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Monday started for Martin O’Neill with him taking to the airways to question the title credentials of Celtic and Rangers while talking up the possibility of Hearts achieving the impossible. Talk about life coming at you fast.
‘I had just finished at TalkSPORT and was having a coffee with my wife just off the King’s Road in London,’ he explained.
‘The last time I spoke to him (Dermot Desmond), he’d invited me to a barbecue which he was holding in Dublin before the Irish Open that Rory McIlroy won.
‘So, that would be quite some months ago. I thought it could be something like that.’
As the world now knows, it was no social call. O’Neill scarcely had only digested news of Brendan Rodgers’ resignation when the purpose of Desmond’s call became clear.
Twenty years after leaving Celtic Park, the man who brought him there in the first place was asking him to fill the void.
Martin O'Neill returned to Parkhead on Tuesday 20 years after he left as manager
O'Neill was joined by Shaun Maloney, who will assist him during their interim spell
O'Neill received a warm welcome from Celtic fans outside of Parkhead as he arrived
‘He did say, consult your wife and your daughters and stuff like that,’ O’Neill explained.
‘My wife was with me, my daughters weren’t, so I’d given myself a bit of an excuse that I’d have to speak to my daughters, although they were all on for it, you know, really all on for it.
‘As you probably can tell, it’s still really surreal. It genuinely is.’
And so, a flight was hastily booked, a diary was quickly cleared. At 73 years of age, O’Neill might well have thought he’d seen it all. Not so.
‘I had a lunch appointment with Barry Hearn. He was speaking in London,’ he said.
‘I’m probably not missed because you don’t get a word in with Barry anyway. Barry likes to talk about Barry.’
Sitting in a lounge at Celtic Park yesterday, O’Neill was happy talking about all manner of subjects. After one of the most tumultuous 24 hours in the club’s history, there was no lack of discussion points.
Engaging as ever, in one sense, it felt like yesterday since he was last holding court there, but many players have begun and ended their careers since he last sat in the Celtic manager’s chair.
Subsequently, there were postings at Aston Villa and Sunderland. He’d five years in charge of the Republic of Ireland then a short spell with Nottingham Forest which ended on June 2019.
Since then? Nothing. That’s a long hiatus.
‘Do you know what? I think that’s part of the excitement, believe it or not,’ he insisted.
‘I’ve never worried about going into a dressing room to talk to players regardless of what age I was or what age they were.
‘As a manager, generally speaking, if you’ve been bombed out of a football club, you try and get back in pretty quickly.
‘I never really made any inroads to try and do that. I’ve kind of hid away for a while at the end of it all.
‘For want of a better word, I think the buzz that you would get from being in a dugout, I don’t think that would change regardless of how long you’re out.’
The esteem in which O’Neill is held by Celtic supporters is manifest in the speaking engagements up and down the country he’s attended in recent years where they hang on his every word.
The man from Kilrea first arrived at the club when the morale of its fanbase had been crushed. He rebuilt the team and took it to unimaginable heights.
Six managers have sat in the hot seat since. None are feted by the fanbase in the way in which he is to this day.
O'Neill had no little success during his first spell in charge of Celtic, including three titles
That’s the very reason why news that he has been placed in interim charge does not sit well with many.
A short-term arrangement or not, many feel he would have been better staying in the radio studio.
‘You talk about legacies and stuff like that here,’ he said. ‘For me, honestly, I’m so far removed from legacies and things like that in the game that I really can’t be bothered.
‘You talk about a really legacy here, just think of Mr Stein. I know this football club started a long time before that but Jock Stein put a mark on this club which will be etched there forever.’
There is a semblance of logic in Desmond turning to his old pal in terms of O’Neill’s status among the support. He will assuredly be afforded a warm reception when he walks out the dug-out before facing Falkirk.
As for what O’Neill the manager has to offer these days? That remains to be seen.
While the deficiencies of this current side are many, he remains hopeful that he can work his old magic by imbuing them with some confidence and spirit.
‘I would hope so,’ he added. ‘I’ve been watching things from a distance and you guys might know more than me in the sense what might be lost.
‘Obviously, my job is to find out as quickly as possible. I think I’ve got an infectious appetite for the game - and for this football club too.
‘I’d be hoping that sort of big enthusiasm would help. It certainly shouldn’t be a hindrance.’
There will be no attempt to brush up on modern-day jargon just to please others.
xG, the statistic which measures how many goals a team should have scored on chances created, means as much to O’Neill as Swahili.
‘I don’t believe in it,’ he said. ‘If the backroom lads come up with it then I’ll strike it off the list!
‘I can imagine 50 years ago and Brian Clough rollicking me for missing two goals and me saying they were expected goals! Seriously, you wouldn’t play again for a month! It’s just been made up.’
O'Neill has replaced fellow Northern Irishman Rodgers at Celtic Park after his shock resignation
After a disastrous start to the season, perhaps a little plain speaking from an old head will do the squad no harm.
‘There are some really fine footballers at this club,’ he said. ‘My message will be: Win.
‘I know it’s an easy thing to say, but you have to find a way to win.
‘The club has been winning for a long time, but they haven’t in a little while. It’s about finding a way to get going again and once you start winning then all the little plans you want to put in place are almost seamless.’
With just four games to go until the international break, O’Neill appreciates that his second coming is likely to be short-lived. Despite the disharmony surrounding the club, he intends to relish every second
‘I sometimes even wonder whether in my career if I ever really, really enjoyed it,’ he said.
‘I’m probably too miserable but now at this ripe old age I am going to try to enjoy it. But the only way to do it and the only way I’ve ever lived it is by trying to win football matches.’
