Celtic Manager Martin O’Neill speaks at a mainstream conference on Tuesday 6th January 2026 at Lennoxtown after returning to the club following the sacking of Wifred Nancy. Photo Andy Buchanan Shutterstock
Q: The team are obviously in a worse league position than when you left, once that cup final, but do you still feel that you can go on and win the league and have success in the Scottish Cup and still progress in Europe?
Martin O’Neill: “Oh, right, that’s an enormous task. Well, I think it’s going to be difficult. I think, no bones about it, there are fewer games to play now than before, and theRangers must have gained a psychological advantage there, and that’s over us, but we still have to catch Hearts, and the way that Motherwell played the other evening against Celtic, they might well be the best footballing side in the league.”
Q: Martin, was it difficult, you were watching on from the sidelines when the team was going through a run under Wilfried, given the way you’d taken them?
Martin O’Neill: “Yeah, it was disappointing, but some of the matches that they played in, had that, you know, for instance, had that second goal had gone in, I know it’s ifs, buts and maybes, and you keep those out of the equation, and eventually the results are what it’s all about, but there were moments in matches there, if they’d been able to score that second goal, you never know that things could have been different.
“You just need a little bit of luck, and somewhere along the way, and I look back at my time, I know it’s a fairly lengthy time ago, but when I was at Leicester, I couldn’t win a game to save my life, and a crowd, you know, very restive, very restive indeed, that’s putting it mildly. I got a bit of luck away from Filbert Street, where I won two games in about three or four days, and eased the pressure, and I’d just come into the football club as well. I understand these things, so we got a bit of luck, we finally got promotion, it was great, things went really brilliantly for me after that, but it was touch and go.”
Q: Martin, Paul Tisdale’s also leaving the club, how does the January transfer window work now, what role do you have within that? Is it going to be business as usual, because I’m sure we spoke before about this team needing players in this window?
Martin O’Neill: “Well, we definitely need to supplement the squad, absolutely no question about that, and I think that Shaun Maloney, for instance, has been working in the background in certain things, I think he would get to know some players. It’s up to me as quickly as possible, because eventually, eventually, I would like to be sitting here in front of you and saying, listen, all these players are my choice, and that’s what I’d really like to do, so I don’t have a great deal of time.”
“When I was at Celtic before, I would be able to run the rule over players, players that I knew, players that I maybe didn’t know, like Joos Valgaeren, for instance, way back years ago, but you take the chance on somebody who’s an international player. I will rely on Shaun and Mark (Fotheringham) and Stephen (McManus), their opinion on players, but eventually it’ll be down to me as much as anything else. Or if they don’t do well, I’ll blame Shaun! And if they do brilliantly, then I shall take all the credit!”
Q: Are you aware of anything imminent, any that were in motion before you came in?
Martin O’Neill: “You do know that the young lad has joined us from Bournemouth for a start, and I obviously didn’t know anything about that, and so that’s really up to him now to gather a bit of momentum himself. He hasn’t played very, very much football, but from here on in, yeah, whatever we’re doing, it’s just a matter of, well, again, I’ll reiterate, we need the players in, and as quickly as possible.”
