The relationship between O’Neill and the Irish football media during a five-year international tenure remains a source of fascination. We shall return to that later. It would be unfair, as some have suggested, to depict O’Neill’s memoir as a score-settling exercise. Yes, there is occasionally acerbic comment – one would surely expect no less – but an extraordinary career which scaled playing heights under Brian Clough before touching managerial greatness at Celtic and Leicester is depicted with an entertaining tone. There is self-deprecation throughout. I was obsessed with graffiti & art when I was at school, mates in my class said I should ‘be an artist’, I went through all the hoops and found myself on a graphic design & printmaking BA in 1992. I had a collage epiphany in a paper recycling centre in Germany in ‘93 which fed 2 years of experimental collage and printmaking. Then I kind of fell off the end of the course with no direction or training on how to make a living in the art/design world, but I was making a lot of work everyone on my course seemed to love.

The Champions League run was a big disappointment as Celtic finished bottom of the group for the first time. If results had gone a bit differently in the last round Celtic could have gone 3rd and into the UEFA cup, but there’s a point where Celtic should be thinking beyond that. Didn’t help that Celtic had to face Larsson’s Barcelona in the group stages, and as expected he scored against Celtic at Parkhead (but didn’t celebrate his goal). In any case, the best moment was seeing the First Team go away to Barcelona for the second time in two years and again come away unbeaten, this time with a one each draw. Fabulous, but more of a “ What if?” situation. The UEFA Cup is not just one notch up from what we’re used to, we are talking about four or five notches.” February – In quiet he is approached by Dermot Desmond and sounded out about becoming Manager at Celtic. Rejects offer. Leads Leicester to their third Worthington Cup final in four years after a 1-0 aggregate win over Aston Villa in the semi-finals. Nottingham Forest made history at home and abroad without those involved ever knowing how fabled their run was. “You were on this ride,” O’Neill says. “You are going to West Ham and expecting to win, whereas the previous year trying to beat Bristol Rovers was a struggle. I don’t think we realised it was special until it was over. The night we lost to the Bulgarians [CSKA Sofia in 1980] in the European Cup, you thought: ‘Wow, that’s it.’ My work was ‘fine arty abstract collage’ at that point, I hadn’t ever illustrated anything. I didn’t really know if I’d be able to make great collages with specific subject matter at short notice – with my relatively small archive of material, (and no internet at that time of course) but it all started there. I launched into commercial art and in a few months started calling myself an ‘Illustrator’. It took a while to learn how to successfully answer a brief though.September – O’Neill gives his support to club chairman John Elsom in the wake of the Filbert Street power struggle. I’ve honestly missed it so much. Seriously. My wife, who hated every place she’d been to in her life, absolutely loved it in Scotland. If she ever goes to heaven – which she won’t – she’d complain about that as well…But she loved it here and I was the same. It was great. You’d wake up and look out the window and not know if it was June or October. But that didn’t matter to us coming from Northern Ireland.” Double European Cup winner as a player with Nottingham Forest, playing under legendary Brian Clough. Makes international debut as a substitute against USSR. Joins Nottingham Forest from Distillery in October. December – Angrily dismisses reports he is on the verge of quitting Leicester for a bigger club. Rules himself out of Everton job.

O’Neill is effusive in his praise of Keane, who has not managed since departing Ipswich in 2011. Bert Johnson, O’Neill’s youth coach at Forest, imparted advice which he believes applies to Keane. “You get a reputation in life for being an early riser and you can lie in bed all day,” he says. From an extract from Neil Lennon’s autobiography, (Lennon, Neil (2006) Neil Lennon: Man and Bhoy. HarperSport, ISBN-10: 0007233477) which describes gaffer Martin O’Neill’s famously inspirational speech at Anfield prior to the game. A consistant source of inspiration is finding things on the floor.And that can be that of a beach, a fleamarket or a pub. He later wrote his own well-received autobiography, and in 2023 he was given the honour to bring the Scottish League trophy onto the pitch to be presented to Celtic manager Ange Postecoglu on the presentation day at the end of the season.Martin O’Neil supporting Neil Lennon after the torrent of racial abuse he had to suffer after a game v Rangers (Nov 04) The football was generally poorer than what the support had become accustomed to (during his tenure) in this last season and Hartson was way overweight, overpaid and over here. Hartson scored a number of goals but was in a really poor state for a professional footballer. Add in that replacing Larsson was never going to be easy, Martin O’Neill did not find a good replacement in Camara. Bringing in Brazilian playmaker Juninho also didn’t work out either, and criticisms resurfaced questioning Martin O’Neill’s ability to handle flare players (resurrecting criticisms some unfairly made of him with respect to Lubo).

Wycombe win GM Vauxhall Conference title to achieve promotion to the Football League and clinch another FA Trophy success.

January: Signs new 12-month rolling contract. March: Celtic beaten 2-1 by Rangers in CIS Cup final. May: Celtic lose 3-2 in extra-time to Porto in the Uefa Cup final in Seville. Celtic lose SPL title to Rangers on thrilling final day. In effect, his time as a manager of a major club was now over despite his protests to the contrary. Chasing past glories and being a hostage to hope & nostalgia is never a successful plan to manage any side. Nevertheless, he has been known to have a keen fascination for legal stories, and has remained an avid follower of criminology, having attended some of Britain’s most infamous trials including that of the Yorkshire Ripper. His fascination apparently began with the James Hanratty case of 1961, and he has been said to take his family on legal trail hunts for his personal interest. What is special is the atmosphere created by the 60,000 people who gather here every second weekend. It’s almost like a shrine.”

An important incident from this season showed the greatest aspect of Martin O’Neill. This was when at the end of a game v Rangers ( link), he took midfielder Neil Lennon over to the Celtic fans and proudly paraded him shoulder-to-shoulder after Lennon was racially & verbally abused for the 90mins by the Rangers fans. From 2001-2004, Celtic remained undefeated at home until Aberdeen won in Apr 2004. A remarkable record under Martin O’Neill. When Martin O’Neill arrived at Celtic, there wasn’t a relatively huge crowd to greet him, nor was there the usual overblown fanfare you would normally get with any new incumbent at the helm of a club of Celtic’s size. There was a fairly large crowd of people welcoming him, but truth be told expectations were conservative.

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March – O’Neill’s long-term future remains unresolved after the club denied reports he is set to sign new contract. The glory moments are something none of the support will ever forget, and he will forever be a Celtic man first & foremost.