Martin O'Neill appointed Celtic boss until the end of the season as Hoops legend called upon for a second time
The new Hoops boss has been called upon again after his previous successful interim spell.
Celtic have reappointed club legend Martin O’Neill just 34 days after he left to make way for Wilfried Nancy.
The 73-year old took over interim duties earlier on in the season following the departure of Brendan Rodgers and successfully steadied the Hoops ship during times of uncertainty, winning seven out of his eight games in charge.
When he left last month, Celtic were in a cup final, in touching distance with Hearts and had just won their first European away game in three years, but now the club are in a very different state to the way he left it. Nancy was dismissed after losing six of his eight matches in charge, including a League Cup final to St Mirren and last weekend’s Old Firm Derby at home to Rangers.
O’Neill will be accompanied by the same team which he had two months ago during his second Hoops spell, with Shaun Maloney as his right hand man as well as Mark Fotheringham and Stephen McManus. Existing coaches Gavin Strachan, Stevie Woods and Greg Wallace will also remain at the club.
O’Neill ‘looking forward to getting back to work again’
In a Celtic statement announcing O’Neill’s return, the veteran coach claimed he is ‘honoured’ to be back in the Parkhead hot-seat. The 73-year old said: “I am really pleased, in fact, very honoured to be asked back to manage the team again and I am looking forward to getting back to work again with the players.
“I know we would all have hoped for things to have worked out differently under Wilfried and I personally want to wish him good luck with everything he does in the game. He is a fine man and I am sure he will go on and achieve success again, I have no doubt of that.
“For me, I've been asked to take this great job on again and my focus will be to try and get us back to winning ways if we can. We will need everyone right behind us. We still have a lot to look forward to and a lot to try and achieve, and myself, Shaun and the coaching staff and, of course, the players will be giving everything to achieve all the success we can for the club.”
Desmond says O’Neill will give club ‘drive and direction’
Celtic’s Principal shareholder said: “I am pleased to welcome Martin back to Celtic. We know exactly what he will bring and we hope that he can do what he has done for us before, giving us that drive and direction as we move into the next part of the season. We all know about his proven track record with the club and hope he can bring us similar success going forward.
“When we appointed Wilfried to the role of manager, clearly we thought we could enjoy a successful period under his control. Unfortunately this did not work out in the way we would have liked, and while he and the club are disappointed with the recent period, I want to take this opportunity to wish him well in all he does going forward.”
Meanwhile Celtic Chief Executive Michael Nicholson added: “We are very pleased to welcome Martin back to Celtic as manager until the end of the season and we will give him and the rest of our management team every support as we address the challenges we face during the second half of the season.”