First time around, 2000 to 2005 O’Neill was very demanding on the board. He wanted the best, to push the boundaries. That helped the club and O’Neill’s reputation.
Twenty years down the line O’Neill is barely recognisable. He makes no demands, he sets no transfer expectations.
Back in 2001 he would never have given a no-mark pen pusher like Michael Nicholson the time of day.
Currently he is being held hostage by the £17,000 a week CEO.
O’Neill’s media comments need to be treated with a dose of cynicism.
THE QUIRKY WAYS OF MARTIN O’NEILL
He has nothing but contempt for the reporters asking him questions, generally the softest of soft.
Many of his answers are throw away attempts at humour. When they are published they take on a very different meaning. Context is everything.
After losing to Sporting yesterday Celtic’s media partners at the Sun, Daily Record and Herald carried the following comments from O’Neill:
We’re trying to come to some sort of agreement with Iheanacho but we are definitely making moves.
I am in constant touch with Michael Nicholson. Shin Yamada has gone on loan and Michael is in the background working away.
Being in touch with Michael is a complete waste of time. The man is a tried and tested failure. Brendan Rodgers tried to cover the failings of Nicholson, it didn’t end well.
Last November Nicholson waved O’Neill off to welcome in new manager Wilfried Nancy with a staged hug getting out a taxi. The cabbie should have hung around. Nancy lasted 33 days, at least 30 days too many.
O’Neill returned to save the day. The Irishman is no fool but only a complete fool would leave Nicholson in charge of anything football related.
I don’t know about numbers but I am definitely optimistic we will get players in.
O’Neill really should know the numbers. Does he needs three or seven players? How many is Nicholson planning to sell? All of those being sold need replaced? O’Neill must know the numbers, if he is leaving it to Nicholson to sign another left-winger of the quality of Balikwisha or Tounekti what is the point of being manager?
I think to balance things up we’d have to let a few players go but I’m hoping to be in a position to do that with others coming in. But I’m very hopeful about Iheanacho.
This really should be a no-no.
CELTIC ARE IN NEED OF A COMPLETE REBUILD, ALREADY IT COULD BE TOO LATE
The Celtic squad is badly short on quality. The club bank account is somewhere between £70-100m. The funds are there to sign players.
A small expenditure will increase the chances of reaching the group phase of the Champions League to bank £40m.
Bank is the word. Any Champions League funds won’t be invested in the team or infrastructure. HMRC will benefit more than anyone.
From that short section of quotes we have the following from O’Neill: ‘We’re trying’, ‘I don’t know’, ‘I think’ then ‘I’m very hopeful#.
Celtic fans know that drill.
Covering up for multiple failings a year ago Rodgers would mention the hard work that people were putting in.
Nicholson’s only hard work was to sell players off, as a favour to his mentor, the accountant that brought him to Celtic. The guy that prepared a so-called top sports lawyer for a job paying much more than he will ever see anywhere else in his career.
It isn’t too late for O’Neill to get on the phone to his pal Dermot to voice his concerns.
Nicholson won’t be facing the media before and after matches, twice a week.
O’Neill is front and centre.
He saw what the club did to Rodgers. Celtic then thought that Nancy was a better manager than O’Neill.
The current manager ought to know what is lying in store. If he doesn’t call it out now he faces the consequences, becoming the next victim of corporate Celtic’s complete obsession with building the bank balance. Whatever the cost.
We also got his talk of not knowing a thing about the new set piece coach,here was us believing it was joined up thinking but no appears he was just pals with Fozzy,maybe like others he met him at a wedding
Much of the Same rubbish again omg but he knows he’s getting hee-haw players in & best ones away on DDs call ffs
O’Neill is a yes man,nothing more ,he calls desmond the owner/ boss,he will be getting paid handsomely I knew this was how it would go when O’Neill was appointed,the board not looking any further for a manager,same old shite,I think the worst thing that happened was us winning the league over the diets,the board felt justified,but this season is going to be harder , with sevco and the diets tooling up.I don’t think the board have any ambition to qualify for CL,it’s the same old pish.
Spot on.
We have seen this movie more times than the wizard of Oz except in this case the cowardly lion gets £800k instead of a medal for courage.
The whole thing reeks to high heaven and won’t ever end until we rid ourselves of the moustaccioed one and his offspring who hold nothing but contempt for the support
When Martin O Neill came in last season he attacked the fans/Collective. I said then that I was finished believing in him. Granted he got us a double in the most unlikely if circumstances and I’ve been laughing ever since that final league game. Do I trust him, not one inch. MON is a board man, he would have sold Maloney and Fizzy down the river. Anyone expecting anything this season could be very disappointed. A boycott of league and Euro games is the only thing that will get the message across. It has to be done soon or the Collective are as private Frazer would say ‘doomed’ and so are Celtic.
S.O.S. Save Our Season
The first time Martin O’Neill took the helm, he was given sufficient funds to select his own crew, they embarked on relatively successful voyages returning heavily laden with silver, with everyone firmly on board.
His latest expedition saw him taking over command from the previous disaster master WN who had run aground in stormy conditions and was shortly made to walk the plank on DD’s orders. O’Neill and his worn down shipmates came to the boats rescue for a second time, navigating their way to salvaging a double, to great acclaim.
This season Martin is veering into dangerous waters coming alongside DD’s yacht Buccaneer, a bold manoeuvre detaching himself from the main fleet of supporters causing ripples. Martin’s vessel of wrath is taking on water before it has left port and is at risk of capsizing. DD will have to bail him out ahead of departures.
While staying in touch with the out of touch Michael Nicholson during recruitment duties, so far, only one new face has been recruited, it is expected a mixed bag of below standard signings will arrive on ship. Martin will have raised the alarm with Desmond about MN’s deficiencies. When all hands are needed on deck, MN is posted missing. The charge sheet is considerable, which amounts to mutiny, he deserves a dozen lashes.
Senior officer Mike “scuttle” Nicholson’s seamanship is non existent, he is making waves rather than making signings, but I wouldn’t say MN is a complete waste of time. He could be useful as shark bate or carried as ballast and thrown overboard to lighten the load when the ship gets into difficulties. It’s touch and go whether Wilson survives the voyage, he too is likely to be jettisoned, going to his watery grave.
At the present moment Martin has a skeleton crew many of whom are looking to jump ship, weekly floggings are taking place, depleting further the numbers available. Martin is left with Nicholson’s catch, some you wouldn’t touch with a 10ft oar like Balikwisha and Tounekti who have remained aboard without earning their passage.
O’Neill will have a seizure of his own when he sees what MN has hauled aboard. The ship’s quota of rum rations will be used up by O’Neill before he sails, hoping to drown his sorrows. It’s time for MN to climb the rigging and get knotted.
This is a sobering time for a hard task master used to having a reputation of being commander of his own destiny. Now in uncharted waters, cast adrift bound for Cape Fear with Nicholson’s ragtag crew of misfits. Brendan Rodgers foretelling that Nicholson was a Jonah is now whistling in his ears. The press gang have Martin dancing to the tune of the Sailor’s Hornpipe, when he must already feel like a washed up Robinson Crusoe.
The message in the bottle reads “Help required urgently.”
MON is a puppet . End of.
I’ve been saying this for months now, he’s not the saviour, he’s Desmonds yes man