Agathe grateful to have been in right place at right time
Former Celtic wide player recalls playing under O’Neill, his man management and the UEFA Cup final loss
T is 9pm local time in Bangkok and Didier Agathe has just answered the phone. He enjoys living peacefully with his family in the Thai capital but has admittedly lost a few yards of pace from when he marauded down the right wing under Martin O’Neill in the early 2000s.
“To be honest, I was looking for this kind of life because I wanted my children and my family to come here with me because the quality of life is very good, and then obviously the weather also is different from Scotland,” Agathe says.
To this day, Agathe remains one of the greatest value-for-money signings in Celtic’s history.
Bought for a mere £50,000 from Hibernian in January 2001, he went on to make almost 200 appearances in green-and-white hoops, winning three Scottish league titles, as many Scottish Cups, and two League Cups.
He was also part of the side that reached the 2003 UEFA Cup final in Seville, painfully losing to Porto 3-2 after extra time.
Agathe’s story is one of endurance. At just 19, he was told by a doctor in Montpellier, France, that he should not play football because he had next to no cartilage in his knees. Still, that did not stop the wide-man rising to the top.
In life and in football, you just sometimes have to be in the right place at the right time. For Agathe, that was Easter Road in August 2000.
Making just his third appearance since signing for the Leith club, Agathe scored twice in a 5-1 win over Dundee.
Then-Celtic manager O’Neill was in the stands to scout goalkeeper
Rab Douglas. He ultimately killed two birds with one stone, promptly securing the services of Agathe, too.
“Martin was late for the game,” Agathe says, 25 years on. “He saw one of the goals. And after the game, he called me.
“I didn’t believe him. My English was still very poor. At the time it was very, very bad. So I put the phone down.
“Then he called me back. And the day after I was at Celtic, I negotiated my contract with him. Amazing.
“I think sometimes life is very funny. You need to be in a certain place, and Martin was the right manager for me.”
Agathe initially failed his Celtic medical. But O’Neill overruled the conditioning staff and forced the transfer through.
It bore significant fruit, with Agathe enjoying a career most youngsters from his native Reunion Island could only dream of.
Reaching the 2003 UEFA Cup final was the apex. That said, over two decades on, the disappointment lingers.
Jose Mourinho’s Porto won in the searing Seville heat. Agathe believes Celtic’s declining energy was a key reason for their narrow defeat, with a tight title race – which Rangers ultimately edged by a solitary goal – weighing heavily on their minds at the time.
“I still believe we had a lack of energy,” Agathe said. “A few years after, when I met Deco at Chelsea, he mentioned to me that they [Porto] had time to prepare for this game.
“I think Mourinho gave each of them the DVD of the player, the direct opponent, so they knew exactly how to play. They prepared for the game well.
“I think because we didn’t win the league and we still had something to prove in the league, we arrived at this game not fresh like we should
I’m not surprised at all when he can put people together and make you believe you can achieve something big. That’s Martin
have been, and we felt that during the game.
“It’s a big disappointment for me because with the team we had, we knew we could do something. But after this, knowing Mourinho and what he achieved after with his team, they won the Champions League the next season, so we lost to a good team.”
Agathe is no stranger to the Champions League. One of his greatest performances in a Celtic jersey came in August 2001 against Ajax as O’Neill’s side qualified for the tournament for the first time since its rebranding in 1998.
Agathe scored one goal and set up another in Amsterdam, haring down the right-hand side all night long.
“This game was very special because it was for qualification for the Champions League,” Agathe said. “When we went to this night, the belief was so high, very high for each player that we believed we could beat them away.
“And that is a big surprise because people didn’t expect Celtic to win against Ajax away and we did it.”
There are not many footballers who know O’Neill better than Agathe. All but four of his 181 Celtic appearances came under the Northern Irishman, who also signed him at Aston Villa in 2006.
“Martin never worked on tactics with his team,” Agathe revealed. “We played 3-5-2. He assumed that you’re a professional player, you should know what to do on the pitch.
“He makes you believe that you play for himself, for Martin.
“Martin never came to training and said, ‘Okay, now we’re going to play like this, do this’. Never, never, never. And the speech before the game was not more than three minutes. Because he knows the players lose focus after this.”
You would struggle to find a player with a bad word to say about O’Neill. The current Celtic squad rave about his motivational methods.
