Martin O’Neill during the Premier Sports Cup Semi Final match between Celtic and Rangers at Hampden Park on November 02, 2025. (Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)
Q: The final is in December, is there any chance you could still be the manager at that point? Have you given any indication?
Martin O’Neill: “I have had no indication, genuinely no indication whatsoever at this minute. None at all. And I would have thought that with Midtjylland now on Thursday night and then Kilmarnock on the Sunday, I would have thought there’s probably time for them, with an international break, for the board to think about something.”
theRangers go down to ten men after referee Nick Walsh shows the red card. Celtic v theRangers. Premier Sports Cup, semi final at Hampden. 2 November 2025. Photo Vagelis Georgariou (The Celtic Star)
Q: Would you like to lead them out again at Hampden?
Martin O’Neill: “Well, secretly you would love to, but it’s December time, we’re in the results business and all of these things can change. I was actually at the game, Midtjylland’s game against Nottingham Forest, where they were just too strong for them really, and that was at the City ground. And then we’ve got the Kilmarnock game on the Sunday. These games, it’s all about results. It is, honestly. And that will determine whether the board might think about taking their time. If we’d been beaten today, I might not even have seen Thursday.”
Johnny Kenny scores. Celtic v theRangers. Premier Sports Cup, semi final at Hampden. 2 November 2025. Photo Vagelis Georgariou (The Celtic Star)
Q: What about your strikers today?
Martin O’Neill: “Johnny scored the goal. Yeah, he’s a young kid coming into the game. The other lad’s an interesting character. He’s got plenty of confidence. When he learns to play centre forward properly, it’ll be great. He does a bit of flicking here and there, but he’s sharp and he wants to go. And he got the goal, and he certainly celebrated. If the game had gone to penalties and Rangers had won, I would have… He missed a great chance before that, didn’t he? So, he might not have seen tomorrow himself.”
An alternate angle of the brilliant @johnny_kenny2 header that got @CelticFC on their way against Rangers 🍀
Guided perfectly into the corner of the net 👏🎥#PremierSportsCup | @spfl pic.twitter.com/gXXoGMVmDb
— Premier Sports (@PremSportsTV) November 2, 2025
Callum Osmand scores. Celtic v theRangers. Premier Sports Cup, semi final at Hampden. 2 November 2025. Photo Vagelis Georgariou (The Celtic Star)
Q: It was great to see Callum Osmand score his first senior goal?
Martin O’Neill: “Yeah, yeah. Delighted. Didn’t he milk it as well?”
A moment that will live with @callum_osmand forever 🙌
The pitchside view of his first @CelticFC goal and the celebration that followed at Hampden this afternoon 🍀#PremierSportsCup | @spfl pic.twitter.com/KuDwOGHASo
— Premier Sports (@PremSportsTV) November 2, 2025
Q: Would you be happy to sit down with Dermot Desmond to talk about the job?
Martin O’Neill: “The answer, the very obvious answer would be yes, I would do. But I genuinely don’t know what to expect. Coming up, when I saw the games that they had and then the international break coming up, I thought, well, they’ll have a couple of weeks to think about it. I haven’t even spoken to him since that. So, I don’t know. In a perverse sort of way, I have kind of enjoyed the two games, but not a lot.”
