“I don’t agree at all with what happened at St Andrew’s, that is not Celtic,” Martin O’Neill
Martin O’Neill spoke to the mainstream media this afternoon ahead of Sunday’s trip to Fir Park when domestic football returns as Celtic take on Motherwell…
The Celtic manager spoke about his short reflection period in the early stages of the international break before making his mind up that he wanted to stay on at Celtic with the principal target being to retain the Scottish Premiership title.
Martin also addressed the escalating fan protest against the board and while being clear that he did not agree with the tennis ball protest at St Andrews last weekend, his focus is going to be on the players and trying to get results because that’s what brought back unity last season.
It’s an interesting call by Martin because if he isn’t going to address ongoing issues off the field in the weeks and months ahead, who at Celtic is? Maybe we’ll just get late Saturday night rants from the Irish billionaire?
Here’s everything that Martin had to say this afternoon with the Celtic fan media still banned by the club for almost a year, pending a ‘review’ that never happened….
Q: Martin, how was the break for you then? You obviously said you were going to go and have a think about things. You’re still very much here. What was that decision-making process like?
“Well, it didn’t take that long, in all honesty, but it came at a time when there was an international break, gives you time to reflect, things like that. Obviously I’m disappointed with the week that we had. There’s a long season ahead and it didn’t take me long to make my mind up to continue. As long as the football club wanted me, I was happy to do it.”
Q: What goes into that? Did you speak to the club, maybe even family or anyone else? How does the decision-making process work?
“Well, family, of course. I wanted to do it, but I think leaving at this particular stage would have been poor. Deep down, obviously through the disappointment of losing the games and maybe with the international break coming up at the time, maybe it gave me a little bit of time to reflect. Had there been no international break, I probably wouldn’t even have said what I said.”
Q: You said it was a quick decision, so not one that you ever came close to leaving then?
“No, absolutely not. You’d get a moment or two. But I’ve had these moments before in football management. Some, of course, are always forced on you. And ones that were just in my early days in management. Not winning football matches, finding it difficult, having to fight through all of that there. So I’ve been able to do it.”
Q: What was the main driver then in terms of the decision to stay?
“I think the main driver was to try and win the league, again. That’s really it. I had my two spells last year in charge for 23 league games, we were able to pull it off. I know it’s in the past. I say it’s in the past, but sometimes, because it’s in the recent past, it gives you that spur to want to go and do it. We have a full season ahead. Remarkably, it sounds hard to believe, but we’re actually still in front of the league at this minute. I was reminded, until Rangers beat us in the league, we had won the previous 13 or whatever it is, games in the league.
“Reflecting on a bit of last season, and drawing from it, which is the main thing, reflecting on it, drawing from it, after the Dundee United game, feeling that maybe we could afford to drop two points or something like that in the last seven games. It turns out we couldn’t. And that, just that great determination, which I believe is within this group of players.
“There’s a new set now. We’ve lost some big influential figures at the football club. I was just asked the question there about, it does take a little bit of time for the new boys to settle in. Some are off and flying immediately, like Duran, but others are taking a bit of time. But overall, I think the realisation at this football club that every time you lose a game, it’s a crisis. And so you have to deal with that as much as possible. So that’s for all of us, I think.”
Q: What gives you the belief things can be better coming out of the break because I imagine a lot of your players were. Did you get the chance to really work on things?
“You’ve got to believe it’s going to get better. It doesn’t necessarily mean… we might lose on Sunday. But overall, we’ve got a long season ahead of us. We have a hectic programme just coming up now. Really, really hectic. Not just to January, but up until the next international break.
Q: Have you and the coaching staff been able to get together over this break and iron out what you want it to look like going forward? I remember after the Rangers game when Cameron Carter-Vickers said he felt the team played a bit random. Do you think there’s a clarity coming out of this break about what the team needs to look like and what you need to do?
“No one ever asks me when we’ve won all the games. That’s the point. And you’re entitled to ask about tactics and determination or lack of it or whatever it may be, lack of running power, all those type of things when you lose a football match. And when you lose a couple on the trot, lose three on the trot, of course. So I take your point entirely.
“I don’t know about clarity. Clarity is listening. I think that a reasonable command of the English language for people who understand English to be able to have a clear view of what we’re saying, what we’re doing. The interesting thing is that, as I said, sometimes you maybe change the structure without knowing.
“I have to remind that in the most important game of the season last year, as it turns out, it was the last one against Hearts, where we are pressing and pressing and pressing for the final goal to win the game. We hit the post, we do all these things. We have to gamble, we have to get some extra player on the field in a forward position. So we go three at the back.
“We never practised three at the back. But we won. We won the biggest game of the season. And we did it for the last 15 or 20 minutes of the game. I might even say that there might even have been a player to come off at the end of that there who might not even know we played. So that’s my point. You’ve got to be ready. And I’ve been involved in management a long time now, where we have changed systems and we’ve come up with trumps and winning games. And I’ve also changed systems where we haven’t, where we’ve been beaten.
“When I was manager of Aston Villa. We had a great defensive record. We went to Stamford Bridge. And we were 3 or 4-0 down in the game. And John Robertson, my old great friend, told me to rein in. I said, no, we’re going to go for it and then we conceded seven. But I’d like to think over my time in management that it has worked more often than it hasn’t done. So I don’t accept that point.”
