New Celtic aura emerges after Brendan Rodgers impact as Martin O'Neill seeks out his Rangers nemesis
Forrest impressed by new coach but has words for Rodgers
James Forrest has witnessed a lot during his 16 years and 26 trophies as a Celtic player, yet even the events of the past week will have caught him off-guard.
Forrest thrived under the tutelage of Brendan Rodgers so watching the Northern Irishman and many of his back-room staff, including John Kennedy, walk away from the club would have been hard enough to endure.
Then there was the shock of Martin O’Neill, Celtic’s former manager of 20 years ago, making a remarkable return to Glasgow as a 73-year-old – albeit in an interim capacity.
Forrest was in the Celtic academy when O’Neill was at his pomp with the club and had never met him until Wednesday morning, when he delivered his first team talk to his new charges.
“Definitely an aura,” was Forrest’s assessment of O’Neill’s address to the playing squad. “And obviously he's still in great nick for his age as well. To be fair, he spoke really well. He spoke with us for like ten to 15 minutes in the morning of the game.
“You could just see all the boys really bought into what he was saying. Especially for me as well, knowing what he's done for the club. I’ve had really good managers, been involved with great players and stuff over the years, and that's just another one that you've been about.
“The aura, when he was in the room, when everybody was speaking, everything was properly tuned in, and that's what he deserves obviously.”
Some of my best Celtic football has been under Rodgers
It helped Forrest get over the pain of watching two people integral to his career in Rodgers and Kennedy leave the club. “I've had Rodgers two different spells now, and I've had some of my best football being under him, and what he's done for me has been great over the years,” said Forrest. “And obviously Kendo as well, I've known him for so many years, I don't think anyone at the club can say a bad word about him, I think what he's done, maybe people don't see on the outside what he does every day.
“For me as well, anything off the pitch or on it, if you ever needed, or had a problem, you could go to him and it wouldn't go anywhere as well, and I think that's big in football. So definitely sad, but these things do happen in football, and you do need to move on, but loads of great memories with them, and you can look back on it positively.”
The rewards were swift from O’Neill’s rousing address. Celtic beat Falkirk 4-0 on Wednesday to get back on track in the Premiership. It is an altogether different affair on Sunday when they take on Rangers in the semi-finals of the Premier Sports Cup.
Their last meeting at Hampden was in the final of this competition last year. Celtic prevailed on penalties after a 3-3 draw to lift the trophy. But you have to go back 14 months to the last time they overcame Rangers in 90 minutes. Forrest is aware of his team’s recent iffy form in the fixture.
Celtic v Rangers wish
“It is our biggest rival, and you don’t want to hear stats like that,” said Forrest. “You want to get positive results against your rival but these things happen.
“I think every time I have played Rangers there has always been something going into it. There has never been like a normal Celtic v Rangers game. There has been some stuff which has not happened before, like this one where both managers have been replaced in the last couple of weeks.
“It is just down to the players and staff to get together to make sure we get a positive result.”
For O’Neill, it is a return to a stadium where his first Celtic tenure came to its conclusion. He won the Scottish Cup after a 3-1 win over Dundee United, although the week before Rangers had pipped them to the league title.
It was a particularly sore outcome that stuck in the manager’s mind. “I’ve had good moments at Hampden and I’ve had bad moments,” O’Neill recalled. “In fact, Rangers beat us there one day in the Scottish Cup final, [Peter] Lovenkrands scored. I’ve tried to find out where he’s living for a number of years so I can shout ‘boo’ at him.”
O’Neill did not expect to be back at the national stadium – certainly in a managerial capacity, interim or otherwise. But while he has not been involved in an Old Firm clash for two decades, he has rarely missed one on the TV.
“Oh absolutely, I would have been tuned in to watching this game, in the house,” said O’Neill of previous plans. “It would be ridiculous for me to say that I got as passionate about it as I was as a manager, but I'd take more than a passing interest in it.
“I'm not saying that every time that Celtic are on TV I've been able to watch them. I've been doing other things. But the Celtic-Rangers game I would seldom miss.”
Now he’s back in the thick of it. What will his message be to the Celtic players this time around?
“My message would be one, remember what you are representing for a start, and two, be up to the task,” he said. “And this is a big task. But just be up to it.”
His words landed on Wednesday. What Celtic supporters would give for the same outcome on Sunday afternoon.
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