Martin O’Neill’s parting words revealed by midfielder

Paulo Bernardo has revealed that Martin O’Neill encouraged him to go out on loan.

The Portuguese midfielder has never really established himself at Celtic but drifted badly out the picture last season.

Despite the injuries and issues over the course of the season Bernardo only started seven matches.

As a former captain of the Portugal u-21 side there were high hopes for Bernardo when he joined Celtic on a permanent basis in the summer of 2024.

The previous season had an element of turmoil to it but Beranardo showed something while Odin Thiago-Holm and Kwon Hyeok-kyu failed to make any impact.

Over two seasons however Bernardo drifted out of the picture until the inevitable summer departure.

Speaking to The Celtic Way Bernardo explained:

I had the conversation with him and I told him I needed to play football and I don’t think in Celtic right now I would have the game time that I needed.

He was very open with me and he totally understood. He opened the doors for me to go and he was very honest as well. He told me that it was probably the best for me to come here and have game time.

With his pedigree a loan move to Portugal or Spain would have seemed more obvious than to Poland and Gornik Zabrze.

Gornik are top of the Polish league but it is hard to see a route back at Celtic for Bernardo.

Although there is a one year option on O’Neill’s Celtic contract it is likely that there will be a new management team in place at Celtic during the summer.

Bernardo could be back at Celtic for pre-season training but after three seasons at the club it is hard to see him becoming an integral part of Celtic’s plans.