was to score a 100 in a Test match, it was to score the winning goal at Wembley or in a European Cup final. I don’t think there are many 10-year-olds dreaming of standing on a touchline directing the team.
“The manager is very, very important, I’m not minimising that. Great managers are worth their weight in gold, but the game belongs to the players. You want to see the players performing, the great managers try and get a reflection of themselves in the players.”
Tactics
There are those who have argued that O’Neill, at the age of 65, is no longer relevant as a tactician; a dinosaur who cannot keep up with a younger breed of dynamic managers with new styles and formations.
Such accusations irritate him, given his success. As does the persistent accusation in Ireland, that his team do not have any clear tactical guidance.
O’Neill does not follow fashions and, unlike some, does not try to blind critics with talk of philosophies and brands. In private, O’Neill often scoffs at those who have tried to suggest they have reinvented football from the dugout.
“Words like philosophy seem to be used now and accepted,” said O’Neill. “I have no problem with that, but everybody has a philosophy. Clough had a philosophy, Jock Stein had a philosophy, they just didn’t use it every single day to try and baffle people.
O’Neill (left) alongside Brian Clough
O’Neill (left) alongside Brian Clough Credit: PA
“The great managers, who might be considered dinosaurs now, they had a philosophy about how they wanted the game to be played. But, the key thing is, regardless of the players they had at their disposal, they had to try and get the very best out of them.
“If you are trying to compete and win against teams who might look stronger on paper, you are at a disadvantage, but you have to try and make up for those disadvantages in any way you can.
“You find a way to get the best out of what you have, but I’ve never played the same system throughout my career. You set up your team to find a way to win. You have to try and shut down the other team. If you are going up against a side that is going to have most of the ball, you have to be able to play without the ball. That gives you a chance.”
Man-management
No matter where he has been, players have enjoyed playing for O’Neill and his man-management has always been considered a strength.
The Northern Irishman, much like Clough before him, has an unrivalled ability to get inside a player’s head. Not only motivating them, but making them believe they are a better player than anyone has told them before.
He does it in his own way, adopting, but also adapting, Clough’s methods to suit his own personality. He knows football and understands what makes footballers tick. Everything is built around that talent.
“It seems to be said of me, that I don’t speak to my players very much,” he admitted. “I’m not sure I agree. You need to be in the midst of the players, but you don’t always have to be talking to them.
“They know I’m watching. People might have said I’m a bit aloof, but I’m among the players without inconveniencing them by telling them what to do all the time.
O’Neill doesn’t feel the need to constantly talk to his players Credit: Getty images
“For me, directing players during a game, is crucial. Telling players what they can do to influence a game is the priority. Brian Clough was considered a great man manager and I hear people say he didn’t do a lot of coaching. I have to tell you, that is the biggest load of balderdash.
“Clough did a lot of coaching, but he didn’t take us for long sessions and have us standing around, pointing out things all the time. But he was always there, he always joined in, he would make small points, but they were always interesting.
“During a game, that was his real strength. He would point out little things to you and they would really stick because the pressure was on in the midst of a game. It was something you had to rectify if you were going to help the team. He had a wonderful way of getting through to you, particularly at half time. One word of praise from him meant so much.
“The other side to that, if you are constantly making the same mistakes, this is what Cloughie said, and you have been told several times, then that’s your fault if you’re not in the team. If you’re told something four times and it doesn’t go in, then you have a problem. He was an excellent coach, he just wasn’t on the training ground every single day. But the points he made to us as players, have stood the test of time.
“That’s the important aspect of coaching. Some aspects of the game have changed through the years, but not the methods.”
Coaching staff
Eyebrows were raised when O’Neill announced that Roy Keane would be his assistant manager with Ireland because, as he acknowledged at the time, they did not know each other well.
O’Neill and Roy Keane have made a successful double act Credit: Getty images
However, both are former pupils of Clough and what has developed since is a bond that will not be broken easily. Keane may not have looked it at the time, but he is everything O’Neill wants from a member of his coaching team.
“You want loyalty, but you also want someone to challenge you,” O’Neill added, “You want your coaches to have an opinion, an honest opinion. It would be pointless if they didn’t have an opinion. I’m the manager, ultimately it is my responsibility, so I have the final say, but I like people to voice their opinions on a player and a game.