Q: Martin, the Green Brigade have put out a statement saying they’re not going to attend any Scottish Cup matches this season. They’re not going to attend home Europa League matches this season. I just wonder that with the incident with Dermot Desmond at the weekend up at the golf. Is there a concern from you that the fan base and the hierarchy at the club, the gap is widening again like last season?
“Well, I came into this situation this time last year and it seems to be going back to that again. I don’t agree at all with what happened up at St Andrews. I don’t agree with that at all. I think that it’s not Celtic. I mean, we derided Rangers in the game for wearing balaclavas. And then suddenly we’re doing it ourselves. This is not Celtic at all. There are forms of protest if that’s the case.
“What I can say is that I’m no longer able or haven’t been ever able to control a number of things. I can’t control what supporters do and I can’t control the media. I definitely can’t do any of those. I’ve never been able to do that at all. So what I try and focus on as much as possible is trying to control what I think I’m able to. And that is my relationship with the players. And that’s the most important thing for me. I’m a manager.
Iain (Jamieson) has just mentioned it to me before I came in, what you’ve just said. I wasn’t aware of that. And it is sad. But we went through it last season.
“And what I will say is that when the club came together and it was really big, and I can remember the days of having 80,000 people in Seville without an arrest, that’s Celtic to me. Or the final whistle going in the last match of the season, where the crowd come onto the pitch and that’s like a euphoric state. Those are phenomenal memories which I’ll never forget.
“But at the end of it all, it is a sad situation. And I think we have to have, as a football manager, to go through all of that again. All I do know is that when the club were together towards the end of the season, I genuinely felt we were unbeatable.”
Q: So does it concern you then, Martin, you say about the club when people are together. If right now the club don’t appear to be together, how concerning is that for you?
“I said to you, I cannot control that. I just mentioned to you, I cannot control that. I’m going to try and focus strongly on what I have some influence on, and that’s my relationship with the players. That is the thing that I’m hoping will get us some victories along the way. We have to try and start on Sunday against formidable opposition to us. And that will be genuinely my focus, really. Because that’s what I will be judged on at the end of it all. That’s what I’m being judged on.”
Q: Can I ask you about injuries? Start with the positive news with Alistair Johnson, Jota training and…?
“Jota’s been training a wee bit more than Alistair, which is really good. We had a bounce game against Falkirk, which was really good. These were non-international players, but at least he got some of that, which was encouraging. Alistair’s just making his way back, so we just want to be careful with him. And young Callum Osmand’s doing the same.”
Q: Will Jota be involved at the weekend?
“There’s every possibility. He’s been training with us now for quite some considerable time. But that was the first time he’d played what I would call a semi-competitive game.”
Q: Cameron Carter-Vickers and Yang?
“Yang’s been out, but I’ll see about Cameron Carter. He’s got a bit of a strain at this minute, but we’ll see how he is.
Q: And just on Landon Emenalo, is he close?
“Yeah, I’m hoping to see him. With a bit of luck he’ll come up tomorrow and he’ll start with us next week. Of course, he’s not with the European team, so he’ll either be travelling out to Benfica with us, or we might even get some work there. But yeah, that’s pleasing to hear.”
Q: And just finally, on your opponents on Sunday, what do you expect?
“Well, Motherwell, I’ve seriously never had an easy game ever there. Ever, ever there. I don’t see it being any different. Last season was obviously a great result for us to win the game. Just difficult, difficult in normal circumstances. I’m obviously pleased to see the international players back. First time that we’ve done some work today. Try and get ourselves focused for the game, really.”
Q: The demonstrations have happened. You said that you like to stick to what you can control. What sort of impact does discontented fans have on yourself and the team?
“I said last season when I came here, first of all, I wasn’t sure that it would have affected the likes of Daizen Maeda and people like this here. But I was wrong. Yes, it does. It affects the players. It definitely does. So I thought that’s why… Words that I should have been using here, like great resilience last season, that they showed to come through this, and to actually get the fans back on side. I think that’s what we have to do. We have to try and win some football matches in order to get some togetherness again.
Q: I’m just wondering there as well, when you said that throughout some time in your career you’ve had to take time to reflect on your performance, what is it that keeps you going and can get through?
“Well, I have great enthusiasm. I always have had a great enthusiasm for the game of football, at the start, and great enthusiasm. And I think that I really have, regardless of the previous week, just before the international break, I’ve really enjoyed it. I enjoyed last season in a strange sort of way, even though I sometimes say that I don’t enjoy management, but I’m past the joking stage.
“You naturally get concerned for the games. I’m always worried about football matches. That’s my job, to do that. So, enthusiasm for the game. Absolutely, enthusiasm. Generally, I think it’s just out looking in the field with the players and seeing them and trying to, if it’s possible, to try and improve players if you can. But the most important thing is to try and win the games. “That’s what the manager is. Regardless of any other plans he has in mind, any manager here, you could have this interview with any manager up and down the country or in Europe, winning football matches is the most important thing.”
Watch Martin O’Neill’s mainstream media conference below…
