{"id":296715,"date":"2025-12-03T12:49:16","date_gmt":"2025-12-03T12:49:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/296715\/"},"modified":"2025-12-03T12:49:16","modified_gmt":"2025-12-03T12:49:16","slug":"martin-oneill-wowed-by-celtic-player-and-states-i-didnt-realise-how-good-he-is","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/296715\/","title":{"rendered":"Martin O’Neill wowed by Celtic player and states ‘I didn’t realise how good he is’"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Martin O\u2019Neill will take to the Celtic Park dugout for the final time on Wednesday night. <\/p>\n

Celtic host Dundee<\/a> in the Premiership, hoping to overtake Hearts in the table, and put further pressure on Derek McInnes\u2019 side, ahead of the weekend meeting under new boss, Wilfried Nancy. <\/p>\n

This interim role for O\u2019Neill<\/a>, which has lasted just over a month, would have provided him with enough time to judge and analyse what he truly feels about this Celtic<\/a> squad. <\/p>\n

There is that viewpoint you have of the champions of Scotland<\/a> from afar, but O\u2019Neill has felt even stronger about Callum McGregor<\/a> after watching him up close and personal. <\/p>\n

What permanent role would you give Martin O\u2019Neill at Celtic? <\/p>\n

\ud83d\udc47 Join the debate; share your insight. Use the comment button on the bottom left to have your say <\/p>\n

Martin O\u2019Neill\u2019s surprise with Callum McGregor at Celtic<\/p>\n

McGregor\u2019s late winner against St Mirren<\/a> and goal against Rangers will live long in the memory bank, as it\u2019s further proof that the skipper steps up when it matters most.<\/p>\n

But speaking in his pre-match Dundee press conference, O\u2019Neill admitted, \u2018I didn\u2019t realise how good he is.\u2019 <\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I was watching Celtic from afar, you could form an opinion about players,\u201d said O\u2019Neill. \u201cThen find out when you are actually working with them, that\u2019s different, either good or bad. <\/p>\n

\u201cFor instance, the captain. I thought, from afar, the captain was a really good player. I didn\u2019t realise how good he is. Those types of things help.\u201d<\/p>\n

The \u2018respect\u2019 McGregor has at Celtic<\/p>\n

There is nobody better to lead Celtic<\/a> right now than McGregor. He takes the ball in pressure situations and scores very important goals. <\/p>\n

O\u2019Neill noted the \u2018respect\u2019 McGregor has at Celtic and the different types of leaders he has worked with during his career. <\/p>\n

Which player has impressed you the most since Martin O\u2019Neill took over? <\/p>\n

\"Celtic'sPhoto by BO AMSTRUP\/Ritzau Scanpix\/AFP via Getty Images <\/p>\n

\ud83d\udc47 Join the debate; share your insight. Use the comment button on the bottom left to have your say <\/p>\n

\u201cI have had different types of captains,\u201d added O\u2019Neill. \u201cPaul Lambert was a really great captain here, for me. I have had Gareth Barry at Aston Villa. I have had a number of characters. <\/p>\n

\u201cAt Leicester, a big boy called Steve Walsh. A really great captain. All in their own way. <\/p>\n

\u201cCallum doesn\u2019t just lead by example. But he is vociferous. And he has the utmost respect from the team. The utmost respect, and that goes for all of us here at the club.\u201d <\/p>\n

Join Our Newsletter <\/p>\n

Receive a digest of our best Celtic content each week direct to your mailbox<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Martin O\u2019Neill will take to the Celtic Park dugout for the final time on Wednesday night. Celtic host…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":296716,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[23926,218,30905,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-296715","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-football","8":"tag-callum-mcgregor","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-martin-oneill","11":"tag-sports","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom","14":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296715","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=296715"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296715\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/296716"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=296715"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=296715"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=296715"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}