"I just wonder what the great Jock Stein would have thought of it," Martin O'Neill

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Q: Will tomorrow be your last game?

Martin O’Neill: “No, it could well be, and if we lost the game, and this is the point, not only am I going game by game in that sense, and a new manager coming in, but obviously, you know, you can outstay your welcome here as well too, you lose the games, and people will want to try and make a change pretty quickly then after that, which I understand, because we’re in the results business, we have to try and win.”

Kieran Tierney celebrates after scoring for Scotland against Denmark to take Scotland to the World Cup Finals! Photo – Vagelis Georgariou (The Celtic Star)

Q: On a different subject, how pleased were you for Kieran Tierney?

Martin O’Neill: “Do you know what, much as I loved my time in Scotland, and I did do, I can’t always say I was cheering the national side on all the time, I thought it was brilliant. I thought the victory, we went to the game, and I thought it was great, and I really, I must admit, well of course I was surrounded by Scots people anyway, with Shaun Maloney, Mark Fotheringham, and one of our really good scouts, but it was great, really great, and the manner in which they won, you couldn’t have foreseen that. It was fantastic, absolutely fantastic, so well done, and well done the manager, who is now the most successful Scottish manager, yeah?

“It’s really great, and for Kieran, I couldn’t be more pleased, couldn’t be more pleased really, but the goal, I was right behind it, right behind it, the minute it left his foot, I thought, this is heading in, and much as the fourth goal was obviously a great goal, three great goals for you, including McTominay’s, the fourth goal might not have happened if Kieran hadn’t scored, so brilliant, absolutely brilliant, yeah. So we have to now pick up Kasper Schmeichel from off the floor now, so that might be more difficult than you think, but we’ll see how he is.

“I haven’t had a chance today, because we’re training this morning, so what a time to organise an AGM, ridiculous, ridiculous, ridiculous, if I’d known it was going to last only four minutes, I honestly, yeah, I could have sent a substitute instead, you know?”

Q: How do you think Celtic the club and Celtic the supporters sort this situation out?

Martin O’Neill: “It will get sorted, how will it get it sorted? Right, okay, well I’m not a soothsayer, and you might be right, it might go on for longer than you think, but at the end of it all, I think that there’s, again I get back to the point, I think the board have said, you know, we make mistakes, we’re all doing it. I did say in the interview, I only make about £6,000 per day, so at the end of it all, you’ve got to, you’ve got to put something into the past and try and move forward, and that’s what Jock Stein would have said. As I say, he’s the greatest manager of the football club, and in any conversation he’d be the greatest manager of all time, and we are all followers after that, so that’s what Jock would be saying.”

Billy McNeill, Jock Stein and John Clark outside the doors of Celtic Park, as Billy is appointed Celtic manager and John his assistant, in summer 1978 Photo The Celtic Wiki

Q: What do you think he would have made of that?

Martin O’Neill: “He would have been massively disappointed with it, and he would have felt that it was really sad, at the football club, that he did so much to enrich.”

Last orders for Celtic in the Eighties by David Potter

Celtic in the Eighties and Willie Fernie – Putting on the Style both by David Potter. Photo The Celtic Star

Last remaining copies of Celtic in the Eighties – get your copy now before it’s too late! Here’s what you get…

David Potter’s beautifully produced hardback book, the Celtic Historian final work before his passing. Your copy will also be personally signed by Celtic legend Danny McGrain!
You’ll also receive a complimentary copy of another brilliant David Potter book – Willie Fernie – Putting on the Style.

Order Celtic in the Eighties from Celtic Star Books and we’ll automatically add Putting on the Style. Please note postage will only be charged on one book so there is no cost to you at all for the Willie Fernie biography.

These two books combined will make a brilliant Christmas present!