Martin O’Neill insists he is uncertain whether he would accept the Celtic job permanently…
Celtic clinched the Scottish Premiership title at the weekend following a dramatic 3-1 victory over Hearts courtesy of Arne Engels, Daizen Maeda and Callum Osmand.
However, O’Neill insists he is unsure whether he would take the job permanently after a gruelling few months in charge.
The 74-year-old’s interim deal expires on May 31, leaving uncertainty over who will lead the Scottish champions into next season.
With several players soon departing for World Cup duty and preparations for the new campaign looming, O’Neill acknowledged time is already running short.
“There is not that much time,” he said via The Herald. “Some of the players will head off to the World Cup.
“Winning the title might give us an extra week because we would have been back earlier for qualification games. But it’s no length of time. Not for me.”
After steering Celtic through one of the closest title races in recent Scottish football history, calls for O’Neill to remain in charge on a permanent basis have intensified.
However, the Hoops boss suggested the demands of another full campaign may be too much to contemplate.
“I won’t have a lot of time, even if they ask me,” he admitted. “But it’s dead right, they need to reset and start thinking about what’s next. I honestly don’t know. If the season was to start tomorrow morning, I wouldn’t do it! I couldn’t stand it.
“Naturally, I’d hope they asked what I thought. But, seriously, if we didn’t have a cup to worry about this week and they asked me now, I wouldn’t be up for it.”
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1 Comment
Personally believe that MoN wony will be in charge of team affairs for next season?
Still think that he might be involved in some capacity still, behind the scenes though imo?
Always wanted MoN to keep his dignity as a football manager intact, with bowing out as a winner, as he always was within our support.
Even growing hugely in what he has managed to achieve, this season already, should make the statue status an automatic decision, as one of our all time greats imo?
As for next season, a longer term plan needs to be introduced to ourselves within our club. And that starts with the choice of a new manager.
Will also include how much longer can we continue getting out of Calmac and forrest?
There’s a growing amount of changes within players, each passing season lately, so a potential new group of players is required in order to offer better stability, which is a requirement for the bigger challenges that European football brings with it also?
Squad depth was an issue, especially with such an injury list in operation for ourselves.
Always going to be a potential huge problem to try and overcome such an unforseen, but could do with being better prepared for the likes, especially regarding rotation to be introduced moreso, in keeping players fresher for an entire season campaign?
Always going to be a fairly high degree for ourselves upon key players, but maybe to high for the footballing demands that exists within our club, with a footballing calendar as it currently stands imo?
Hence squad depth is coming a bigger demand within todays game?
So think if MoN weighs up everything, that has to be taken into consideration, then struggling to see, if he would really fancy the job on a longer term basis, especially while on such a high at present within our support?
Even so, he is definitely going to be a hard act to follow, for any potential managerial candidates, on personality alone, with the never giving up attitude installed within our team imo?