Martin O’Neill’s frustration at having to step aside for Wilfried Nancy

Martin O’Neill has revealed his frustration at having stepped aside during Celtic’s title push last month, a decision that paved the way for Wilfried Nancy’s brief and disastrous spell in charge…

The experienced Celtic manager travels to Tynecastle this weekend under mounting pressure, fully aware that a loss to the table-toppers would significantly undermine his chances of undoing the setbacks suffered while the French coach was at the helm.

A Hearts victory would extend their advantage over the Hoops to nine points, and with just 15 fixtures left on the calendar, O’Neill concedes that Celtic’s bid to retain the title would be placed in serious jeopardy as the season reaches its decisive phase.

That looming scenario has only heightened his sense of regret about relinquishing the caretaker role when Nancy was installed for what proved to be a costly December period.

Reflecting on that episode, O’Neill said via The Herald: “You can’t change the course of the season but in hindsight I maybe wouldn’t have minded staying on. But that was always going to be the case. When Wilfried was coming in I was to step aside and I willingly did that.

“Now, when you think of the situation I think it would have been nice to have stayed on but that wasn’t to be. I’m holding absolutely no-one to account.”

Martin O’Neill continued: “In fact. Sometimes maybe there might have been a bit of relief that you’re going and handing it on. But now you are back again so first of all you have to claw things back.”

“There’s an excitement about it [Hearts game] but naturally you want to try to win it. But for us, on Sunday, as I think Callum McGregor has said in an interview, if we can’t win it it would be a long way back for us if we lost it.”

Martin maintains that taking responsibility for the closing stages of the campaign brings no greater burden than the challenge he faced when he was first drafted in following Brendan Rodgers’ departure.

He said: “I felt in my first little spell here – at the end of October, beginning of November – that it was a bit more about stabilising. It was actually trying to win some football matches to get ourselves back on track again. We did that but then we lost a bit of ground.”

“So coming back again it feels as if it’s almost like the same thing again, having to fight and coming back on track. The only difference is that this spell would be longer.”

“I wasn’t sure how long the other would be. I think Mr Desmond said it was either going to be two weeks or perhaps maybe two months, it was probably somewhere in between. But this time it seems to be till the end of the season.”

“You just pick up the position that you’re in and you try and improve, that’s really what I’m trying to do.”

Conor Spence

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