Mar tin O’Neill’s Celtic succes s ... in his own wor ds

We speak to the famed manager who only wanted to bring ‘ some success’ to the club

IWILL do everything I possibly can to bring some success to this football club.” These were the words of Martin O’Neill when he greeted the Hoops faithful on the steps outside the famous glass doors at Celtic Park on June 1, 2000.

The Northern Irishman would take Celtic on a magic carpet ride for the next five years where he would win three SPL titles, three Scottish Cups, one Scottish League Cup and of course lead them into their first European final for 33 years where the Hoops succumbed to Jose Mourinho’s Porto.

From the outset, though O’Neill was up against a rampant Rangers under Dick Advocaat and after experiencing success with Wycombe Wanderers and Leicester City, the Celtic supporters expected success.

All O’Neill had back then was his words – he had to make sure they quickly became his bond.

“The only promise I could give them [ the day I was unveiled as manager] was that I was going to do my utmost to give my very best,” O’Neill, who has just released a book about his life in football called On Days Like These, told The Celtic Way.

“Up until I managed Celtic I had managed at Wycombe Wanderers and had a bit of success there which gave me confidence then I went to Norwich City and then to Leicester City. I didn’t win early on at Leicester and the crowd became very restless. They become more than restless ... they became downright unaccommodating in many aspects. I finally won the fans over there and the last thing I wanted at Celtic was to get off to the kind of start I did at Leicester or else I knew it might be a long way back.

“What Leicester taught me was that if you put your heart and soul into the job and prepare yourself as much as possible and get to know the players as quickly as possible then those things stand you in decent stead. Nothing ever prepares you for going to Celtic, I mean that.

“I assume the same can be said if you were the Rangers manager. I felt at that time that I was equipped as best as I possibly could be for the Celtic job but if I had realised just how strong Rangers were I might have turned the car back around again and headed back to East Midlands.”

Having inherited a pretty shambolic regime following the disastrous reign of the Hoops supposed dream team of John Barnes and Kenny Dalglish, O’Neill set about his task with gusto.

His first- ever signing for the club was to prove crucial for the fortunes of Celtic for years to come as the £ 6 million he shelled out on Chelsea striker Chris Sutton turned out to be, in O’Neill’s own words ‘ a landscape changer’.

“As an Old Firm manager, I knew I was not going to get a lot of time,” said O’Neill. “There had been tough times at Celtic in the previous months notwithstanding the League Cup win of 2000. I felt if nothing else I might get a couple of months to try and build the team and I felt I might earn a bit of grace if I at least stayed competitive with Rangers.

“I think that was a semiconsolation in the back of my head. In pre- season, Henrik Larsson was playing at the Euros with Sweden and wasn’t really fit. Mark Viduka left the club and then I spent the money on bringing in Chris Sutton.

“I didn’t mention this in the book as he would have got a massively big head but the signing of Chris Sutton was an absolute landscape changer for us in every aspect. We attracted a big game player to Celtic. Mark Viduka was a good player and he went on to prove himself at Leeds United but he did not want to stay at the club.

“Chris wanted to come up to Celtic. He wanted to get out of London. After being successful with Blackburn Rovers and winning the English Premier League title he was having a tough old time at Chelsea hence that’s why we got him at a cut price fee of £ 6 million. His relationship with Henrik on and off the field was absolutely crucial, particularly in the early months when it was important that we won football games.”

Celtic had lost the title to Advocaat’s Rangers by a massive 21 points the preceding season. That prompted O’Neill to famously label the Light Blues as

‘ the benchmark’ in Scottish football.

He wasn’t joking either. The then 48- year- old manager felt that Rangers were truly the real deal and just five games into the new season Celtic would find it all out for themselves when they faced the Govan outfit at Parkhead.

Things couldn’t have turned out any better as the Hoops swept their bitter rivals aside 6- 2 with Larsson and new signing Sutton both notching doubles. However, in the corresponding fixture at Ibrox in November they slumped to a 5- 1 hammering.

“Rangers absolutely were the benchmark. This was not a false call,” O’Neill added. “They were a strong team. If you look at the players they had and in my own view this Rangers side was as strong as they’ve had in the last 30 years and I include Water Smith’s team who reached the 2008 UEFA cup final in that. They had a European pedigree goalkeeper and players all over the pitch who were big and strong and led by a young Barry Ferguson.

“When we beat them 6- 2 not only was it fantastically

The signing of Chris Sutton was a landscape changer in every aspect

exciting and genuinely great it gave us the confidence to go on and take on the rest of the season and even though they turned us over at Ibrox in the next game when we couldn’t defend one set- piece, we had enough confidence to withstand that loss and fight on.

“I thought Chris coming into the football club as early as he did was a catalyst for how that season panned out. If we had waited a couple of months and we had no replacement lined up for Viduka then that 6- 2 game against Rangers which people viewed as a big turning point may never have happened if he had not come to the football club when he did.

“I enjoyed every accolade that came my way after the 6- 2 match. In actual fact, I thought that I must be a really good manager! Then I got a real wake- up call in November at Ibrox and that was as an intimidating atmosphere for us as it must have been for Rangers in August.

