Interim bosses Martin O’Neill and Shaun Maloney speak to the media

Q: Can I just ask you, obviously, we heard a wee bit of your thoughts on the league and Celtic yesterday on the radio. You feel that maybe getting a bit more physicality into the team, which was something your teams always had. Is that something you’re going to do?

Martin O’Neill: “That’s true. First of all, I stand by everything I said yesterday, although if I’d known I was going to get the job here, I wouldn’t have said anything. But that’s the nature of the game. So there I was, minding my own business in the King’s Road in London, and then I got the call. So now I’m thinking, should I have said that? Anyway, I stand by it. Hearts are very strong, they’re going brilliantly at this minute, they’ve opened up an eight-point gap. It’s something that I have thought about for quite some considerable time. There are different ways of playing the game. I inherited myself way back 25 years ago, some really great players, and I think that in terms of adding to that, I think that I did that. Eventually, over a relatively short period of time, the team gelled and got together, and we were very strong. I had lots of good players. And other than a couple of very young lads in the side, you know, proper men in the team.

“Celtic, I’ve noticed here in the last couple of years, have not got that, but they’ve still been able to win. So they’ve been able to win in a different way, which is great. That was my viewpoint. I may end up after two or three weeks changing my mind completely about it, but that was, that has been my view for some time. But remember, it’s only about nine months ago that I saw this side going, and I was there in Munich, when this side did brilliantly. Bayern Munich scored in the last minute of the game, and I genuinely believe that if that had gone into extra time, Celtic would have beaten them. There are a number of ways to win football matches.”

Q: With big games coming up straight away, you’ve not got much time, but what do you think you need to do tactically to get Celtic back scoring goals? Because we’ve really struggled with that a lot this season.

Martin O’Neill:  “They have, and it’s the number of chances you create during the course of the game that is the most important thing because you’re not going to stick everything away. That is it. We have to try and create. We can, and for instance, there was a moment in the game that Celtic could have gone 2-1 in front against Hearts. A good chance, the goalkeeper made a great save in the game. So I think overall, from what I see, and Shaun may totally disagree with me, it’s creating more chances for us. How we do that is entirely up to us.”

Q: Martin, you said you were in Munich for that fantastic performance back in February. A lot of the squad that played in that game are still at the club. Do you think Celtic can reach those levels again pretty quickly, either under yourself and Shaun or the permanent boss whenever they are appointed?

Martin O’Neill: “They have a couple of injuries at the moment to very, very key players. Every football club has key players. But the team are a good side. They’re a good team, a good side. And just have, you know, not used to losing some football matches, so maybe a little bit of confidence has been lost. But the players are really, really decent players, and I’m really, I am genuinely looking forward to working with them for how long that may be, I don’t know. That would be your ambition to try and get the football club back to there again. And we will strive as hard as we can to do it. I think that would be the message from both of us. But really, that’s it. We have some really fine footballers at the football club. And players who have won, and that’s nice. It’s nice to go into a dressing room with players who have actually won. I’m not saying all of them have done that; there are a couple of young lads in the side, but the boys know how to win. So they just need to get that back again. That would be the most important message for me.”

Q: Welcome back, Martin. Some of your greatest memories for fans back then were the victories over Rangers. You’ve got the small matter of the derby at the weekend. How excited are you both for that? Obviously, it’s such a huge game in Glasgow, you know how important that is to fans. Are you confident that you can lift the spirits within the camp to get up for that?

Martin O’Neill: ” If you had ever been in the room here at this time, you would have known my answer to that would have been, I cannot possibly think of that game. We’ve got a game tomorrow night, which is the most important thing for me. So after that, I could have a conversation with it. But as I said to you, if we don’t get a result tomorrow night, you might be talking to somebody else.”

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