The Irishman is set to step aside to allow the Columbus Crew gaffer to become the permanent boss
Wilfried Nancy
Martin O’Neill insists incoming Wilfried Nancy can rise above the civil war raging at Celtic. The caretaker boss is set to take the take in Thursday’s Europa League clash with Feyenoord and against Hibs at Easter Road on Sunday before stepping down.
Columbus Crew head coach Nancy is expected to check in on Monday but the 48-year-old will be arriving amid a bitter breakdown between fans and the Hoops board. O’Neill is convinced the new man won’t be dragged into the toxic atmosphere around the club and he can get Celts pulling in the same direction again.
The Parkhead hero admitted it’s a difficult environment right now but said: “It is in that sense, but I think that the new manager coming in, I think that he should divorce himself from all those proceedings. This is a fresh start for him. He hasn’t been party to anything that’s happened in recent times.
“So just let’s say it was me and I’d never manage the football club again, I’d be saying, ‘yeah, that’s got nothing to do with me’. I have to try and win some football games and then maybe at some stage or another, if we can get a real team together that can go and compete, not just domestically, but obviously in European football.
“Well, that would be his job. Absolutely, but he’s got a fresh start. He’s going in to step into something that really has been none of his concern.
“And that’s the way I would be approaching it. And it’s not like passing the buck. It’s just saying, well, sorry, that’s not my making. My making now is to put Celtic back in the game.”
O’Neill admitted after Saturday’s dramatic late with at St Mirren the conflict off the pitch could eventually have an impact on it.
He insisted it’s not got to that stage yet though and said: “No, not really. I don’t see that at this minute. But if this was a continuation for a long, long time or something like this, it might be a different issue. I haven’t noticed it at all.
“I actually think you make a really decent point about that. I’m hoping, and since I’m only here for the short period of time, it’s just about ignoring anything that’d be happening elsewhere.
“Hopefully, if we score a goal, there’ll be a crowd cheering for that. That’s the case.
“But in a longer term basis, I think you might have a point. And the sooner that this unity comes back to Celtic, the better.”
O’Neill is preparing to bow out but he has left the door open to a new role at Parkhead.
The Northern Irishman has been tipped by some for the director of football gig – or even the chairman job down the line.
But O’Neill joked: “No, I put that all out myself! I never asked a board member at all. I just want to hang around for a bit… So I put that sort of message out.
Interim Celtic manager Martin O’Neill(Image: PA)
“Of course, if they asked me, would I be a director of football, and I know from the past that’s the best role in football now, because you can blame the manager for the bad results, and that’s what I’d like to do!
“To step in and become the director of football and then being the manager after every bad result. And if a good player comes up, I take the credit for it, which is brilliant.
“No, I genuinely don’t know. I would imagine my time here would be, again, short or sweet.
“You know, or maybe not even sweet after we’ve got a game tomorrow.
“I would only treat it game by game, but in terms of what might happen, I genuinely don’t know.”
O’Neill admitted he has relished the chance to hold the club together in a time of turmoil.
He said: “In a perverse sort of way, I actually have enjoyed it, I must admit. Could I really do the job again week in, week out, week in, week out, for months on end? I really don’t know.
“Do I have energy and enthusiasm? Yeah, I have those. Is that enough? Not so sure.
“I’ve got all of those particular things. Do I have knowledge of the game? Of course, yeah, I think I have. But in the end, I really don’t know. Imagine shifting me out of what I was doing into doing this here.
“I bet you when it is over, I’ll think ‘that was actually quite nice’.
“It kind of, in that sort of way, reinvigorates you, you know, for a while because you are actually concentrating on something that you used to do before, you know, and you’d almost forgotten how to do it.”