Martin O’Neill has spoken light-heartedly about the prospect of taking on a senior role upstairs at Celtic, amid speculation linking him with a potential move into the club’s boardroom following Peter Lawwell’s departure…
Currently serving as interim manager after Wilfried Nancy was relieved of his duties, the 73-year-old overseen seven wins from eight between October and December following Brendan Rodgers’ sudden resignation.
With Lawwell stepping down late last year, O’Neill’s name has been floated as a possible long-term successor in a leadership capacity.
The Irishman joked that he may have sparked the rumours himself, while admitting the idea of working in a football operations or director-level position is something that has always appealed to him.
Speaking via Daily Record, O’Neill said: “I put that out myself! I’d like to be owner! I’ve always said there were two jobs I always wanted. I wanted to be assistant to Sir Alex Ferguson, because that’s the job of the century. You don’t have any responsibility, he’ll take it all, and you’ll be in a job for life.
“The other job was to be director of football of any club. I get to sign the players and the manager gets the blame!”
O’Neill added: “You are still in a job and the manager goes… which has been apparent the other day with Manchester United. The minute a manager – who used to have power in the 70s, 80s or 90s – publicly is against the director of football you’re out! That’s the job I want.”
O’Neill also revealed that he opted to step away from his television punditry commitments with Sky Sports to attend the Glasgow Derby clash against theRangers, at a time when Wilfried Nancy was facing mounting scrutiny in the role.
The Celtic boss said: “I didn’t think it was appropriate. I was down to do Sky TV for the Rangers game but I didn’t think it was appropriate.”
“If the team had been winning games then fine, absolutely fine, but that’s all. You don’t want to be scurrying around in the stand. I’ve seen it before when I was a manager, and there were boys in the stands, managers who were out of a job, staring down. I didn’t like it.”
Joking aside, with Peter Lawwell stepping away from Celtic and Brian Wilson acting as interim Chairman at some point over the coming months a New Celtic Chairman will have to be appointed. Martin has stated that he’s only going to take the reins at Celtic as far as being the manager is concerned until the end of the season.
It would seem to make perfect sense to offer him the role as Celtic Chairman and that move would certainly be a bridge between the board and the support.
Conor Spence
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makes total sense but nepotism could rear its ugly head. hh.