Henry Winter may not be a Celtic fan, but he is most certainly a Martin O’Neill fan.
The leading English journalist has been a vocal supporter of Celtic’s decision to bring the Irishman back after Wilfried Nancy’s nightmare start.
He published a long-form profile titled ‘Martin O’Neill and the Power of Charisma’ a few months ago, centring around his initial impact in his first interim spell this season.
Winter has been singing the praises of the Parkhead boss again, recalling a brilliant story when O’Neill called him out.
You are Martin O’Neill, what is the first change you would make for the cup game against Rangers?
Henry Winter on Celtic boss Martin O’Neill
Winter said on Off The Ball: “I was hosting an event with him nearby where I live at Leicester…
“And I was doing it out of the goodness of my heart, Martin was promoting his book. We were on stage, couple of hundred Leicester fans there.
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“And I made just the tiniest mistake at the start of it, on a date over when his fourth game in charge of Leicester City [was]… and he wouldn’t let it lie, throughout the whole thing!
“And I was going ‘Martin, we’re here to plug your book!’ And he was going ‘No, no, it was definitely August the 17th!’ He kept going back for it.
“And when you have greatness like that, that’s often how they drive themselves on.
“But yeah, I knew when Danny Rohl made those comments, I said ‘Woah! That’s going to go down well!’
“If you want to approach well, with hunger, with an intellectual curiosity, be Martin O’Neill.
“I can remember going to one press conference with him, talking about a preseason game, and we had a ten-minute argument about Chappaquiddick, because I’d been to Martha’s Vinyard in the summer, and been to the bridge where Mary Jo Kopechne died.
“And when you talk to the former Leicester players – Neil Lennon, you know – games for Leicester at Elland Road would almost be delayed because Martin would insist on taking the coach through Chapeltown, the area that the Yorkshire Ripper lived in.
“He went and knocked on the door of his former house! You know what Martin’s like. He went to the Hanratty trial.
“Anyway, I do like talking about Martin O’Neill, so can I go now? That’s my high point for the day.”
What is the biggest difference you have noticed in this Celtic side under Martin O’Neill?
Martin O’Neill’s first interim Celtic spell
In a whirlwind 24 hours, O’Neill went from being a guest on talkSPORT to leading Celtic to a 4-0 win over Falkirk.
He followed that up with an extra-time win over Rangers, in which his bold calls to start Johnny Kenny and introduce Callum Osmand from the cold were backed up.
A last-minute winner from Callum McGregor at St Mirren was one of the sweetest moments of the season.
But the best was probably that night in Rotterdam, in which O’Neill led the Celts to their first win in the Netherlands since he led his original Hoops team to victory in Amsterdam, 24 years ago.
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