MARTIN O’NEILL took over for his second spell as interim manager of Celtic in the aftermath of Wilfried Nancy’s disastrous 33 days in charge.
The French flop was axed following the 3-1 nosedive in the derby at Parkhead after leading 1-0 at half-time on January 3.
Paul Tisdale, the club’s head of recruitment, was sacked at the same time as Nancy and his three-man entourage who had followed their head coach from MLS club Columbus Crew the previous month.
O’Neill was forced to hit the ground running one AND off the pitch to bring in much-needed fresh blood to strengthen his squad.
LET’S TALK…Martin O’Neill prepares for his interview with Chris Sutton.
Julian Araujo, the America-born Mexico international right-back, had joined on loan from Bournemouth just before O’Neill’s second coming, but four more have been added before the signing deadline.
The 73-year-old Irishman pulled no punches when he spoke to his former striker Chris Sutton in an exclusive Sky Sports interview.
O’Neill said: “If you’re asking me honestly, I wasn’t totally convinced about the recruitment for Celtic Football Club.
“You know, it is still a big club and the ambition of the football club is to play big European matches, to be involved in big European games.
“I know it was late in the transfer market and so getting ideal replacements in was going to be difficult.”
Quizzed on his overall feeling regarding the club’s January recruitment, O’Neill answered: “I’m a football manager, so satisfaction and football management never go together.
“But I am happy. I’m happy with what we’ve done. I needed to supplement the squad. I wanted to try and bring, if we can, like anything else, bring in a bit of quality.
“Getting quality at this time, with the sort of thing that you’re looking for, is still particularly difficult.”
Following Araujo’s arrival, Borussia Monchengladbach striker Tomas Cvancara joined on a temporary switch while there were three deadline-day recruits, Joel Mvuka, Junior Adamu and Benjamin Arthur, all on various loan deals.
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