“It’s interesting, Clough had Peter Taylor for a long time and a trainer called Jimmy Gordon who he trusted implicitly. You forge those bonds and those relationships. It’s to do with trust, loyalty and valuing somebody’s opinion. That’s what I want from my coaches.”
Martin O’Neill reveals family’s enduring affection for Celtic – “She’s a bigger fan now than when I was manager”
There is an air of wistfulness from Martin O’Neill when he reflects on the five years he managed Celtic, and the life in Glasgow he enjoyed over the period.
By Andrew Smith
Thursday, 9th June 2022, 10:30 pm
https://www.scotsman.com/sport/football/celtic/martin-oneill-reveals-familys-enduring-affection-for-celtic-shes-a-bigger-fan-now-than-when-i-was-manager-3726580
Yet, the Irishman – still impish even at the age of 70 – also confesses to a peevishness over how the club and the city have embedded themselves in the psyches of his family. It has been a whole 17 years since his tenure at Celtic ended. An outstanding period – he guided the club to a first treble for 31 years and a first European final for 33 years and claimed seven major honours in all – it remains the longest unbroken stint by any Celtic manager since Billy McNeill’s first spell almost 40 years.
Yet, the curiosity about the march of time is that when it comes to those who have occupied the post, it is the current incumbent Ange Postecoglou that is now the biggest deal for his offspring. “I have two daughters and one of them is a bigger Celtic fan now than when I was manager, which is a major disappointment to me…” he said, in his typical, half-joking full-earnest, fashion. “She’s running around, Ange, Ange, Ange. She’s got a three-year-old who is in front of the TV shouting, ‘come on Celtic.”
O’Neill’s affection for the club, and his exhilarating stretch at its helm, was stoked with television analyst duties that placed him pitchside on the afternoon last month of raucous celebrations as that the cinch Premiership spoils were presented to Postecoglou’s champions. The trigger for so many memories to come flooding back, so too are the undimmed feelings his wife Geraldine continues to hold for Scotland’s footballing capital. In spite of the fact that his career post-Celtic has taken him to a number of different stop-offs.
That period was formed by spells in charge of Aston Villa, Sunderland, the Republic of Ireland – former employees that will be hosting his old home in Saturday’s Nations League encounter – and, for a brief period in 2019, the club with which he famously won the European Cup as a player in Nottingham Forest. None of those postings, though, would appear to have impacted on the pair as profoundly as their stay in Glasgow.
“I’ve honestly missed it so much. Seriously,” he said. “My wife, who hated every place she’d been to in her life, absolutely loved it in Scotland. If she ever goes to heaven – which she won’t – she’d complain about that as well…But she loved it here and I was the same. It was great. You’d wake up and look out the window and not know if it was June or October. But that didn’t matter to us coming from Northern Ireland.
“I came up to do the Motherwell game with Stiliyan Petrov and the atmosphere and the singing, it brings it all back to you. I had great days, the torch is passed, the manager is going great and it all looks rosy. I did five years – it was like five minutes. I do miss it, absolutely. You will always do that. I think the dying breath will be, was there a game on Saturday?”
‘My wife wasn’t earwigging’: Martin O’Neill recounts Celtic eviction from Rangers hotel, early years at boarding school and Northern Ireland desire
Martin O’Neill’s return to Celtic Park next month for an event to promote his new book is hotly anticipated.
By Alan Pattullo
6 minutes ago
Updated
13 hours ago
https://www.scotsman.com/sport/football/celtic/my-wife-wasnt-earwigging-martin-oneill-recounts-celtic-eviction-from-rangers-hotel-early-years-at-boarding-school-and-northern-ireland-desire-3914239
Of course, he would be welcomed back by supporters either way, new book or not. That’s not perhaps so in the case of Brendan Rodgers and Neil Lennon, two of those who have succeeded O’Neill in the Celtic hotseat and who, like him, enjoyed considerable success.
Relations have since soured though time is, of course, a great healer. And O’Neill is sympathetic. He is adamant that this would have been his fate, too, had he not stepped aside in 2005 after his wife, Geraldine, was diagnosed with lymphoma. Otherwise, he would have stayed until long after his natural shelf-life, with Dermot Desmond, the club’s majority shareholder, having asked him to take “ownership” of the club. “By that, he meant he wanted me to run the football club the way managers would run his other businesses,” O’Neill explains in a conversation with The Scotsman.
