MARTIN O’NEILL admits this season “has been an eye-opener” to everyone at Celtic.
The club have experienced turbulence in their bid to win a fifth successive title and today find themselves five points behind leaders Hearts with just seven games to go.
The champions were rocked by the sudden departure of Brendan Rodgers in late October and then the catastrophic and chaotic 33-day reign of wretched Wilfried Nancy in which the club dropped TWELVE Premiership points and blew a Cup Final.
O’Neill is now in the second of his two interim spells and has revealed he is prepared for talks with principal shareholder Dermot Desmond and chief executive Michael Nicholson to outline his ideas for the future.
MAKING A POINT…Martin O’Neill shouts instructions to his players.
The 74-year-old Irishman said: “They can take my opinion or not, as the case may be. It would only be an opinion.
“This season has been an eye-opener for us, in every aspect.
“A real proper sit-down to discuss what happened — and to maybe try and unify the club again — would be fantastic.
“That in itself is a major thing, in terms of who would be in charge.
“You’re hoping that the recruitment would be so important to try and learn from the things that we didn’t do well this year.”
O’Neill insisted he would be willing to take on the role between the dug-out and the boardroom to aid the incoming manager in the summer.
The veteran gaffer, speaking to the Scottish Sun, continued: “I will speak to Michael and Dermot at some stage.
“I’d think, generally, we would all feel the same about what would be needed to get us back on top.
“Let’s say a new manager was coming in and I’m at the club as an advisor to the board.
“If I were the new manager, I wouldn’t mind who was on the board, as long as there was a committee for signing players and as long as the manager would have the final say.
WATCHING BRIEF…Martin O’Neill takes stock of the action.
“There has to be affordability, but if the manager has the final say then it could work.
“Also I believe the manager coming in would be hoping that someone, maybe an old figure like me, would be on his side.
“If I were stepping in now as a 45-year-old manager, those are the things I would like.”
Convinced the situation could be transformed quickly, O’Neill added: “If you’re asking fans about a five-year plan, that’s not working.
“You’ve just seen what’s happened to managers getting six, seven, eight games. Money’s dictating everything now.
“Recruitment will be very important. Unification of the club would be great, getting people on the same side.
“It’s not about harking back to my day. But the general feeling was that everybody was together and that was important.
“Now, Celtic have had a lot of success and I feel that this idea of taking success for granted should never be at a club.
“Can you change things relatively quick? Yeah, I do believe that.
“The club should do these things towards the end of every season, anyway. But this particular season has been a wake-up call for us all.”
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