“We got beaten. And I’m obviously disappointed with myself,” Martin O’Neill

Martin O’Neill spoke to the mainstream media today ahead of tomorrow’s Scottish Premiership match against Falkirk at Celtic Park…

Once again the Celtic fan media was excluded, pending a promised ‘review’ by the club which looks like it was a big fat lie all along!

Here’s everything that the Celtic manager had to say to the hacks as he mostly reflected on Celtic’s humiliation in Linz and had little positive to say on any potential transfer recruits as the transfer window approaches it’s final few days…

Q: What do you make of your Europa League draw?

Martin O’Neill: “Yeah, gosh, I thought it was really tough. I probably still haven’t got over the game on Tuesday night, but it’s something to look forward to, I must admit. There are some really good games there. I’ve got the list here in my pocket. I saw Benfica, I never read any further! It’s not the day for fun and games. Really disappointing, Tuesday night. We just have to try and get over it, if we can.”

Q: It maybe can be difficult in the immediate aftermath to take it all in and analyse your disappointment?

Martin O’Neill: “In all honesty, we should have been out of sight by half-time. And I know we did not do well on the second half. We should have been out of sight. And if we’d got through, even in, let’s say we defended the final, the final ball coming into the box, and we’d got through, it still wouldn’t stop us from not having played well in the game. But getting through was the most important thing.  We got beaten. And I’m obviously disappointed with myself.”

Q: You feel it was more a failure on the night rather than the type of things you hear in the aftermath that the squad was under-prepared or you should have signed more players?

Martin O’Neill:  “You know what, honestly, I will not, there’s no point in me, you can only get my gist on it at this minute. Whatever it was, we went in with a side. We played the first game, we won 3-0. I did say afterwards, you know, that the game was very much in the balance. That wasn’t just a defence mechanism, it was the truth of the game. I thought that they were a really fine side. And so, you can talk about preparations at the end of it all. The disappointment’s still there. We still have to try and get through. And I will just have to take that.”

Q: You said you take responsibility. What should you have done better than that?

Martin O’Neill:  “Well, I have to really analyse it again. Try to do it, you know, period of the game just after half-time when they’ve scored, 2-1, the momentum’s with them. What can you do to stop that momentum? Try and keep playing in the manner in which you had done in the first half. And then they, you know, they just start to get on top of it. I mean, I’ve experienced these things before, both for and against. And the momentum that they had was very strong. I thought we could have maybe defended our box a wee bit better. But that’s, you know, that’s… I’ll have to look at my own part, first of all, before looking at anybody else’s.”

Q: Does dropping out of the tournament have any impact at all on any possible new signings?

Martin O’Neill: “I think that’s not the case, really. I think that we’re still trying to get some players in. We would need a few in, obviously, to supplement the squad. Just with the games that you’ve just pointed out to me, you know, European matches, some of these teams, I think Benfica’s performance against Hearts showed that they are probably, you know, a Champions League team. Marseille, you know, you could go on forever in a day. The competition is still very strong.

“And I’ve known this from the past, that quite a number of teams in this competition could easily take their place in the Champions League. But the prestige is not there the same. It’s still a great competition. And obviously the finance is the big thing. But I’m hoping that we can get some people in before the deadline.”

Q: Are you close to getting anybody in?

Martin O’Neill:  “You know, sometimes during the course of the last month, we felt close to people that we would know would be first choices. And then it’s gone. I don’t want to get too far down the list, you know, to number 10 or something like that. But we’re still hopeful, yeah.”

Q: So a feeling that you would need to reassess any targets, whether it is financially, whether it’s players that would have maybe wanted to come in for the Champions League?

Martin O’Neill:  “Yeah, I think you’ve got a point. I think that some players would want to, you know, experience Champions League football. And that is very, very true. But then I see this, you know, in a somewhat cynical way, I see that, you know, really good players still heading to Saudi when their careers are still here. So suddenly the Champions League doesn’t seem to matter as much. I shouldn’t say that. The chance to go to Saudi, I’d do it myself. So, you know, but yeah, back to your point, I think the Champions League is a big carrot for a lot of young players.”