Desmond put his full trust in the Northern Irishman, who he summoned from Leicester City when many other options were available. O’Neill remains eternally grateful.
Celtic manager Martin O’Neill shouts instructions from the dugout as Rangers counterpart Dick Advocaat watches on during an Old Firm match in 2000.
Celtic manager Martin O’Neill shouts instructions from the dugout as Rangers counterpart Dick Advocaat watches on during an Old Firm match in 2000.
“I would have stayed until I outstayed my welcome, absolutely,” he says. “I was completely attached to the club at the time. I loved living in Glasgow. I would have stayed there until results went badly and I got bombed out. I would not have left under my own volition. I would have been there at the bitter end still saying, ‘we can turn this round!’”
O’Neill’s status among Celtic fans seems protected. Even at his book’s launch in Oswestry of all places on the English-Welsh border on Tuesday night, there were a couple of Celtic supporters in attendance. “They are everywhere!” says O’Neill.
He laments the recent treatment of Lennon, forced out during a miserable attempt to secure ten in a row. He, of course, signed Lennon – “wee fat Plug!” as he referred to him recently – for a second time in December 2000.
“Obviously Celtic wanted to get ten in a row. But I don’t think that should mask his achievements both as a player, where he was fantastic for me, and as a manager. That would be a shame. But definitely in time. Maybe not tomorrow, maybe not Friday week, but, sometime, he will be given his proper position in the history of the football club.”
Martin O’Neill, pictured during the early 1970s when at Nottingham Forest.
Martin O’Neill, pictured during the early 1970s when at Nottingham Forest.
O’Neill himself has no worries on that count. The history of such a storied club has been written many times but authors focusing on the post-2000 era might settle on the 6-2 win over Rangers shortly after O’Neill took charge when choosing the result of this millennium. “Like a lot of things, that has possibly become more significant as time goes on,” he says. “But the more I think about it, it possibly was. It gave us confidence we could compete with Rangers, even though they mauled us in November, by which time we probably had enough confidence to carry the season through.”
The weekend got off to an inauspicious start when O’Neill’s wife, Geraldine, and Alana, his youngest daughter, were evicted from their hotel, the Crutherland in East Kilbride, on the eve of the match. Why? It was Rangers’ pre-match base.
“It was astounding!” recalls O’Neill. “I had stayed there during that week. You’d have thought someone might have just come up and said, ‘you know, by the way Rangers stay here’. I tried to make a little bit of a joke by saying I don’t think Stefan Klos or whichever had a photograph of my wife in his pocket. I don’t think that would have been top of the list.”
As O’Neill relates in On Days Like These, a self-penned memoir published on Thursday, “it transpires that the Rangers manager has been told that my wife and daughter are in the hotel. Rangers use the Crutherland as a base for many of their games and have a contract with them. If Geraldine and Alana don’t leave immediately, Rangers will cancel their contract with the hotel.”
O’Neill was hardly wet-behind-the-ears. But it was an early indication of what life on the Glasgow football front line was like, although O’Neill has few complaints. “I have to tell you I can count on the fingers of one hand when I got verbally abused on the streets of Glasgow,” he says.
He recounts the Crutherland episode with some amusement. “My wife could not have known Dick Advocaat and he certainly would not have known her,” he says. “In all honesty, it was probably just the hotel wanting to make sure everything was right for them. I don’t think my wife would have been earwigging on the team talk. Can you imagine going to the door, ‘who is that woman out there?!’ It was a fun incident. Although my wife didn’t take it too well at the time as she was being ushered out of the door!”
There was no need for a spy in the camp. Celtic won handsomely in any case, inspired by Chris Sutton, who O’Neill describes as a “landscape-changing” signing, not that he’ll go out of his way to tell him that.
O’Neill realised there was an urgent need for another striker to reduce the load on Henrik Larsson after he had phoned Mark Viduka on the eve of pre-season training. “He was in Melbourne,” recalls O’Neill. “I said, ‘so you won’t be training tomorrow morning then?’ I might have omitted it from the book, but actually Mark Viduka leaving, and Chris Sutton coming from Chelsea, was a landscape-changer for us.”
The omission may or may not have been deliberate. “I have a bit of banter with Chris, he used to say to me, ‘you won’t find me doing that punditry’,” says O’Neill, who is tickled by Sutton’s omnipresence in the media.
