Martin O'Neill has admitted his bombshell over his Celtic future was said in the heat of the moment, and he has now lifted the lid on the emotional decision that briefly threatened to end his second spell in charge.
Three weeks ago, the 74-year-old was contemplating walking away after three straight defeats, capped by another Old Firm flop. But within 24 hours, his mind was made up: he was going nowhere. Abandoning Celtic at such a crucial stage of the season was never going to sit right with the club legend.
Family urged him to stay
O'Neill said: "I think you take a moment. I genuinely think this, not completely convinced, but had there been no break then I probably wouldn't even have given it a thought. But you know, time to reflect, having a wee bit of time, but it wasn't even that, it was almost within 24 hours."
"It's almost, you felt as if you're walking away from something here, well that doesn't look great, you know, it feels as if you've kind of given up. It was probably a moment of weakness, which I've got plenty of. But the overall thing was, I wanted to continue."
He added: "I didn't consult too many people, family obviously, they did want me to continue anyway, regardless, they just wanted to see me working I think. But yeah, it wasn't that long."
Board backed the boss
O'Neill's admission after the 1-0 defeat to Rangers sent shockwaves through the Hoops support and probably the boardroom. While some punters may have welcomed a change in the dugout, Parkhead chiefs were never going to force the issue. The final decision was always going to be O'Neill's.
He said: "Regardless of what had happened in the past, I think it doesn't really matter, you're only as good as your last game. And that's something I've kept in management all my time. So why should it be different for me? And it's not."
"But no, I think the members of the board wanted me to continue and hadn't thought about it any other way. I think they might even have been a bit surprised at me reflecting in that. I think that was the case."
"Do I regret saying what I said? It wouldn't be the first time I've regretted saying something, as you can well tell. So, yeah, I probably wouldn't disagree with you. And I don't think I would have said it if there had been no international break. And that was just the culmination of the week that we had had."
Nine games in 28 days ahead
Having masterminded a dramatic title comeback last season, O'Neill remains convinced the problems are fixable. Now, he faces nine games in 28 days that could define the weeks ahead.
He said: "Oh, of course, of course I do. Absolutely. I think they can be fixed. I think there's a long way to go in the season. I think there'll be lots of twists and turns again."
"Rangers, obviously, physically very strong, and they've spent a lot of money in the transfer market. And they're reaping the rewards of that at this minute. So far, yeah. And Hearts, you would never rule out that they are still very combative."
"I still think there's lots to play for. We've got a really hectic schedule ahead of us now at this minute. That can be good. And maybe that's the reason that I wanted other clubs to be involved in European football, so that they didn't have the advantage of a whole week without playing. But listen, we treat the games that they come. We've got that, we've got Benfica, and then we've got Hearts. So, that's one week ahead of us."
Celtic's style of play has also come under fire, with Cameron Carter-Vickers claiming that O'Neill's side were playing "too random" and lacked tactical clarity. But O'Neill defended his approach, referencing the final game of last season against Hearts.
He said: "I don't know about clarity. Clarity is listening. I think that a reasonable command of the English language for people who understand English to be able to have a clear view of what we're saying, what we're doing."
"The interesting thing is that sometimes you maybe change the structure without knowing. I have to remind that in the most important game of the season last year, as it turns out, it was the last one against Hearts, where we are pressing and pressing and pressing for the final goal to win the game."
"We hit the post, we do all these things. We have to gamble, we have to get some extra player on the field in a forward position. So we go three at the back. We never practised three at the back. But we won. We won the biggest game of the season. And we did it for the last 15 or 20 minutes of the game."
"I might even say that there might even have been a player to come off at the end of that there who might not even know we played. So that's my point. You've got to be ready. And I've been involved in management a long time now, where we have changed systems and we've come up with trumps and winning games. And I've also changed systems where we haven't, where we've been beaten."
"But I'd like to think over my time in management that it has worked more often than it hasn't done. So I don't accept that point."
