MARTIN O”NEILL’S crucial meeting with Celtic principal shareholder Dermot Desmond has been pushed back to next week.
Following an astonishing double-winning season in which the 74-year-old Irishman had two spells as interim manager, he is scheduled for a meeting with the Parkhead powerbroker as the champions search for a new permanent boss.
If O’Neill was concerned about the delay with double billionaire businessman Desmond, who is a year older than the club legend, he hid it well.
MARK OF A WINNER…Martin O’Neill with the Scottish Cup after Celtic’s 3-1 victory over Dunfermline at Hampden last Saturday.
Asked about the pause in the club’s progress, the charismatic gaffer, speaking to the Daily Record, joked: “I think Desmond is looking for a younger man – a 71-year-old.
“I am getting awfully old, but I don’t know what’s in his mind, whether I would have the energy to do it again, I really don’t know.
“But it was nice to be asked the first time.”
O’Neill answered the Hoops’ SOS in late October after Brendan Rodgers’ sudden departure following two back-to-back league defeats against Dundee at Dens Park and Hearts at Tynecastle.
He won seven of his eight games in temporary charge before making way for Wilfried Nancy in early December.
The Frenchman was fired after 33 chaotic days and six losses in eight outings and O’Neill was back in place on January 5 to guide the team until the end of a turbulent campaign.
MARK OF A WINNER…Martin O’Neill holds aloft the Premiership trophy after the last-day 3-1 triumph over Hearts at Parkhead a couple of weeks ago.
Remarkably, Celtic clinched a league and Cup double with seven successive Premiership victories before beating Neil Lennon’s Dunfermline 3-1 in the Scottish Cup Final at Hampden last Saturday.
O’Neill has been mentioned with a new year-long contract while former players Robbie Keane and Craig Bellamy are other names in the frame.
Shaun Maloney, who has been the Irishman’s right-hand man during the dug-out turmoil, could move into a behind-the-scenes role to oversee the football department this summer.
The new talks will take place after the weekend.
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