Martin O’Neill has had a few changes of plan this season.
Nobody was expecting Brendan Rodgers to resign out of the blue when he did in October, and even fewer were expecting Celtic to replace him with O’Neill.
That’s what happened, and within a few games, it was already looking like a masterstroke – what happened next will never make sense to anyone.
Despite his near-perfect record in eight games in interim charge, O’Neill was replaced by Wilfried Nancy, and it looked like it was all over.
We now know that this wasn’t the case, but reflecting on his first interim spell, the Hoops icon has told a wholesome story of what it meant to his family.
Martin O’Neill is still unbeaten domestically as Celtic manager across these two spells this season
What is the secret to his success?
Martin O’Neill on the end of his first interim Celtic spell
O’Neill’s first curtain call was against Dundee at Celtic Park, and the team made hard work of that night.
In the end, Daizen Maeda’s first-half header was enough to secure the three points, and the Irishman was given an emotional farewell after the final whistle.
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There was barely a dry eye in the house, but once the place was empty, the club made the classy gesture of allowing O’Neill and his family to stay on a lit-up pitch.
Reflecting on that night, O’Neill was firstly asked about his tracksuit, telling the Celtic FC Podcast: “I like donning a tracksuit, even though it might not fit…
“But at the end of it all, I’m going out and watching young players perform and actually interacting with them, which is great for me.
“I can’t believe [that the tracksuit has become iconic.] I think I must have invented the word retro!
“It’s astonishing, really. The only thing now is – and there’s me talking now about having grandchildren – it’s nice that our grandchild who’s seven years of age, would have no recollection of anything you ever did, other than ruin her evenings or something like that…
“But now, to actually come up to the game. The last match was the Dundee game, which I felt was going to be my last game ever.
“And the families came up to it. After the game was over, at what must have been about eleven or half eleven, Haysie’s got the big lamps on, on the pitch, but there we are, on the pitch itself.
“And so, my granddaughter said – she actually calls me Martin, which I love, I don’t want to be called Grandad – and she says ‘Martin, we helped you win tonight, didn’t we, to win’.
“I said, ‘Yeah you did, well done’. So that was really nice, you know.”
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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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