———————–
O’Neill’s booty from a lifetime in football seems unbeatable. Eusebio’s shorts, purloined from the already topless great man after O’Neill had scored his first international goal and Eusebio had struck his last last in a 1-1 draw between Northern Ireland and Portugal in 1973.
A dress shirt from Alex Ferguson that was borrowed and, to date, never returned, after O’Neill was invited to stay over at Chez Ferguson at short notice following Ryan Giggs’ testimonial v Celtic. “Every time I met him, even in moments of despair, his last words going out the door would be: ‘And you’ve still got my shirt!'” chuckles O’Neill.
He also has a Brazil top, swapped with Clodoaldo, after O’Neill had played for an all-Ireland team – although they were billed as a Shamrock Rovers XI for political reasons – against the then world champions in a friendly nearly 50 years ago.
Throw in a couple of European Cup winner’s medals for Nottingham Forest – he literally did throw his medal towards Brian Clough after being left out of the 1979 final against Malmo – and it’s a remarkable, if by no means complete, collection of souvenirs.
Some possessions were lost on the way. Or, indeed, were confiscated.
O’Neill attended boarding school from 11 to 15-years-old. Somewhat unusually for someone brought up in Kilrea, he developed an affinity for Sunderland. This, he reasons, was because they had two Irish players, one of whom, Johnny Crossan, hailed from Derry City, near to where O’Neill had been sent to school at St Columb’s College. “It was austere,” he says. “Really austere. Think back to Tom Brown’s schooldays.”
An FA Cup quarter-final replay between Sunderland and Manchester United in 1964 certainly didn’t feature on the curriculum. It finished long after lights out in any case. O’Neill borrowed a friend’s crystal radio set.
The dean of the college was on the prowl and heard muffled commentary coming from a bed in the dorm. “I receive six slaps with a leather belt,” writes O’Neill.
Worse, Sunderland lost 5-1. “The first week or ten days, all you are doing is standing on the steps of the college and you are looking out over the hills, wondering what is happening at home,” he says. “I didn’t like it.”
A few years later, it wasn’t homesickness that was the issue. By now well on the way to establishing himself as a professional footballer in Nottingham, he was perturbed to learn his parents, two sisters and at least one brother were intent on moving across the Irish sea to be with him.
The Troubles were a factor. But O’Neill, who had been studying for a law degree in Belfast while playing part-time for Distillery, was enjoying some new-found freedom and had met an unkempt new friend “with plenty to say for himself” called John Robertson.
“Last Monday afternoon I was sitting in a hall at Queen’s University listening to a lecture on jurisprudence,” he writes.
On Days Like These, the title taken from a Matt Monro song, is a compelling read. A poignant one, too, in places. Clearly, Clough is often centre stage. The legendary manager died during O’Neill’s last season at Celtic and O’Neill describes being asked to speak at his memorial service at Pride Park, home of Derby County, as “one of the biggest honours of my life”.
He has also recently attended the funeral of Terry Neill, another significant figure in his life. The then Hull City player manager handed him his international debut as a 19-year-old sub for Northern Ireland against what was then known as the USSR.
O’Neill feared he had quickly blotted his copybook after complaining to a journalist when he was left out of the starting XI v Spain soon afterwards. George Best had turned up for duty worse for wear after a bender en route to Hull, where the game had been moved following Bloody Sunday.
“I think about how brash I was – I should have been lining up with George Best, honestly?” reflects O’Neill. “The more I think about it the more embarrassed I get.”
“Not only did Terry scold me, rightly so, for that episode in Hull, he was the first one to make a bid for me. After putting me in the squad in October against Russia while I was still a student at Queen’s University, he gave me 20 minutes. He then put a bid in from Hull City to Distillery for me for £10,000, which Forest quickly topped by offering £15,000.
“If Terry had not made that bid in the first place, hopefully I would still have gone across (to England), but it might not have happened so quickly. He was the instigator in many respects.”
It worked out for the best. With the best will in the world, Hull City were unlikely to win the European Cup once, never mind twice – and in successive seasons. “I could have been languishing in the Fourth Division!” says O’Neill.
Now a very sprightly 70, what’s next? There’s a vacancy at Northern Ireland which seems tailor made for him. He defers to his Edinburgh-based namesake, Michael, when it comes to candidates for this job opportunity.
“I assume the Irish FA have made Michael their first port of call, because he did such a good job there,” he says. “I think there’s possibly an element of ageism playing a part in these things.
