MARTIN O’NEILL admitted he found some comments from Danny Rohl as “absolutely extraordinary” as the managers prepared to pit their wits against each other in the countdown to Sunday’s derby at Ibrox.
Following some remarks from the Govan gaffer after Celtic’s 1-0 Europa League play-off second leg win over VfB Stuttgart in Germany last night, the Irishman hit back in a war of words.
O’Neill made the point Rohl “hasn’t been in Glasgow long” as the champions look for the league victory that will put them a point in front of their Glasgow rivals with a game in hand.
The verbal spat arose after Luke McCowan, the Hoops’ matchwinner in Stuttgart, claimed that “no team in the league touches us.”
Rohl responded by flagging up the fact that Celtic have been beaten seven times in the Premiership in a turbulent campaign, including defeat against his own team during Wilfried Nancy’s disastrous 33 days in charge at Parkhead.
The German then admitted he was “surprised” that O’Neill’s men didn’t go for it more last night and stated it was “interesting” to see what happens next with the goalkeeping situation with Viljami Sinisalo taking over from Kasper Schmeichel in the game where the Hoops couldn’t turn around the 4-1 first leg reverse.
O’Neill, who will celebrate his 74th birthday at Ibrox and is more than twice the age of his opposite number, smiled: “So, he’s picking our team? Well done, old Danny, well done.
“He had a comment about our team, the picking of the team. Extraordinary. Absolutely extraordinary.
“Luke’s entitled to his comments, believe it or not.”
The Hoops’ interim team chief, who guided the side to a 3-1 Premier Sports League Cup semi-final victory over Rohl’s team in November, said: “He hasn’t been in Glasgow long. He’s only been in for less than a year.
“He’ll soon know all about it in the next four or five years.
“I must sit down and think, maybe he has a choice of some players, and maybe I can put my oar in there, you know, and find out what he’s doing.”
Asked about Rohl’s comments that Celtic “didn’t try to win the game 2-0 or 3-0” in Germany, O’Neill, speaking to Celtic TV, continued: “He wants to be involved in some of these games.
“I never saw it like that. We were driven back because they are a very, very good team; they are in the top four in the Bundesliga.
“I’m surprised he’s made a comment like that.
“He possesses a very decent team over there, and it’s going to be tough for us to get a result, but we’re going to be fighting.”
Focusing on Sunday, O’Neill added: “They are really great fixtures to be involved in and I’m naturally looking forward to it.
“The two sides play each other reasonably often during the course of the season and I think in the next fixture one of the teams is usually trying to rectify something that happened before.
“So, now it’s our turn, if that is the case. It will be a difficult game for us, absolutely no question about that.
“But are we capable of winning? Yes, we are.
“We’ve a lot of players here who have played in these fixtures and have gone to Ibrox and won.
“So, they’ve done that in the recent past and it’s up to us to try and emulate that.”
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