“We were physically smashed. We were not able to compete properly. It was a genuine concern as Rangers were just too powerful for us on the day. I thought ‘ is this going to be a common occurrence for us, especially at Ibrox?’ Those sorts of things worry you, they really do.

“A couple of days later we drew against Hibs at Easter Road and that was five points dropped in two games and I started to think ‘ are the wheels starting to come off here?’ I had all sorts of negative thoughts running through my head and I had to banish them.

“We came roaring back and were able to take the title in the end. What was wonderful about that league win was that every week when Rangers got a result we seemed to respond well to that pressure. Suddenly I felt that they lost the desire to chase us and we almost serenely won it at the end – but it never felt like that until we were nine or 10 points clear.”

Celtic not only lifted the Scottish Premiership title but they completed the clean sweep of domestic trophies to clinch the club’s first treble since 1969. All of a sudden, O’Neill was being hailed in the same breath as the legendary Jock Stein.

The man himself was having none of that, though.

“It was a terrific season for Celtic but for anyone to be compared with Jock Stein in any aspect then you need your head examined,” O’Neill said. “The 1967 team, the first British team to win the European Cup, is a phenomenal achievement considering what was happening in European football at that time. The Italians and the English leagues were so strong, England had just won the World Cup in 1966 and Manchester United would win it the following year after Celtic did. What an achievement that was. Jock Stein is rightfully immortalised and so is that 1967 team.

“For us to win a treble for the first time since 1969 was great. I hadn’t realised the possibility of it being on after we won the League Cup against Kilmarnock and we pulled clear in the league race. Not until that final whistle goes and you win the Scottish Cup and you achieve it, then it sinks in.”

The title win gave Celtic access to the Champions League qualifiers where Ajax were swatted aside 3- 1 in the Amsterdam ArenA in one of European football’s finest away performances by a Scottish club to date.

O’Neill’s men would book their place in the group stages proper but – despite amassing an incredible nine points courtesy of three home wins against Rosenborg, Porto and Juventus – they incredibly still bowed out of the tournament.

The Hoops were robbed of a crucial away point during a 3- 2 defeat against the Old Lady in the Stadio Delle Alpi in Turin on matchday one which led to the manager giving a famous TV interview when he repeatedly branded the lastgasp penalty decision for the Italians as “shocking”.

So incredulous was O’Neill at the award that he uttered the word many times over in a classic clip, and although Celtic would gain ample revenge on Juventus when they defeated them 4- 3 in a Champions League classic at Parkhead on matchday six it was not enough to see the Hoops through to the knockout phase.

“Celtic played to an exceptionally high standard in European football back then,” said O’Neill. “The Juventus game was really hurtful because that was our first foray into the Champions League. The penalty in that game really was shocking as we had brought it back to 2- 2 from 2- 0 down. The point we should have gained that night turned out to be the one that stopped us from going into the group stages – you never know what might have happened after that.

“We played a team in the UEFA Cup final in 2003 in FC Porto that went on to win the Champions League the following year with more or less the same team. That is the sort of standard you are talking about.

“The game against Juventus at home was terrific. To accrue nine points and not being good enough to qualify still astounds me to this day. I never used the excuse that it was Celtic’s first time in the Champions League. I wanted to go in and compete because I knew I had a group of players who were capable of winning these big games. We competed well against most European heavyweights back then.”

Triumph and then heartache on the European stage was to follow in 2003 as O’Neill led Celtic to their first European final in 33 years.

The UEFA Cup run and journey to the final in Seville was a series of stunning highs as Celtic knocked out the likes of Blackburn Rovers, Celta Vigo, VfB Stuttgart and Liverpool en route to Jose Mourinho’s Porto in Seville.

That 2003 showpiece is one of two games, alongside Helicopter Sunday in 200405, that still haunts the great man.

“Winning the treble in my first season at Celtic was wonderful but the two things that keep me awake at night are the UEFA Cup final and Motherwell,” he confirmed. “Those two are standout moments and Celtic should have had two more trophies on the board.”

In Seville, Porto would administer the crushing low blow despite a super- human performance from Larsson who notched a brace on the night Celtic agonisingly lost a classic final by the odd goal in five.

“I have never watched the game back in its entirety,” O’Neill said. “I have seen clips here and there and I cannot abide it as I know what’s coming next. It is the same now as it was 20 years later on that particular day.

“It certainly doesn’t get any better over time. It is really hard to take considering the importance of the game and how it was played out. Every single football club can use tactics to gain an advantage but the playacting was pitiful at times.

“Every time they scored a goal they ran to Porto to celebrate! The referee was too young and inexperienced to cope and handle a game of that magnitude. He couldn’t deal with the occasion. They were allowed to over- indulge and they didn’t need to as they had a squad full of talented players. What makes it worse is that the Celtic fans talk about the journey to Seville and the UEFA cup run, in general, being the journey of a lifetime and you would have loved to have clinched it for them and finished it off by winning the trophy.”

Despite those regrets, what cannot be argued by any Celtic supporter is that Martin O’Neill did everything in his power to bring some success to the football club.

He did that – and then some.