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: Martin, you mentioned there that it’s going to be a battle in the league. Do you now, with (the)Rangers drawing level with Celtic, Hearts got a six-point lead, do you now generally see it as a three-way fight for the title?
Martin O’Neill: “Well, naturally I do. I don’t know what sort of, what shall I say, the strength of the squad of, for instance, Motherwell or Hibs or something. I really don’t know that there. Certainly, I watched the game against Motherwell, and they were brilliant against us, really brilliant in the game, so I don’t know that. (the)Rangers are obviously big enemies, and Hearts have got, they’ve had momentum all season. They’ve been able to win some big games, so, yeah, it is a difficult task for us, but we’ve got 18 games still left.”
Q: In terms of numbers coming in, Martin, do you expect it to be a busy one?
Martin O’Neill: “I would be hoping for it, but if the board were to listen to me, then we would have about 56 players, so I will try and narrow it down. I think you’d be aware, of what positions we need to strengthen in, and that’s what we’re going to try and do. It’s a difficult window, and in terms of buying players, things like this here, that’ll be difficult, but we do need, we do need to supplement the squad.”
Q: Obviously Daizen Maeda was quite close to leaving in the summer, do you anticipate him still being here?
Martin O’Neill: “That’s a good point. I just came in last night, I don’t know, I don’t know what has happened since, and I don’t know, so there’s little point in me saying, oh, he’s really happy, he wants to stay here, and then tomorrow morning he’s gone, or something like that. I don’t know, I’ll have a word, or find out what he’s thinking, even if it’s through his agent, or whatever the case may be. I think there was a bit of disappointment with him, because the move didn’t go through, I think it was to Wolfsburg, was it, I think, last, in August time? Am I telling you something that you didn’t know?
“Possibly? Okay. That never happened! It wasn’t Wolfsburg at all, no, absolutely not, I think it was Augsburg, no? Okay. Cut that! Okay, I think he was, I think it was a bit of disappointment at the time, but he’s got going, he’s got going again. If you’re asking me, I’d love him to stay, it’d be actually really important for him to stay, if that’s the case, but I genuinely don’t know what is happening there, by our next press conference, I’ll be able to tell you.”
Q: Martin, there’s an argument that perhaps the results didn’t come under Wilfried because he tried to implement change too soon, the players didn’t seem comfortable with it, for you is it a point of getting back to basics in terms of a formation, a formula that you think works?
Martin O’Neill: “Well, I hope I didn’t try and change too many things that Brendan had in place. There’s a couple of things that I, that as all managers will have a way of playing, of what they think is the best way, the best way that would suit the squad there. So I don’t think that we tried to change too many things. I’m pretty aware that at the time, it takes time for players to adjust, if it is a change of formation or whatever the case may be. There were times during the course tha we actually did change formation and so as long as the players, one, are happy with it and two, understand it, that’s absolutely fine.
I don’t expect to make too many changes, probably want to maybe go back to what I thought maybe worked for us at the time, if indeed it didn’t work before. Again, it’s players, we can get bogged down with the systems and stuff like this here, but players can’t make things work, so whatever system we do, decide to go, just let’s not have any excuses, let’s go and try and win.”
