Martin O’Neill arrived at Celtic Park after catching a flight from London to join Shaun Maloney at a 3pm Media Conference as the two interim managers were introduced to the media in their new and short term roles following the resignation of Brendan Rodgers yesterday and the extraordinary outburst from Dermot Desmond later in the evening…
Unusually Celtic invited all the participating fan media sites and podcasts along – many have dropped out over the past few seasons. But those there today gave the fan media near enough parity with the mainstream media and you may agree that the questions from the fan media in the second half of the media conference were the equal if not better than those from the hacks.
Conor Spence was there representing The Celtic Star. Here’s everything that was said together with the video of the conference and also some excellent media conference photography, which isn’t usually available.
Q: Martin, how do you feel about being back?
Martin O’Neill: “I feel a wee bit breathless. I only heard about it less than 24 hours ago, so I’m really excited, I must admit – nervous excitement about it. Obviously, I want to try and do as well as I can. I’m looking forward to it, I think! It is a role at this moment in which they’re looking for a permanent manager. The events of the last 24 hours are quite stunning, and at this minute, I’ve been called in to do the job as interim manager, and that’s the way it will remain.”
Q: Could you tell us how this came about in the last 24 hours and what you have been told about what’s required from this management team at the moment?
Martin O’Neill: “I didn’t need to be told about what’s required for the management teams at this football club. I got a call, it must have been late afternoon, early evening, from Dermot Desmond, and he said that Brendan had resigned. I think people were taken aback by that. I assumed that nothing would have happened until the end of the season for anybody in particular. I was called, would I come in and hold proceedings until they get a permanent manager? I had 10 minutes to make up my mind, apparently, which I did.”
Q: You mentioned Dermot Desmond; there were some very strong words from him about Brendan’s departure. I wonder what you make of that and how big a job you guys have of uniting everyone at this moment in time?
Martin O’Neill: “I can’t really comment on that. That’s something that’s outside my remit in that sense. What has happened just recently, Celtic have been so successful for a long, long time now. Each manager who steps into the job does brilliantly. Brendan has done terrifically well in both times he’s been here at the football club, as have a number of managers before. From that viewpoint, I don’t know what has happened in that sense, and it’s probably not for me to make a judgment here at this stage. All I know is that I’m in here now at the minute, working with Shaun. I knew Shaun as a player, a young player here, and a terrific footballer he was. However, we’ll try and work together and see what that brings. Winning is the most important thing. As I’ve said often enough when I do little bits of punditry, it still applies to me now.”
Q: Martin, what do you think this club needs at the moment?
Martin O’Neill: “Naturally, I think it’s the easiest thing in the world to say that when a club is successful, it has everybody going in the same direction. That doesn’t seem to be the case at this moment. Really, that’s it. Whether I’m able to do that or not is in the lap of the gods, but I think winning football matches has always been the main contributor to fans and the club being together. That would be it: winning football matches.”
Q: You obviously know Dermot, and you know Brendan. From a personal point of view, has it been sad or disappointing to see how publicly their relationship seems to have just collapsed?
Martin O’Neill: “Yeah, it is. I must admit that’s true. It is really sad to see that. I wasn’t expecting it. I don’t know what’s been going on because, despite the fact that Dermot brought me here to the football club 25 years ago, since I left, I have not had that many conversations with him. I’ve never been asked back again in my younger days. All of that is, as you say, quite sad to see, but I don’t know what’s taken place, so there is very little that I can add to it.”
Q: And just to confirm, this is only for you on an interim basis. I know we had quotes earlier from you on a radio station, but do you feel this is just an interim period for you, and you do not want this job full-time?
Martin O’Neill: “Number one, yes, this is definitely an interim. They could have a new manager in two weeks’ time. If we don’t win on Wednesday evening, we might have a new manager on Thursday. That’s not great news for Shaun to hear because he keeps hoping I’ll be around for a month. Celtic will be looking for a young manager to come in with a very, very decent CV and to work with the team. That’s exactly right.”
Think MoN role is going to be trying to act as a peace keeping role more than anything else at present.
Trying to get through to the next international break with positive results, will be there first target imo.
Personally believe that Maloney will call the shots moreso upon selection, and formation, tactics etc etc. Think MoN will be more about installing belief and confidence into the ground, with maybe creating a better all round working environment.
Also don’t believe that all of this got resolved in a few hours yesterday either, by the sounds of things.
Of course it will be interesting to see just how the players react to the changes?
Could work, even if not totally inspiring as a first thought.
Don’t think it can be any worse than what the season has been to date.
But in football you never quite know if change is actually going to work out.
Still believe that the initial plan is trying to see if this new management structure, could get us through the remainder of this season.
As a supporter, I will continue to give them full backing, until circumstances should change.