The interim boss fielded questions on Sky Sports after seeing off Hibs in a 2-1 win at Easter Road in what was supposed to be his farewell
Interim boss Martin O’Neill admits he is becoming “embarrassingly bored” of being grilled over the timeline of Wilfried Nancy to Celtic. It comes after the arrival of the Columbus Crew boss was delayed by paperwork.
O’Neill was in charge of the Hoops for their 2-1 win over Hibs at Easter Road in what he thought would be his last game. But the 73-year-old will now be in charge of the midweek showdown with Dundee at Celtic Park.
The stand-in gaffer has revealed he received a hasty phone call from the Celtic decision-makers asking him to extend his time in the dugout while the final details of Nancy’s arrival are ironed out. Asked by Eilidh Barbour on Sky Sports that it “sounds like you have got at least one more game.”
O’Neill responded: “Well, apparently so. I thought this was my farewell, and I have been saying farewell to the players since I arrived. I genuinely thought it was and thought this was going to be the last game, and then I got a call to say there is still a little bit more paperwork to be done and I was asked to see it through to Wednesday night. Please, I almost get embarrassingly bored by it all; this should be it.”
James McFadden joked: “Must be happy you are getting more time?” O’Neill smirked: “You’re right. You are dead right. It is nice, it’s nice when you win. If you are losing the games then people tell you to high tail it out of here.”
Rangers hero Kris Boyd then quizzed: “What has impressed you the most since you have come in with the players?”
O’Neill went on: “Gosh, loads of things really. The response really, because half the team wouldn’t have known who I was. This gentleman has arrived; ‘quite old, grey hair – has Father Christmas come early?’ But listen, it has been great.”
Boyd floated about the hasty change of his time in the dugout: “Has it helped you saying it’s been game to game, rather than being told you have two months?”
O’Neill said: “That might be a good point. But it has reinvigorated me, being around young people. Just to see players playing and responding. Bit of praise, bit of criticism – and they respond to critics in this day and age.”
The grilling then move on to O’Neill’s future in Glasgow’s east end. Boyd asked: “Would you like to stay at Celtic in some capacity?”
O’Neill confessed that the call would fall to the new manager: “Right, I think the new manager should have a choice in all of that. Of who he has in players to work with, but also his backroom staff. I think that’s fair.”
Barbour asked knowingly: “As far as you are aware, it will be Wilfried Nancy coming in once that paperwork is completed?”
O”Neill responded: “That is correct. It’s some paperwork isn’t it? I don’t know if they can’t find a little document.”
With the Premier Sports Cup final coming up on December 14 against St Mirren, McFadden laughted: “(It would be) Nice if they couldn’t find it until after the final…”
O’Neill quipped: “It would be. I’ve hidden the papers!”