Celtic v Falkirk 29.10.2025 Scottish Premiership. Martin O’Neill, Shaun Maloney, Gavin Strachan and Mark Fotheringham Photo Kenny Ramsay IMAGO
Q: Well, Martin, how does it feel to be back?
Martin O’Neill: “Gosh, I had a seance last night. And in this seance was Elvis Presley and Frank Sinatra. And both were really disappointed because I had made more comebacks than them! Please don’t put that out. It was a crap joke.
“I have to say, just every bit as strange as it was the first time. I think if you ever needed proof of anything, we’re in the results business, you have to win some football matches, you know? I’ve known that myself in the course of my career. It’s in one aspect really nice to be back. Other ones, I genuinely feel for a manager who has had little time to get his feet under the table, I suppose put his plans across and things like that. So, yeah, it happens. But I’m here now, so I’m going to see if I can do my best.”
Q: What was the decision like this time compared to the last time? You now know it’ll be longer, you know it’ll be until the end of the season. You also know what’s happened to this team in the last month or so. What was the decision like this time?
Martin O’Neill: “Well, that’s a good point. I felt as if I was like one of those supply teachers before. Now my time looks as if it’s going to be longer. But I will have the same, just exactly the same problems. If I don’t win the football matches, I come under pressure as well too. So, I’m aware of that. It’s just it seems as if it’s a bit longer. Supposedly, it’s to the end of the season. You have to kind of prove yourselves. You need to win some games as well.”
Q: I remember the last time you said the players probably need to be picked up a bit and confidence restored. I assume they are even lower now than they were then. Is that fair? How have you found them?
Martin O’Neill: “Every new manager steps in and says, the training was great today. It was fine. It was fine. It was nothing more than fine. But they’re in decent spirits. We had a bit of a meeting here about half past ten today. Honestly, I genuinely feel as if they’re in good heart. So, naturally disappointed with the recent results and the way things have gone. But I’m just hoping that they’re up for the battle ahead and I’m sure they will be.”
Q: Martin, you told us the last time when you came back that in a conversation with Dermot Desmond, he gave you 10–20 minutes to decide. Could you tell us the process by which you returned this time?
Martin O’Neill: “He was to the point. He said, ‘Would you come in?’ Again, I think that if you’re going to look at a long-term appointment, I think then, really, perhaps if I can give him this time to look at, to the end of the season, for him to look at someone and that be the man that, through thick and thin, is going to lead Celtic on in the next couple of years, that’s fine. I think it was just essentially that. Regardless of the results, you’re still a bit surprised. I don’t speak to Dermot that often in that sense, but if that’s what he wanted to do and that’s what the board wanted to do, then I was happy enough to go with it.”
