Martin O'Neill: The Biography

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O’Neill also helped to give some good young players their first steps. Kennedy and Marshall outstanding at the Nou Camp, Liam Miller’s (ultimately brief) purple patch, before he got snatched by old purple nose, McManus and McGeady both made debuts, while the likes of Jamie Smith, Ross Wallace and Craig Beattie all looked like they had something to offer. However, over time, excluding McGeady none of them have hit the major heights, but they mostly all had good solid careers at a decent level. Understandably his priority was his family, and with hindsight the club should have managed things differently to work as best as possible in the circumstances but then again who wanted to lose Martin O’Neill? The club tried to accommodate him as best as anyone could. Your work is nostalgic in style and very ‘hands on’ in the creating process, do you think there is a resurgence in this type of work given the predominant digital age we are in? An important incident from this season showed the greatest aspect of Martin O’Neill. This was when at the end of a game v Rangers ( link), he took midfielder Neil Lennon over to the Celtic fans and proudly paraded him shoulder-to-shoulder after Lennon was racially & verbally abused for the 90mins by the Rangers fans.

Martin O’Neil supporting Neil Lennon after the torrent of racial abuse he had to suffer after a game v Rangers (Nov 04) Trademark: after any major Celtic goal, he had a famous habit of jumping in the air with his fists raised. A little humorous but illustrated his wonderful character and emotion to all. April: Celtic secure the Scottish Premier League title. May: Celtic are beaten in the Scottish Cup final by Rangers. On the penultimate day of college I went up to the Illustration department with a suitcase of collages and had a chat with Illustrator / tutor Jo Hassell. She gave me a list of Design agencies, publishers, ad agencies and said ‘Go see them. They’d love your stuff.’ They included Penguin, Legas Delaney, Vaughan Oliver and the lads at Tomato. I made it my mission to show them my work in person, which I did, over a year or so.

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Makes international debut as a substitute against USSR. Joins Nottingham Forest from Distillery in October. O’Neill is effusive in his praise of Keane, who has not managed since departing Ipswich in 2011. Bert Johnson, O’Neill’s youth coach at Forest, imparted advice which he believes applies to Keane. “You get a reputation in life for being an early riser and you can lie in bed all day,” he says. One theory that has been spun about Martin O’Neill on why he was such a good manager is because he was an avid legal eagle, having done a law degree and that it was in the family and so on. There is some truth in it but it has been way over-blown.

Graham Rawle is a writer, artist, and designer. He has produced regular series which include ‘Lying Doggo’ and ‘Graham Rawle’s Wonder Quiz’ for The Observer and ‘When Words Collide’ and ‘Pardon Mrs. Arden’ for The Sunday Telegraph Magazine and ‘Bright Ideas’ for The Times. He is a Visiting Professor in Illustration at the Norwich University of the Arts where in 2012 he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate for services to design. He lives in London. May: Celtic lose 2-1 at Motherwell and O’Neill’s hopes of a fourth title in five years disappear as Rangers win 1-0 at Hibernian. 25May: Club announce O’Neill will step down after Scottish Cup final to look after his wife. 28May: Ends career at Celtic with 1-0 win over Dundee United in Scottish Cup final.After a period out, Martin O’Neill took on the manager’s role at Aston Villa, with his biggest success being on taking over Petrov from Celtic down to the club. Martin O’Neill’s time at the club was mixed and he left after a few seasons. The UEFA Cup is not just one notch up from what we’re used to, we are talking about four or five notches.” What is special is the atmosphere created by the 60,000 people who gather here every second weekend. It’s almost like a shrine.” May – Leicester finish eighth in the Premiership, their highest placing, and qualify for the UEFA Cup. I was obsessed with graffiti & art when I was at school, mates in my class said I should ‘be an artist’, I went through all the hoops and found myself on a graphic design & printmaking BA in 1992. I had a collage epiphany in a paper recycling centre in Germany in ‘93 which fed 2 years of experimental collage and printmaking. Then I kind of fell off the end of the course with no direction or training on how to make a living in the art/design world, but I was making a lot of work everyone on my course seemed to love.

The penultimate challenge in the semi-finals was against Boavista; a tough set of matches which saw Celtic come from behind (in aggregate terms) to win and make it to the final (overcoming much of the opposition’s antics). It was a nervy affair, but it was thanks to Larsson’s late winner that Celtic got through. Martin O’Neill was there all the way, and with his team had overcome all challenges to get to the final. After 285 league appearances for Forest, with 48 goals, joins Norwich in February for the first of two spells as a player at Carrow Road. After 11 league appearances (one goal), transfers to Manchester City.The Champions League run was a big disappointment as Celtic finished bottom of the group for the first time. If results had gone a bit differently in the last round Celtic could have gone 3rd and into the UEFA cup, but there’s a point where Celtic should be thinking beyond that. Didn’t help that Celtic had to face Larsson’s Barcelona in the group stages, and as expected he scored against Celtic at Parkhead (but didn’t celebrate his goal). In any case, the best moment was seeing the First Team go away to Barcelona for the second time in two years and again come away unbeaten, this time with a one each draw. Fabulous, but more of a “ What if?” situation.

Nottingham Forest made history at home and abroad without those involved ever knowing how fabled their run was. “You were on this ride,” O’Neill says. “You are going to West Ham and expecting to win, whereas the previous year trying to beat Bristol Rovers was a struggle. I don’t think we realised it was special until it was over. The night we lost to the Bulgarians [CSKA Sofia in 1980] in the European Cup, you thought: ‘Wow, that’s it.’ During the five years we [Celtic] played everyone to be perfectly honest – and many a time we played referees an’ all.” He has worked as an illustrator and artist for two decades and regularly exhibits his personal collages, sketchbooks, and prints. He is also a visiting lecturer across the UK. Martin lives and works on England’s South East coast with his wife and two daughters. From an extract from Neil Lennon’s autobiography, (Lennon, Neil (2006) Neil Lennon: Man and Bhoy. HarperSport, ISBN-10: 0007233477) which describes gaffer Martin O’Neill’s famously inspirational speech at Anfield prior to the game.

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Wycombe win GM Vauxhall Conference title to achieve promotion to the Football League and clinch another FA Trophy success. An interesting anecdote from Matt McGlone (ex-Celtic View columnist) on Martin O’Neill highlighted his level of involvement at all levels. After a critical article by McGlone on the first team after losing 5-1 to Rangers, Martin O’Neill stormed in to see Matt McGlone and castigate him over the article. According to McGlone, Martin O’Neill was comprehensive in his role at Celtic and had a view and look at everything going on, and ensured that all was well set-up as he required for his players benefit. An important point that highlights just how thorough Martin O’Neill was, and it played a part to transform the team and club environment to get the foundations laid for future success. January: Signs new 12-month rolling contract. March: Celtic beaten 2-1 by Rangers in CIS Cup final. May: Celtic lose 3-2 in extra-time to Porto in the Uefa Cup final in Seville. Celtic lose SPL title to Rangers on thrilling final day.