Martin O’Neill’s period at Celtic is legendary of the highest order.
When O’Neill first walked into Glasgow in 2000, it was Rangers who were the dominant force, and the ten had just been stopped years earlier.
But what O’Neill achieved, including Celtic winning the Treble, has helped pave the way for the dominance of the current times because he started it all.
The 73-year-old managed some great players during his days in the Celtic Park dugout, from the King of Kings, Henrik Larsson, to the no-nonsense Neil Lennon, as well as the underrated Stiliyan Petrov.
When O’Neill left Celtic in 2005, two years later, a player who is now as highly regarded as the above trio put on the green and white colours for the first time.
But it could have happened a lot earlier, as O’Neill explains.
Photo by Mark Runnacles/Getty ImagesMartin O’Neill says he was ‘really interested’ in signing Scott Brown as the Celtic manager
Scott Brown is a cult hero at Celtic, one of the club’s best ever players, as well as captains after his trophy-laden 14-year stint in Glasgow.
The hard-hitting midfielder joined Celtic in 2007, when Gordon Strachan was in charge, but he could have arrived earlier if O’Neill had pushed forward with his initial thoughts.
Brown was at Hibernian, and O’Neill told talkSPORT that when he was still at Celtic, he was ‘really interested’ in bringing him in.
But there were two reasons why it didn’t happen.
“When I was a manager at Celtic, he was a young kid coming through at Hibs,” said O’Neill. “I was really interested in taking him, but it was going to be very hard for me.
“He was very young, and breaking through into that midfield that we had at the time was going to be difficult.
“Anyway, he ended up having a fantastic career after there at Celtic – on the field he was (fiery).”
Brown’s Celtic career in numbers
Whether Brown had come in under O’Neill, or when he did under Strachan, he still would have written his name into the legendary books like he did.
From his no-nonsense style on the pitch to the countless numbers of trophies he picked up.
Celtic captain Callum McGregor is doing an outstanding job right now, but you could argue that he needs that Brown-type or Victor Wanyama-esque player next to him, or to challenge him, especially in Europe.