Celtic boss Martin O'Neill ready for 'darkened room' amid Parkhead talks as he reveals triple injury blow
O’Neill addresses immediate future at Parkhead following win over Kilmarnock
Celtic interim head coach Martin O’Neill admits he plans to spend the next few days ‘in a darkened room’ as rumours continue to swirl around the vacant managerial role at Parkhead.
Installed as caretaker boss following the resignation of Brendan Rodgers last month, the 73-year-old secured a third win since returning to the club to close to gap on leaders Hearts to seven points at the top of the Scottish Premiership table, as goals from Johnny Kenny, Kieran Tierney, Daizen Maeda, and Arne Engels sealed a comfortable 4-0 win over struggling Kilmarnock.
However, with Celtic not due to play again until November 22, the Parkhead hierarchy could use the international break as an opportunity to appoint a permanent manager, though O’Neill says he’s no closer to knowing if he will be in charge for the club’s next game against St Mirren.
“No, I genuinely don’t know [about his future]”, said O’Neill. “But if they make an announcement in, let’s say, in the next week or something about a new manager, I will take this fortnight - I was nearly going to say rather morbidly - to my grave. You never know, but it’s been fantastic.”
O’Neill was spotted at St Mirren v Hibs on Saturday - Celtic’s next two league opponents - but he admitted that fans should not read too much into that.
“I wanted to go to the game because the one thing I’ve always done here, I’ve had complete respect for opponents all the time,” he said. “You never know, if I was around, it would give me an opportunity to watch the game. So I was off with Fozzy (Mark Fotheringham). He talked the whole way through it. He knows football, he knows his stuff. I can’t believe how well he’s done in Germany and places like this here at Huddersfield. But no, that was all. I just wanted to see the game and that is my job.”
O’Neill added: “I have to go back down to London again, I’m going to go into a darkened room and come out on Thursday and say, ‘has this really happened’. So I should imagine at some stage or another during the course of the next week, whether it be tomorrow, whether it be Saturday or Sunday of next week, that somebody will let me know what’s happening.”
O’Neill also revealed that on loan left-back Marcelo Saracchi has become the club’s latest hamstring victim, with the Uruguayan taken off early in the first-half of the win in Glasgow. The on-loan defender joins Cameron Carter-Vickers, Jota, Kelechi Iheanacho, Callum Osmand, and Alistair Johnston on the treatment table, with O’Neill confirming the latter two will be forced to undergo surgery this week.
“He’s done his hamstring,” said O’Neill. He's going to be out again, and the other two lads, Johnston and Osmand, are getting surgery on Tuesday. So they're going to be out for a long time. They had to wait a little while to get a clear picture from the scan on his hamstring, and that's shown a tear as well. So, that's really sad because everybody says he's a really, really good player. Osmond needs surgery as well.”
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