MARTIN O’NEILL will discuss his Celtic future with the club’s principal shareholder Dermot Desmond over the next few days.
The 74-year-old Irishman conjured up a league and Cup double at the club following his two stints as interim manager after the exits of Brendan Rodgers and then Wilfried Nancy during a turbulent season.
O’Neill masterminded a spectacular comeback in the league as they came back from being written off by many to overtake Hearts on the last day of the Premiership season with the 3-1 victory over the Edinburgh club at Parkhead last weekend.
And the feelgood factor continued at Hampden yesterday when the Hoops beat Neil Lennon’s Dunfermline 3-1 to claim their 43rd Scottish Cup.
THREE CHEERS…Martin O’Neill, flanked by Shaun Maloney and Mark Fotheringham, celebrates the Scottish Cup Final triumph at Hampden.
O’Neill said: “I don’t think I’ll ever lose the hunger or the passion for the game. Honestly, I really don’t. When they’re putting a lid on top of me, I think I’ll jump up and say: ‘What’s the score?’ And, hopefully, Celtic have scored!
“But if you’re saying we’d start back in a week’s time, I genuinely couldn’t do that. I’ll have to give it a think.
“In the next week, I’ll meet up with the owner and see what he’s saying. He hasn’t said anything to me and I don’t know if that’s good news or bad news, but I will genuinely have a wee look at it to see.
“I’d be thinking, though, that for the football club to go forward properly, then they’d probably looking at somebody younger. If you’re asking me if I’d have a project or something like that, no, I couldn’t do that. I wouldn’t have it.
“I’ve never believed in a project anyway, to tell you the truth. But I definitely couldn’t do that.
“This is a nice feeling, but the football club now will need to have a look to see. I know this is the Scottish Cup, but Hearts are the story of the season, which is brilliant.
BEST OF ENEMIES…Martin O’Neill and rival boss Neil Lennon embrace at Hampden.
“That’s the reason there is interest in Scotland, but elsewhere in Europe, so the challenge is there. Rangers will get strong, I’m sure, so we’ve got to try and match that.
“And there’s trying to make some sort of mark in European football. All of those things, I genuinely can’t grasp just now.”
Should Desmond offer him the job during discussions, O’Neill, speaking to the Daily Mail, smiled: “I’d need to check my heart monitor, for a start.
“My blood pressure will probably be up.
“It has been great and the only reason it has been great is because we have been successful. There can be no-one in this room my age and you’ve got to consider that.
“I can pass it off as a joke, but I really don’t know. I think I must be in consideration for the job, even though it might be for a very short term. Even at that, I couldn’t do a project.
“It’s all right saying a year and it sounds great at the moment. I am not sure if we lost three of the first five, I’d be welcome. It doesn’t matter who you are. You have to win football matches.”
WHAT HAPPENS NEXT? A pensive Martin O’Neill after sealing a league and Cup double.
Asked if his family would support him committing for the longer term, O’Neill answered: “That is a brilliant point. I am really not sure. My daughters would be on for it. I am not sure my wife would.
“She does some of these art classes, which she loves, and she likes the place down there. I think, deep down, she has enjoyed this, but it is a good point.”
The double winners – minus international players involved in the World Cup Finals – are due to resume training on June 26 with the crucial first leg of the Champions League qualifier scheduled for August 3.
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