Q: What have you learned over the past couple of days as a coaching staff and what do you need to do going forward to make sure that there’s not a detrimental impact?

Martin O’Neill:  “I mean, we’ve had a little talk about it, about the game, about the major disappointment, you know, and you have to recover pretty quickly. You just, you really have to do it. I’ve always been this, both as a player and as a manager, particularly as a manager, where I spend an awful lot of time ruminating.

Q: You can’t just push it to the side. You have to really take it in, as you mentioned, what have you done over the last couple of days?

Martin O’Neill:  “You have to concentrate now, seriously, it’s coming very, very quickly. The Falkirk game is right upon us and we need to really focus on it. They played us brilliantly last season in all the games. So, yeah, that’s it. Back to your point, yeah, I have to, I do spend an inordinate amount of time over defeats.

Q: There may be a bit of discontent from supporters just in not being in the Champions League. Is the best remedy for that going out in front of them on Saturday and putting on a good performance and scoring goals and getting those three points?

Martin O’Neill: “I’ve known this from my time at this football club and you’ll know, you’re always one game away from a crisis. And that is the case because it is a, cannot get over it, it’s a major disappointment to get knocked out of the competition, particularly carrying the lead. You know, we’ve got 60 minutes to go and we are looking in real control of the game, really decently. They’ve had a couple of skirmishes, but we’ve had the better chances in the game and to let it slip in the manner in which we did. It’s my responsibility.

“So, yeah, we have to go over and really show, and I know it’s an overused word, you mentioned the character, we have to show real, a lot of character and there’ll be moments in the game tomorrow, misplaced passes, you know, allowing Falkirk in, shots at goal and stuff like this here, maybe even going a goal behind in the game where the crowd would want to get really restless. Absolutely, so we have to fight that.”

But that’s been the case. Even under my days of, you know, with Larsson and Lennon, people like Lambert, it was the case there, so that doesn’t change. And do you know what? I wouldn’t expect it to, we can’t live on laurels for the rest of our time. Last season was just fantastic, great moments, but it’s gone, you know, and I’ve had some really great moments in my time and I’ve had some really lows. It’s funny that one of the great highs was winning the league, one of the major lows was losing this game. It doesn’t get any easier at 74 years of age, you know, in fact it gets worse.”

Q: That’s the sixth time in a row, in terms of qualification, Celtic failed to get through to the group stages or the league phase. Does that highlight that there’s something fundamentally wrong in terms of how the club prepares for these matches?

Martin O’Neill:  “Do you know, whatever you point out to me, I’m not in any position to disagree. If I went back to the Basel game, you know, and I thought that I wouldn’t get over that. We won 3-1 in the first game, lost 2-0, and away goals counted at that particular time. And I really thought, oh my God, it’s the end of the world. And then the lads in the dressing room said, listen, let’s go and give everything for the, which was called the UEFA Cup at the time. And we got to the final.

“Your point about the six, you would have to look at it and really do analyse it and see if there is a, you know, if there is a common denominator and things like that there. I haven’t had a chance to do that. I’m just, I’m part of the statistic now.”

Q: The common denominator from supporters would be the likes of selling Arne Engels without a replacement, not having a left back in, if Kieran Tierney were to go off, that level of recruitment, not being to the standard, would you understand that?

Martin O’Neill:  “Do you know what, I’m in no position to argue, you know, really, not today, not today.”

Q: How is Callum McGregor?

Martin O’Neill:  “Yeah, he didn’t train today. He’s got a stomach bug. I’m hoping he’s going to be okay. I don’t know whether Trusty passed that on to him in the last couple of days or not. And Callum never misses a training session. He had, I think, a bit of vomiting.”

Q: How about your squad?

Martin O’Neill:  “We’ve got a couple of boys with a few knocks and things like this here, but it’s as much psychological as physical, I think, for us to get through.”

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