Martin O’Neill says he didn’t seek any assurances from Dermot Desmond prior to taking the Celtic job.
Instead, he has declared his full trust that the club’s principal shareholder – or ‘owner’ in O’Neill’s telling words – will provide the goods this summer.
54 days on from the end of last season, Celtic’s only signing so far is Camilo Duran as pre-season preparations march on.
O’Neill gave an insight on how the recruitment team are operating, insisting that he is having daily conversations over progress.
👀 Martin O’Neill didn’t seek any assurances from Dermot Desmond over recruitment this summer.
His full trust is in 'the owner'…
Martin O’Neill: I ‘genuinely believe’ Dermot Desmond will get deals over the line
On whether he has sought assurances, the Hoops boss said: “No, never have done. I genuinely did not. I didn’t put anything at all.
“I didn’t seek any… I just didn’t.
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“I can’t turn around and say, ‘By the way, you need to get me 12 players, and if you only get 10, then you’ve broken the trust’.
“Maybe it’s the fact that I’ve known the owner of the football club for some time, and I genuinely believe that he will come up and help when trying to get things over the line, let me put it that way.
“I went to the board meetings, which were monthly. I’m talking about way, way back. I obviously had conversations with Dermot way back in those days, of course.
“Less frequent now, as the case may be. Or less frequent since January, since coming in.
“But I would think that they should now, looking at players and things like this here, trying to supplement the squad… yeah, I think my conversations are a wee bit more often.”
On the possible appointment of a new head of recruitment, he said: “They’re looking at that at this minute.
“I think obviously there’s a process. I think that they want to do that, but it’s not at the top of the list at this minute.
“I’ve got a couple of boys who are very, very good in the background anyway.
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“I think that we’ve made a couple of changes. Some people have left the football club. On the recruitment side, honestly, they’re working day and night.
“I’m in constant talks with them every single day. They’re behind the scenes. Genuinely, I’m really pleased with what they’re doing.
“Mark Cooper has been doing really well for us. He’s identified players over the last 10 or 12 years for us. Some really fine players.
“Considering he was in South America, he identified young players even before they made the grade.
“The recruitment sends the stuff over to us, and eventually it’s our kind of say that makes the difference.”
On the role of Shaun Maloney and whether he is still involved, he said: “Not in the same extent. He was doing six or seven jobs at the time.
“So just concentrate on this, and that’s fine.
“I think that you could wait forever if that was the case. The budgets, as long as I’m still within them, I’d rather get some players in and then see where we go. But every manager would say the same.
“While I can’t do anything about [fans being unhappy]. what I can do is try to alleviate that by trying to get a few players in.
“We are making some sort of progress on that, as we have been for a while.
“It just takes a wee bit [of time]. Obviously, agreeing terms with the football club, agreeing terms with the players. But we have a couple of people that we think we can do.
“Historically speaking, we were quite late. So, no, I’m not perturbed at this minute.”
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