DAILY RECORD 🔵 Mellower Martin O’Neill slipping into Celtic oversized baggy tracksuit taught us all a far-reaching lesson – Keith Jackson
Our man got up close to the legendary Irishman in his first stint in charge, and has his say ahead of his farewell
So this is it then – the last goodbye?
When the final whistle sounds tonight at Celtic Park, Martin O’Neill will hear his name ring around the old place, no matter if his side has won, drawn or lost against Dundee.
Then he’ll step aside to make way for Wilfried Nancy even although a great deal of these supporters would much rather he stayed put. At least for a little while.
At the age of 73, O’Neill has won over the hearts and minds of a whole new generation of the club’s fans. Kids who grew up, weened on the stories from yesteryear of O’Neill’s first stint in charge have now got to see him go about his work for themselves.
Admittedly, it’s been a surreal experience for all concerned but at least now the young guns know what all the fuss was really about.
In just eight games this miracle worker of a manager has turned their club’s season around and dragged it out of a dark hole of unhappiness.
He might even take Celtic back to the top of the Premiership table tonight if early season pace setter Hearts don’t pull themselves together again at home to Kilmarnock.
Either way, Nancy will make his debut in the home dugout on Sunday knowing the Tynecastle team have been reeled back in and the stage has been perfectly set for him to go on from here to clinch the title in his first few months at the helm.
And that’s on the back of an Old Firm victory at Hampden which has teed the incoming Frenchman up for a crack at silverware in the Premier Sports Cup Final at St Mirren at the end of his first week in charge.
Also, Nancy will pick up the baton knowing Celtic are firmly in the mix for qualification to the latter stages of the Europa League, largely thanks to the win over Feyenoord which O’Neill masterminded in Rotterdam.
In short, the old man’s contribution has been utterly remarkable and will only add to his aura and legend in years to come, when the next batch have graduated and taken their place on those vast slopes in Glasgow’s east end.
He’s not quite the same force of nature as he was back in his pomp. He’s mellowed a great deal, outwardly at least, and in particular in his relations with the media.
O’Neill mk I was a more prickly so-and-so who viewed the men and women inside the press room through a prism of suspicion.
But times have changed. Having spent much of the last 20 years on the other side of the microphones, he appears to have satisfied himself that the world wasn’t actually out to get him after all.
Also, his short second stint has come at a time when the entire landscape of football in this country has changed beyond all recognition.
O’Neill started the Scottish game’s big switcheroo. When he first rocked up here it was Rangers who ruled the roost.
Dick Advocaat had taken over from Walter Smith after the great man had fallen at the final hurdle in the Ibrox club’s bid to secure ten successive League titles.
The Dutchman was splashing out £12m for Tore Andre Flo and had surrounded himself with players of the calibre of Arthur Numan, Giovani van Bronckhorst and Ronald de Boer.
No wonder then that O’Neill arrived in town looking for a scrap. He was locked into combat mode from day one.
And by toppling Advocaat from his perch, he set in motion the chain of events which has led to the current day, where the trophies and titles have been stockpiled in Celtic’s boardroom to such an extent that they’ve long since run out of space on the mantlepiece.
This time around O’Neill didn’t have to turn the tables on anyone else. All that was required of him was to walk into the middle of a club in self implosion and to use his charm and experience to make it feel better itself again.
That he did it by slipping into an oversized baggy tracksuit just added to the romance of it all. A Celtic support which had been – and which continues to be – in a mutinous mood with their own board of directors, was instantly disarmed by the sight of a much cherished pensioner getting back into his old working clothes on their behalf.
But O’Neill hasn’t just added unity to the club which means so very much to him. He’s given the players he inherited, and who were looking lost in the last days under Brendan Rodgers, a new sense of energy and direction.
They are happy at their work once again which is good news for Nancy and bad news for the rest of the domestic top flight, as the new man settles in.
More than that though, he’s gifted the entire game in this country there is a broader, more far reaching lesson.
At a time when clubs up and down the land are falling over themselves in a breathless pursuit of the next big thing, straight out of the head coaching classroom, O’Neill has showcased the value of an education from football’s old school.
He hasn’t pulled out any power point presentations or pie charts and he wouldn’t know where to find the XG button on his office laptop. That’s because he doesn’t need to fool anyone into believing he actually knows what he’s doing.
What O’Neill has illustrated over the course of a few short weeks, is that the secret to being a successful manager is not hidden somewhere amidst the algorithms or buried deep in the programming of how to reinvent the wheel.
It’s far more simple than that and it always has been.
First, understand the game. Then, understand the people within it.
O’Neill has simplified things on the pitch while reinvigorating the morale of the players inside his dressing room. He’s brought the fans with him too and has come as close to reconnecting them with their own club as anyone could have reasonably expected.
Yes, he may have relied heavily around Lennoxtown on the helping hands of assistant Shaun Maloney and coaches Mark Fotheringham, Gavin Strachan and Stephen McManus.
Their part in O’Neill’s healing process should not be underestimated and Nancy would do well to recognise it as he assembles his own backroom team for the months ahead.
They too will have learned a great deal from working so closely with O’Neill, even for such a short period of time. And it could prove invaluable to them in the long run, as they look to further and advance their own careers.
There are some things that simply cannot be taught or learned by sitting in front of a computer screen.
And that may be the most important takeaway of the lot now that O’Neill’s second coming is about to reach its end.