But he often keeps himself to himself. Throughout last season, O’Neill lived in a hotel in Glasgow.
“It’s very difficult to understand the man himself,” admits Agathe. “We tried to understand the manager all the time to see if he’s angry or not. Martin hides everything, you don’t know him really.
“But one thing I know about him is every time at Sunday at 9pm, I went to the church and he was there, he was at the church. So I know he was a fervent Catholic at the time. So I believe that deep inside he’s got principles.
“So probably the man management for him was also part of him. The player to consider, the kitman, to the cleaner, to the chef in the restaurant, the same way. You’re not bigger than them.
“Then because of this, he managed to put everyone together in the club. And it’s why he’s very good at winning, because he gives the belief to everyone who is around him.”
More than 20 years on, those same methods that kick-started Celtic’s current era of domestic dominance remain highly effective. When O’Neill returned to the Parkhead dugout last October, eyebrows were raised across the footballing world, even as far as Bangkok.
“When they called him, I was very, very surprised,” Agathe says. “I was a bit scared to be honest with you because I know he left the club with a good reputation and he achieved something great with our team.
“And I said, ‘What happens if it doesn’t work because he doesn’t choose certain players?’. But he came again and I thought, ‘He must be thinking about everything’. Because Martin, one thing I know about him, he will never take a decision easily.
“He probably sees the potential of the team. And at the end, when he won the games, I said, ‘Maybe it’s not only man management’ – because when I saw the game when they won against Motherwell at the last minute, they won two or three games like this.
“And I thought, something happens at Celtic. And winning at the last game and the last minute again, against Hearts, was also very special.
“And he deserved it. Because he’s a good man. He loves the players really. He’s not a fake. He’s really like this. It’s part of him. So I’m not surprised at all when he can put people together and make you believe that you can achieve something big. That’s Martin.”
AFTER leading Celtic to the double, it was little surprise that the club sought to make O’Neill their permanent manager once again. He agreed a one-year deal, with the option of a further 12 months.
Younger coaches like Robbie Keane and Craig Bellamy were also linked with the job. To Agathe, though, age is just a number.
“Now you think, ‘Oh, we need a young manager. Oh, we need science in the sport. We need many, many new things, new technology’. But the game of football stays the game of football,” he says.
“We need to win it. And I think we’re dealing with people and Martin knows how to deal with people. That’s the most important thing for me. The way to talk to people, that’s Martin. He knows how to talk to people.
“And for me, that’s the most important thing. He can be 74, but if he knows how to motivate you, how to take the best out of you, he will do it. Because he knows it’s important for the club.
“So it’s not about age, it’s not about generations. Of course, football changes. We go faster, quicker, we jump higher.
“But to win the game, you need someone who knows how to talk to the players. And Martin knows how to do this. Remember, for six years I was with him – we didn’t never, ever learn about the tactics.
“So he has a way to manage his work and everyone knows since this season what he can achieve.”
Just 6,000 miles – or about 17 hours on a plane – stands between Bangkok, where Agathe now resides, and Glasgow.
They say absence makes the heart grow fonder. How true that rings with Agathe and his old gaffer.
“I lost contact with him for the last 10 years because I’m based in Bangkok. I would love to meet him. I would love to talk to him,” Agathe admits.
“I would love to come back sometime to Celtic Park, but I don’t have the same opportunity that someone who lives in Europe does. I live far from Scotland now.”
Before letting Agathe get on with the rest of his evening, one more question remains. Back in the day, he was as quick as lightning. Blink, and you would miss him. Such raw pace was pivotal on the right flank in O’Neill’s old 3-5-2 system. For speed, few could match Agathe.
Daizen Maeda, however, is rapid. Before joining Celtic, he clocked a top speed of 35 kilometres per hour in the J League.
“He looks fast, but I don’t know. Maybe I was more powerful than him,” Agathe jokes. “The problem about the speed is he’s not an athlete, he’s a footballer.
“So you just need to use the speed at the right time and you need to have a bit of technique also to help. And it’s not just about the speed.
“I need to race with him for 100 yards now to see which one is faster! I’m joking, I’m 51 now, so it’s got to be in slow motion!”
O’Neill will have an arduous task replacing Maeda this summer, never mind rebuilding a Celtic squad in need of belated surgery.
Doing so with a handful of signings in the mould of Agathe would be an ideal start.