O'Neill negotiations must be sorted quickly
Last updated : 20 October 2002 By Patrick O'Connell
The Bhoys boss alluded to this scenario only last week when he said he viewed his meeting with the board as no more than the start of the procedure and did not expect to be in a position to sign a new deal after one meeting. I am confident MON will stay with the club, but regardless of what he does decide to do I for one will respect his decision. After all he will have honoured his contract with us, and more importantly he has earned the respect of all Celtic fans.
To date MON has delivered two championships and only a fool would bet on him making it three in a row, with the possibility of a second success in the two domestic cups.
Having restored credibility to our club, by returning Celtic to their rightful place at the pinnacle of Scottish football, Europe continues to be a problem though. However, it should not be forgotten that we have at least taken positive steps on that front too. A record haul of points for a Scottish club in the Champions League last season and Celtic Park once more becoming a fortress against Continental opponents.
Should MON decide to leave then any replacement will find the club in a strong position both on and off the field. We have a big squad numerically and physically and we possess a superb crop of youngsters to boot. Although we do have debts, our financial position is pretty healthy and that puts us ahead of our only serious challengers on all three fronts. Having said all that it is imperative that negotiations are not allowed to drag on too long. Even a negative outcome is better than uncertainty. In the worst-case scenario I still think the team would be too professional to allow the SPL title to slip through our hands just because the manager was leaving.
But there is the problem of our shit-stirring media. They don't even need uncertainty to start linking MON with every managerial vacancy on the go. We even had to endure the recent farce them taking a 99% positive statement and seizing on the one line to spin a negative story.
You may remember O'Neill pledged his future to our club when he was being tipped to take the Leeds job (watch for that resurfacing before our trip to Legoland in December) and, from a Celtic point of view, went on to make some extremely positive noises.
Yet with the exception of the Sky Sports website every other section of the media pounced on the "nothing is forever in football" line in the statement. The media has a job to do and pages to fill but there is definitely a shit-stirring element at work when it comes to Celtic and that whole episode was proof enough of that.
We have a highly successful manager and certain journalists can't abide that fact. Which is why they have their own agenda. On one hand they laughingly suggest that Alex McLeish is O'Neill's equal but when it comes to filling vacant managerial posts big Eck's standing is such that his name is never put forward.
Nobody needs to digest that crap, but unfortunately too many people do, and to be honest we don't need it so, we have to hope the contract talks will not go on too much longer.