“Do I have the same determination? Absolutely. I don’t think 19 games at Nottingham Forest, although we won the last three of them, is how you want to end things (as manager). But sometimes you are not in control of that. Could I manage now, and have the same appetite? Absolutely. There is no such thing as a perfect job. But if someone at the IFA had any thoughts … who knows what might happen?”
Returning home to manage Northern Ireland would have made for a perfect last chapter in his book. As it stands, it ends on a slightly low note as he reflects on his time feeling like “an outsider” while manager of Republic of Ireland. He is savaged by the press for his supposedly out-dated tactics and leaves following a 5-1 World Cup play-off defeat against Denmark.
He does accept the charge of Luddism in one respect. His memoir was written in long-hand. He then photocopied the pages and sent them to his daughters, who typed them out. As well as giving abundant thanks to Aisling and Alana, no wonder their husbands earn a mention in the acknowledgements for their “patient perseverance”.
Before we finish talking, O’Neill casts an eye over the modern game. In many ways, it’s much the same as it always was. O’Neill acknowledges that his frustration at Viduka’s refusal to return to Celtic had to be tempered by the memory of his own one-man strike at Nottingham Forest after being left out of the side one too many times by Clough.
Before we finish talking, there’s one eternal truth he wishes to impart. Quality will always, always, shine through.
“Obviously pitches have changed, rules have changed, obviously we have VAR now and the introduction of the no backpass rule, all supposed improvements,” he says. “Let me put it this way, if George Best arrived down now to play, with pitches in the shape they are in, with less severe tackling – he wouldn’t get what he got against Chelsea with Ron Harris – then he would add at least another 100 goals to his goal tally in his career.”
As for O’Neill, how might he have fared as a player now? His only wish is that VAR had been around at the Vicente Calderon stadium in Madrid on July 4, 1982 for what was, effectively, a World Cup quarter-final between France and Northern Ireland, in the second group stage. Although they eventually lost 4-1, O’Neill had given his side the lead after 25 minutes. He was flagged offside when onside by at least a yard.
“We might – because we were great at holding on to a lead – we might have been playing in the semi-final of the World Cup,” he says. “Now that really would have been something.” Astounding, even, to use one of the engaging O’Neill’s favourite words.
On Days Like These – My Life in Football by Martin O’Neill, published by Macmillan. £22.
Martin O’Neill shares what Henrik Larsson privately admitted to him about Celtic and Barcelona
Patrick Sinat
https://tbrfootball.com/martin-oneill-shares-what-henrik-larsson-privately-admitted-to-him-about-celtic-and-barcelona/
Wed 27 December 2023 14:45, UK
Martin O’Neill and Henrik Larsson are two of the biggest Celtic legends of the modern-day era.
Between them both, they helped Celtic through one of the most successful domestic and European periods of their history since the Lisbon Lions.
Winning the first treble in 2001 since the Jock Stein era, O’Neill and Larsson helped end Rangers’ domination of Scottish football to kickstart what we are currently witnessing to this present day.
But there was one trophy that both of these living legends couldn’t get their hands on and it is one that still haunts them to this day. The 2003 UEFA Cup.
Getting to their first major European Final since 1970, Celtic went to Seville that year with great hope that they could lift the UEFA Cup.
With Chris Sutton, Paul Lambert, Neil Lennon and, of course, Larsson in the team, that Celtic side had taken on the might of Liverpool, Blackburn and Stuttgart to get to that final.
Unfortunately, they couldn’t do enough to get past Jose Mourinho’s Porto and despite Larsson bagging a double, Celtic lost the final 3-2 in extra time.
It was a painful end to one of the best memories as a Celtic fan that I can remember and O’Neill has just shared what Larsson would have been willing to sacrifice if it meant that Celtic had won the UEFA Cup in 2003.
O’Neill said [PLZ Soccer], “It was not that long ago that I was speaking to Henrik Larsson and Henrik’s won the Champions League with Barcelona.
“He made a big impact in the game, come on and I was there at the match cheering him on and he said he would have given that up to have won the UEFA Cup with us at Celtic.
“That’s massive.”
That just shows you how much Larsson still holds Celtic dear to his heart. The fact that he would give up the biggest prize in club football to be successful in Europe in the green and white hoops speaks volumes of the player.
It’s why the Celtic fans love him still to this day.