Martin O’Neill’s interim spell in charge of Celtic was over in the blink of an eye...
…time flies when you’re having fun. The 73-year-old finished with a record of seven wins in eight, and most Celtic fans happily would’ve kept him on.
This is especially the case given the timing of his departure, which saw Wilfried Nancy’s abrupt tactical changes cost the team some crucial games in his first week.
That horse has now bolted, with Nancy’s first win on the board and the board seemingly retaining their public backing of the Frenchman.
But O’Neill hasn’t gone away, and his name is still firmly in the conversation whenever pundits are talking about Celtic.
It doesn’t appear that the Celtic players don’t want to play for Wilfried Nancy. This is a nice wee moment.
Sam Allardyce on Martin O’Neill at Celtic
At first, some thought that O’Neill didn’t want the permanent role, and that his replacement was inevitable.
But O’Neill revealed that he would’ve said yes if asked by the club to stay on any longer, leading to more criticism of the timing of the change.
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It definitely won’t be a profound shock to anyone that Sam Allardyce prefers O’Neill to his permanent successor.
And speaking on the No Tippy Tappy Football podcast, Allardyce was asked if he thinks that O’Neill will return to the Parkhead dugout.
He said: “No. Well, I think if they come back for Martin, Martin goes back and says, ‘I’ll have it this year and next year, and I’ll come back.
“I think he uses his weight of popularity and what he did when they were in desperate need to say that I will stay.
“He’s a bit like Moyesie when he went back to West Ham the second time.”
We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it… and hopefully, we never will.
Would you be in favour of Celtic reuniting Wilfried Nancy with Wessam Abou Ali in January?
Martin O’Neill’s interim spell at Celtic
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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