Celtic were written off for the title but magic man Martin just finds a way to win
EX-IRISH STRIKER COYLE BACKS O’NEILL FOR HOOPS GIG
What Dermot wanted, Dermot didn’t get on that occasion, even though he’s listed as a person “with significant control” on Celtic’s correspondence with London Stock Exchange.
Seventeen years on, Coyle still declines to say what happened to make him stay with Burnley, the club he had taken into the Premier League via a play-off final against Sheffield United at Wembley.
And reject the offer to join the club he had supported since his childhood in the Gorbals district of Glasgow
But what Coyle is willing to say in public is Celtic’s principal shareholder should give Martin O’Neill another season to lead the club for whom he has just won a dramatic Double.
And Coyle can draw on his own wealth of managerial experience to allow him to arrive at that conclusion.
He is one of only 10 Scottish managers ever to have managed more than 100 games in the Premier League,
Coyle has assembled a body of work that could yet make him an attractive proposition for clubs in the country of his birth who need a gaffer.
He went to India to work in
December 2019 and has, with a brief but eventful, stay at Queen’s Park in between, remained there ever since.
But on a brief return to Glasgow last weekend he insisted that, as he approaches his 60th birthday in July, O’Neill’s example has shown him age is only a number.
Coyle said: “I had tickets for the Scottish Cup Final between Celtic and Dunfermline.
“But it was my father-in-law John McGrory’s 80th birthday and I wanted him and his son Tony to be together at Hampden to see if
Celtic could win the Double. That was important to me and my wife Kerry.
“I thought when O’Neill came in to Celtic last October to replace Brendan Rodgers on an interim basis the club would have left him in place until the summer.
“If they had done that it would have been a Treble – not just the Double – that Celtic would have won. “They were dismissed as possible champions at one stage but Martin always finds a way to win.
“He is the original safe pair of hands and has provided a bridge between the fans and the boardroom at a time when the supporters have had their fair share of grievances.”
It remains to be seen if Desmond (below) will give O’Neill the chance to stay in charge, or if the 74-yearold will want to continue in such a demanding job.
But Coyle hopes he does and when it comes to the summer rebuild, he said: “That’s a subject Martin can address over the course of the next year and it won’t faze him in the slightest.
“Recruitment is the key element at any club and Martin has Shaun Maloney to assist him in that regard.
“I remember Sir Alex Ferguson once saying to me: ‘You’ll never get every signing right but if you get seven out of 10 to work then you’ll be doing well.’”
Coyle is coy when it comes to discussing just how close he became to being manager of Celtic and too long in the tooth to publicly say he should be worthy of consideration for the vacancy at Fir Park.
There was a conversation with Desmond, the details of which Coyle insists on keeping close to his chest. He said: “I have a good relationship with Dermot and spoke to him a couple of years ago at a European night at Celtic Park. We’re fine.
“What happened then is part of my story and there are some things I reserve the right to keep to myself.”