O'Neill wouldn't dread Old Trafford approach
By Roddy Thomson
Martin O'Neill delivered a New Year bombshell to Celtic supporters yesterday by ruling out contract extension talks this season as the clock began ticking down on his Parkhead custodianship.
O'Neill: Bookies' favourite for the biggest job in Britain
The Irishman - who is the bookmakers' favourite to replace Sir Alex Ferguson as Manchester United manager - admitted for the first time that he would be flattered to receive an official approach from Old Trafford before the end of the season. He said: 'I wouldn't dread it.'
O'Neill has just 18 months left on his deal as manager, a contract which contains no 'windows' offering clubs formal permission to negotiate with him on a move.
He insists he intends to see it out, but will not discuss prolonging his deal, at least until the present campaign is over - by which time Ferguson will have gone.
O'Neill admits his ambitions and goals have been extended since sampling the Champions League with Celtic, but the ability to compete on an equal financial footing with Europe's elite is now of paramount importance to his own career development.
While he says he would love to try it again next season regardless of the size of his signings budget, he will not anchor himself to Celtic Park.
'The end of the season will be plenty of time to look at my contract situation,' he underlined.
O'Neill has been at loggerheads with plc chairman Brian Quinn in recent months over severely curtailed transfer budgets in European terms and first-team training facilities that are scarcely a match for English Second Division clubs.
Training is presently taking place
inside a tent at their frozen Barrowfield site and O'Neill is clearly in need of major incentives if he is to decide that his professional future is to belong to Glasgow.
While he has continually stressed the need to ring-fence players nearing the Bosman zone, such as Bobby Petta, who also has just a year-and-a-half left on his deal, O'Neill insisted he does not want to talk long-term on his his own terms with his plc board.
'You can't marry the two,' he said when asked to apply the Petta logic to his own situation. 'I have had no discussions with my chairman or my board and it makes no appreciable difference to players who the boss is.
'I don't think i t 's strange that the board has not spoken to me (about extending my contract). This game is so fickle. Would I welcome an approach? I genuinely don't think about it. I concern myself first with my health.
'I signed five one-year contracts at Nottingham Forest as a player - security of employment has never bothered me. I'm happy to go along with the situation because I know the pitfalls around the corner in this game.
'Petta's deal? You wouldn't want it running into the last year - but players are worth more in the transfer market,' he said.
By Roddy Thomson
Martin O'Neill delivered a New Year bombshell to Celtic supporters yesterday by ruling out contract extension talks this season as the clock began ticking down on his Parkhead custodianship.
O'Neill: Bookies' favourite for the biggest job in Britain
The Irishman - who is the bookmakers' favourite to replace Sir Alex Ferguson as Manchester United manager - admitted for the first time that he would be flattered to receive an official approach from Old Trafford before the end of the season. He said: 'I wouldn't dread it.'
O'Neill has just 18 months left on his deal as manager, a contract which contains no 'windows' offering clubs formal permission to negotiate with him on a move.
He insists he intends to see it out, but will not discuss prolonging his deal, at least until the present campaign is over - by which time Ferguson will have gone.
O'Neill admits his ambitions and goals have been extended since sampling the Champions League with Celtic, but the ability to compete on an equal financial footing with Europe's elite is now of paramount importance to his own career development.
While he says he would love to try it again next season regardless of the size of his signings budget, he will not anchor himself to Celtic Park.
'The end of the season will be plenty of time to look at my contract situation,' he underlined.
O'Neill has been at loggerheads with plc chairman Brian Quinn in recent months over severely curtailed transfer budgets in European terms and first-team training facilities that are scarcely a match for English Second Division clubs.
Training is presently taking place
inside a tent at their frozen Barrowfield site and O'Neill is clearly in need of major incentives if he is to decide that his professional future is to belong to Glasgow.
While he has continually stressed the need to ring-fence players nearing the Bosman zone, such as Bobby Petta, who also has just a year-and-a-half left on his deal, O'Neill insisted he does not want to talk long-term on his his own terms with his plc board.
'You can't marry the two,' he said when asked to apply the Petta logic to his own situation. 'I have had no discussions with my chairman or my board and it makes no appreciable difference to players who the boss is.
'I don't think i t 's strange that the board has not spoken to me (about extending my contract). This game is so fickle. Would I welcome an approach? I genuinely don't think about it. I concern myself first with my health.
'I signed five one-year contracts at Nottingham Forest as a player - security of employment has never bothered me. I'm happy to go along with the situation because I know the pitfalls around the corner in this game.
'Petta's deal? You wouldn't want it running into the last year - but players are worth more in the transfer market,' he said.