Martin O’Neill has opened up on his recent set-to with talkSPORT host Jim White. The Celtic manager ended up in a heated confrontation with the broadcast journalist in the aftermath of the Hoops’ dramatic last day title win against Hearts at Parkhead back in May…
The 74-year-old questioned the veracity and integrity of the claims by Hearts’ major shareholder Tony Bloom, that implied that the Jambos players were assaulted during the pitch invasion celebrations at the final whistle, following Callum Osmand’s goal. I
t was a claim that O’Neill vehemently refused and insisted there was zero evidence for – which we all know now to be accurate.
White was persistent in his endeavour to take the shine off of the club’s achievement, which the Irishman took umbrage at and let the talkSPORT host know all about at that time.
When quizzed on that particular situation, O’Neill said: “I haven’t spoken to Jim since. Where my problem was with Jim was that when the shareholder of Hearts (Tony Bloom) said one or two players had been hit, and Jim didn’t progress that as a normal journalist would have done.”
“They didn’t get hit,” a perplexed O’Neill admitted. “They didn’t. In fact, if you actually talk about it, I think that one of their players snatched a phone. There was taunting going on, I agree, (but he) actually smashed his phone on the ground. So there’s evidence of that, but there’s not evidence of any of the players being hit.
“I know Jim’s modus operandi, so I would have expected (it), but to say that it tarnished the afternoon, no, it didn’t tarnish the afternoon for me. I got great, great pleasure out of the team winning. Great pleasure indeed. One of the great moments of my managerial time,” the honest Celtic manager confessed via The Herald.
“And strangely enough, had the reverse happened, had Hearts scored that goal, and some of those fans come onto the pitch, Hearts fans coming on just before the end of the game, I don’t think that would have tarnished their winning of the league, which would have been remarkable,” Martin insisted.
Despite the sensationalist claims made by Hearts and the ludicrous premature statement released without being in full knowledge of the facts, the Celtic boss pointed to the quick departure from the field of Hearts and their players, with Derek McInnes even calling for the game to end when the Osmand goal went in.
“How long do you think it took to clear the pitch? People were saying 20 minutes – it took two minutes and 50 seconds,” the sharp Kilrea man stated plainly.
“Yes, I accept the fact that you shouldn’t be on the pitch before the end of the game, but when the voice recorder came through, and Derek said ‘Let’s end this’, I think that put a different perspective on things. It really did.
“Will there be another pitch invasion between now and the rest of my life? I’m sure there will be. If the game had taken its normal course, then maybe the Hearts players could have gone to their own fans and acknowledged the fact that not necessarily for the game, but for the season that they’ve had, which was fantastic.
“But the rest of the things, I don’t see it any differently to the day I saw it,” O’Neill confirmed steadfastly.
Paul Gillespie
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