When Martin O’Neill first walked into Scottish football in 2000, it was Rangers doing the dominating.
But O’Neill’s five-year spell at Celtic helped transform and turn the tide in Glasgow that has been in full flow since.
| Celtic title wins since 2000 | 19 |
| Rangers’ title wins since 2000 | 6 |
The Northern Irishman’s legendary moment in the famous green and white colours was winning the Treble with Celtic.
But another iconic moment was O’Neill’s first competitive game against Rangers, which Celtic won 6-2 on home soil, and how that was a precedent of things to come.
But what O’Neill initially thought about the Glasgow derby was quickly shut down by the Celtic supporters.
Martin O’Neill on what Celtic fans didn’t want to hear from him
Last season, Brendan Rodgers lost two games against Rangers, but still went on to win the title by 17 points.
Speaking on talkSPORT, O’Neill stated that he once said that he would happily lose all four league matches against Rangers, as long as he won the league.
Those comments were swiftly put right because he got ‘a lot of calls’ from supporters to tell him otherwise.
“Any given day, we said this to Graeme Souness, Simon (Jordan), and I agree with this, Rangers can match Celtic,” said O’Neill.
“On a day, they can match Celtic. Can they have the consistency to go to other teams and win away from home? Or actually, winning at home, which they are expected to do, and they haven’t done.
“Rangers haven’t been used to being dominated for so long by Celtic, and it’s over the course of a season. You do make the point that usually the (title) is decided by these four particular games. That’s not actually strictly true.
“I remember once saying, in my early days and an interview I did with Celtic, I said, ‘if we lost all four matches to Rangers, and won the league. I would be happy.’
“I am afraid, I got a lot of calls from Celtic fans, ‘we don’t want to hear that. We don’t want to hear that at all. We need to be dominating Rangers as well too.’ But I learned a lesson pretty quickly.”
O’Neill’s record as Celtic manager against Rangers
When you look at the records of Celtic managers today, such as Rodgers, their record in the derby games are pretty incredible.
Rodgers has only lost three times over his two spells, and two of them came last season.
Someone like O’Neill doesn’t have such a record, but it needs to be noted that he faced a far stronger Rangers side, and one that had just won nine titles in a row.
- Games v Rangers: 23
- Won: 12
- Drawn: 3
- Lost: 8
- PPM: 1.70
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