MARTIN O’NEILL admits last season must act as a “wake-up call” for Celtic.
Scotland’s title kings left it late to win their fifth successive championship, their fourteenth title in 15 years and record 56th crown.
Hearts had led the league for eight months, but toppled at the final hurdle in the last Premiership encounter of a topsy-turvy campaign when O’Neill’s side triumphed 3-1 at Parkhead.
The flag looked as though it was heading for Tynecastle with only three minutes to go in the east end of Glasgow with the game tied at 1-1.
Daizen Maeda struck with the second goal and young Callum Osmand netted an unforgettable third in the fading moments as he raced away without an opponent in sight after they had piled forward for a last-gasp free-kick.
O’Neill completed his second stint as interim manager a week later by completing the double with a 3-1 Scottish Cup Final victory over Neil Lennon’s Dunfermline at Hampden.
Now the 74-year-old Irishman is back on a permanent contract of at least a year and is ready to deal with – and hopefully overcome – the challenges of a new crusade.
Asked if he was motivated to go again after penning the deal following a fair amount of conjecture, O’Neill, speaking to Celtic TV, answered: “Very much so.
“It was strange in the sense that if I’d been asked about it a day after I’d done it, I don’t think I would have had the energy for it.
“But I suppose deep down, if I’m honest about it, if I felt okay, late July, August, September time, and things had moved on without you, I would think I maybe would have liked to have done it.
“The holiday I had lasted about 15 minutes, I think. It was like five days ago since we won.
“But all of that will change. We will get pre-season. We will try to get a couple of players into augment the squad and try to get going.”
Turning back the clock, O’Neill recalled the style of the team when he originally arrived as Celtic gaffer in June 2000 and said: “I thought the side we had 25 years ago, played very quickly, with a dash, a lot of very fine players.
“When we have possession of the ball we’d like to keep it, but I’d like us to keep the ball with a purpose, and that is breaking down defences.
“A lot of teams at the World Cup have struggled to break down teams, look at England, and they have loads of great footballers in their team.”
Acknowledging that Celtic came so close to relinquishing their title during an often-stormy campaign, O’Neill continued: “In terms of history, let’s say in 50/60 years, people will look and think: ‘They won it by a couple of points.’
“I think for the younger supporter at Celtic it was a really big thing.
“This was a real wake-up call for the football club and maybe for the younger supporter.
“The older supporters maybe like myself will probably feel that was really terrific, but as far as the younger support they will maybe think: ‘Celtic can make mistakes’.
“I think Rangers will get stronger and Hearts won’t go down without a fight, no doubt about that.
“Every single time you give the team the respect they must deserve, but I think teams were getting closer than ever before.”
Celtic, under Brendan Rodgers, failed to overcome the Kazakhstan unknowns of Kairat Almaty in the qualifying stages to miss out on the Champions League last time out.
Images courtesy Celtic TV.
It was an almighty blow to succumb to a team that would be hammered in seven of their eight games later on in their group encounters in Europe’s most prestigious competition.
It was scarcely believable the Hoops could not score a solitary goal in three-and-a-half hours of football against minnows before missing three penalty-kicks in the shoot-out to make an embarrassing exit.
O’Neill added: “Not making it into the Champions League carried over into league games. Malaise is far too strong a word, but it carried over into everything.
“We fell down a little bit, but we raised it a bit and this tie that we will be in, no matter who they will be, becomes so important.
“But you only belong if you get there.”
The first Champions League play-off game is due on Tuesday, August 18.
There is much work to be done by O’Neill and Co before that test presents itself.
