Martin O’Neill will take charge of his eighth and final game as interim boss at home to Dundee
Martin O’Neill has acknowledged he’ll be the final person to leave Celtic Park this evening as he prepares to pass the baton to Wilfried Nancy.
The Hoops legend – named Glen’s Vodka Premiership Manager of the Month for November – oversees his eighth and concluding fixture as caretaker manager at home against Dundee.
O’Neill has guided Celtic to six victories since his stunning comeback in October – breaking the club’s four-year drought for an away European triumph and narrowing the distance to league leaders Hearts.
The iconic manager – who also orchestrated a Premier Sports Cup semi-final victory over Rangers – has revealed he’ll savour his final match in the dugout.
When questioned whether tonight would categorically be his last game in charge following administrative complications that postponed Nancy’s arrival last week, he responded: “Yeah, definitely. You’ll be really pleased to hear this. And I’m semi-pleased myself!”, reports the Daily Record.
“It’s not a problem to me. Genuinely not a problem to me. And if you’re saying to me, ‘Would you be missing a cup final?’ It doesn’t really bother me, honestly.
“The reason being, I was given a remit to come in here. It was either you could be here two weeks, you could be here two months.
“They had things in place and that was my job. I’d never even looked at what the games were anyway. And so it really does not bother me.”
Traditional O’Neill typically heads straight down the tunnel at the final whistle whilst the squad completes their customary lap of appreciation. However, the Irishman might just abandon his usual routine as he bids farewell to his devoted fans.
He said: “It will depend on the result.
“If we win I’ll be waving until midnight. Yeah, they’ll be putting the lights out. But we have to win the game.
“I have only one thing on my mind, to try and beat Dundee. They beat us a number of weeks ago.
“They had a great result at the weekend and they’ll be flying. So that is the only thing I am thinking about.
“But after the game I can genuinely think about it.”
O’Neill confirmed his wife Geraldine and daughters Aisling and Alana will be present at tonight’s match as he aims to conclude with a fifth consecutive victory.
He said: “Yeah. The last conversation I had with them my daughters told me they certainly want to come up and bring their own daughters up to the game.
“I don’t know about that. They were young when I was Celtic manager before, but they remember it, big time.
“They are well aware about the winning of football matches. My older daughter realised when I was at Wycombe that dad would be in a great mood on a Saturday if his team can win and he will be wretched if they don’t.
“So she used to say to me every Saturday morning, ‘Dad, just win’. I am quite sure if she phoned me now she would say the same thing to me.”
Despite stepping away from management for six years following his final role at Nottingham Forest, O’Neill has successfully stabilised the club following Brendan Rodgers’ shocking exit. The experienced boss has brought back the positive atmosphere at Lennoxtown and put Celtic’s campaign firmly back on course.
The 73-year-old was delighted to collect his tenth Manager of the Month accolade across his two stints at Parkhead – his first since January 2005.
He added: “I have got to tell you, I am really pleased, I am. I am thankful if it was voted for, I really am.”
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