Martin O'Neill: The Biography

Product Information

He has an enviable sense of composition, balancing shape, color, line, texture, and type with a precision that makes it all seem effortless. You have to have a really good eye to do all that. And Martin O’Neill has the best. He is a true master of collage.” – Graham Rawle. June 2019 The Champions League run was a big disappointment as Celtic finished bottom of the group for the first time. If results had gone a bit differently in the last round Celtic could have gone 3rd and into the UEFA cup, but there’s a point where Celtic should be thinking beyond that. Didn’t help that Celtic had to face Larsson’s Barcelona in the group stages, and as expected he scored against Celtic at Parkhead (but didn’t celebrate his goal). In any case, the best moment was seeing the First Team go away to Barcelona for the second time in two years and again come away unbeaten, this time with a one each draw. Fabulous, but more of a “ What if?” situation. O’Neill also helped to give some good young players their first steps. Kennedy and Marshall outstanding at the Nou Camp, Liam Miller’s (ultimately brief) purple patch, before he got snatched by old purple nose, McManus and McGeady both made debuts, while the likes of Jamie Smith, Ross Wallace and Craig Beattie all looked like they had something to offer. However, over time, excluding McGeady none of them have hit the major heights, but they mostly all had good solid careers at a decent level.

Neil Lennon, for whatever reasons, suffers dogs abuse at every single away ground and in particular here obviously. He is well thought of by the Celtic fans for what he has done for us over the last four-and-a-half years. It was to show that Neil Lennon is very popular with our fans and I didn’t want anyone to forget that.” What kind of visuals do you find work best for limited edition prints or originals? Does this differ from commissioned Illustration? Your work is nostalgic in style and very ‘hands on’ in the creating process, do you think there is a resurgence in this type of work given the predominant digital age we are in? I am leaving Celtic purely for personal reasons and I am extremely sorry to be departing in such circumstances.”Trademark: after any major Celtic goal, he had a famous habit of jumping in the air with his fists raised. A little humorous but illustrated his wonderful character and emotion to all. The prior season to his arrival can be best described as amongst the worst the club had endured post-takeover with the John Barnes/Kenny Dalglish managerial reign falling as low as can be. Rangers were in the ascendency and were arrogantly believing that this was a season where they were going to push up in Europe and have Celtic by the jugular under their spiky shoes (as per the writings of one of their more prominent fanzine writers). January: Signs new 12-month rolling contract. March: Celtic beaten 2-1 by Rangers in CIS Cup final. May: Celtic lose 3-2 in extra-time to Porto in the Uefa Cup final in Seville. Celtic lose SPL title to Rangers on thrilling final day. The relationship between O’Neill and the Irish football media during a five-year international tenure remains a source of fascination. We shall return to that later. It would be unfair, as some have suggested, to depict O’Neill’s memoir as a score-settling exercise. Yes, there is occasionally acerbic comment – one would surely expect no less – but an extraordinary career which scaled playing heights under Brian Clough before touching managerial greatness at Celtic and Leicester is depicted with an entertaining tone. There is self-deprecation throughout. Normal pundits, absolutely, but ex-professionals having a go? Especially sometimes – and I’m not talking about here, I’m talking about in other parts of the United Kingdom – you have players who have done absolutely nothing in their career, nothing at all, who have been basement dwellers as footballers and ended up on a screen criticising something in front of them that they’ve never experienced either as a player or a manager. And they’re giving an opinion – their opinion is worthless. I’m not saying that every opinion up here from an ex-pro is worthless, far from it, but sometimes you have to disregard these things.”

May – Leicester finish eighth in the Premiership, their highest placing, and qualify for the UEFA Cup. He was clear about what he wanted. He took the players he needed from the previous era – the ones with character, fire and quality – and built his own team. He brought in Alan Thompson, Chris Sutton, Neil Lennon, Bobo Balde, Joos Valgaeren – huge players for us. Martin knew how to build a team of warriors. We didn’t fear anyone; we played Barcelona, Lyon and Liverpool, and we weren’t scared. Teams feared us when they came to Celtic Park. We had such togetherness and we had winners, and we were hungry for success.”Nottingham Forest made history at home and abroad without those involved ever knowing how fabled their run was. “You were on this ride,” O’Neill says. “You are going to West Ham and expecting to win, whereas the previous year trying to beat Bristol Rovers was a struggle. I don’t think we realised it was special until it was over. The night we lost to the Bulgarians [CSKA Sofia in 1980] in the European Cup, you thought: ‘Wow, that’s it.’

From an extract from Neil Lennon’s autobiography, (Lennon, Neil (2006) Neil Lennon: Man and Bhoy. HarperSport, ISBN-10: 0007233477) which describes gaffer Martin O’Neill’s famously inspirational speech at Anfield prior to the game. So how was Martin O’Neill to begin to turnaround the whole club? Some thought that it was equivalent to turning the Titanic around in light of Rangers’ then hegemony. His first task was to rebuild the squad, and after losing Mark Viduka (the highest profile loss) he brought in players such as Sutton, Thompson and Agathe, and later Lennon (in Dec 2000) to change both the dynamic and atmosphere surrounding the whole squad. Add in the recovery of Henrik Larsson, after his horrendous injury the previous year, and he had the nucleus of a great team, a blessing for any manager. The league turned out to be less of a challenge than expected. Rangers thought they were revitalised but weren’t. Celtic won the title comfortably, and Martin O’Neill could celebrate a third SPL title in four seasons (and his last as it turned out). Completing the League & Scottish Cup double piled on the agony for Rangers, but the quality of the play and the number of quality goals, really showed Martin O’Neill’s ability to fashion a consistently winning side. Celtic almost made it through the season undefeated in the league, but lost two games late in the season which spoiled the record. Up until Aberdeen’s win at Parkhead, Celtic had gone 77 games undefeated at home. May: Celtic lose 2-1 at Motherwell and O’Neill’s hopes of a fourth title in five years disappear as Rangers win 1-0 at Hibernian. 25May: Club announce O’Neill will step down after Scottish Cup final to look after his wife. 28May: Ends career at Celtic with 1-0 win over Dundee United in Scottish Cup final.

JOIN OUR MAILING LIST

May: Villa finish sixth again, a run of nine games without a win costing them Champions League place. August: Fails to take Villa into the group stages of the Europa League as Rapid Vienna progress on away goals.

Nevertheless, he has been known to have a keen fascination for legal stories, and has remained an avid follower of criminology, having attended some of Britain’s most infamous trials including that of the Yorkshire Ripper. His fascination apparently began with the James Hanratty case of 1961, and he has been said to take his family on legal trail hunts for his personal interest. How things were to turn out differently. Nobody could ever be said to believe what was to happen over the next few years, and the following only covers the true emotion of Martin O’Neill’s reign in brief for the whole Celtic support.And he will continue. “Working intuitively allows him to spot potential combinations, recognizing and then capitalizing on serendipity and the element of chance. While the final choices are informed by assiduously honed design skills.