Martin O’Neill has revealed that it was Alex Ferguson that set him up for the Celtic job in 2000.
Guus Hiddink seemed to be the preferred choice to replace John Barnes with O’Neill performing well at Leicester City.
With Fergus McCann no longer involved Dermot Desmond took a hands on roll and used his Old Trafford connections to set in place a five year reign that transformed Celtic.
Speaking to the Irish Independent O’Neill explained: “Ferguson (Manchester United manager Alex) phoned me up and said, “Would you take a call from Dermot Desmond?” So Alex Ferguson was the one who recommended me.
“Did I want to go to Celtic? Yeah I did, because it was all of the things (his childhood/background) we have talked about. They were having a tough time against Rangers and I thought: ‘I can put this right.’
The following seasons were filled with incredible highs, but, typically of O’Neill, it was a night in Seville that remains freshest in his memory.
“Really sickening, absolutely,” he recalled of Celtic’s UEFA Cup Final defeat to Porto. “They were a talented bunch, as they proved the next year by winning the Champions League but we should have won that evening.
“Henrik Larsson was at his best but Porto tried every trick in the book, going down, feigning injury, it was just a joke at the end.
“It was a young referee who never got a grip on the game, never got a grip on anything. So that was a sickener, I must admit, and obviously the making of Mourinho.”