Martin O'Neill

For information about the politician, see Martin O'Neill, Baron O'Neill of Clackmannan.

Martin Hugh Michael O'Neill, OBE, (born March 1 1952 in Kilrea, Northern Ireland) is a former Northern Ireland national football team captain who has previously managed Leicester City and Celtic and is currently manager of Aston Villa.

Early life

As well as association football, he played Gaelic football as a youth, winning the MacRory Cup in 1970 with St. Malachy's College, Belfast. While at St. Malachy's, he first came to public attention as a soccer player with local side Distillery (now Lisburn Distillery F.C.). This breached the Gaelic Athletic Association prohibition on gaelic footballers' playing "foreign sports", and the resulting disputes heightened O'Neill's profile. After completing his education at St. Columb's College, Derry, he began a degree in law at the Queen's University of Belfast. It was during this period he was spotted by a scout for Nottingham Forest F.C., for whom he signed in 1971, quitting his studies.

Playing career

O'Neill progressed slowly as a player until the legendary Brian Clough arrived at the City Ground as manager in 1975 and made him a key part of his midfield. O'Neill went on to play an integral role in Forest's golden era, in which they gained promotion to the top flight, then won the League and League Cup in 1978, followed by further League Cup success a year later and the first of two European Cup triumphs.

O'Neill was a regular for his country, captaining the Northern Ireland side at a memorable 1982 FIFA World Cup in Spain, which included defeating the host nation in Valencia. His international career attained him 62 caps. At club level he also played for Norwich City F.C. and Manchester City F.C. before retiring.

Managerial career

After his playing career O'Neill began a career in football management, initially at Grantham Town F.C. in 1987. After a brief spell at the helm of Shepshed Charterhouse, he managed non-league Wycombe Wanderers F.C., whom he took into the League in 1993 following a bad-tempered and hard-fought campaign in 1992 alongside Roy McDonough's Colchester United[1]. He later managed Norwich City but resigned on a matter of principle before he'd had a chance to make an impact.

He joined Leicester City F.C. in the second half of the 1995/96 season. He achieved great success at the club, gaining promotion via the play-offs to the Premiership in the same season as joining the club. Leicester finished in the top half of the Premiership in every season O'Neill was manager. They also won the League Cup under O'Neill in 1997 and 2000.

During his time at Leicester, O'Neill held talks to become manager of Leeds United F.C. but declined the job after thousands of supporters held up placards saying "Don't go Martin!" in an effort to make him stay.

O'Neill did eventually leave Leicester in 2000, taking over from the team of John Barnes and Kenny Dalglish to become manager of Celtic F.C. In his first season they won the treble and he guided them to the final of the 2003 UEFA Cup. In his five seasons there, he won three League titles, three Scottish Cups, and a League Cup. Leicester have twice been relegated from the Premier League since his departure.

Over his time as Celtic manager, O'Neill was nearly always linked with the vacancy whenever a manager's position became available in the English Premiership. However, on 25 May, 2005, it was announced that he was resigning as manager of Celtic at the end of season 2004/05, following Celtic's Scottish Cup Final against Dundee United F.C. on 28 May, to take time out of football in order to care for his wife Geraldine, who is battling lymphoma.

O'Neill's last competitive game in charge of Celtic was the Scottish Cup final 1-0 victory over Dundee United. The game was decided by an 11th minute goal by Alan Thompson and brought O'Neill's tally of trophies with the club to 7 matching his rival Rangers F.C. manager Alex McLeish, whose team won 2 championships, 2 Scottish Cups, and 3 League Cups during O'Neill's tenure. At Celtic he had an impressive results tally playing 282 games and winning 213, drawing 29 and lost 40.

Martin O'Neill was awarded an OBE for services to sport in 2004.

Despite never completing his degree, O'Neill remains an avid follower of criminology and has attended some of Britain's most infamous trials, including those of the Yorkshire Ripper and the Black Panther. His fascination began with the James Hanratty case of 1961.

On Friday, 23rd June 2006, Australian newspaper The Advertiser reported that Martin O'Neill was being targeted by FFA Chairman Frank Lowy as a possible candidate to replace Guus Hiddink as Socceroos manager.

In July 2006, O'Neill was linked with a possible move to the recently-vacated managerial position at Aston Villa. There was speculation that O'Neill might have become England manager, once Sven-Göran Eriksson's tenure ended after the World Cup, but Steve McClaren took the post. O'Neill recently revealed that he would have accepted the job had it been offered to him, saying "It is one of the great jobs in football. Had it been offered, then I would have been absolutely foolish to turn it down."

O'Neill had also been linked with a move to Newcastle, however that position was filled by Glenn Roeder. It was reported that after discussions with Middlesbrough over their vacant managerial post, the two parties couldn't reach an agreement, the vacancy eventually being filled by Gareth Southgate. The main reason was said to be O'Neill wanting to work only four days a week and Middlesbrough insisting on a full time manager.

He was a pundit during the BBC's coverage of the 2006 World Cup. He was responsible for perhaps the quote of the tournament with “Nobody Knows Anything”, said after the 3rd place playoff. Having correctly guessed France as one of the teams of the tournament, he put Alan Hansen to shame who had 3 picks (Argentina Brazil and England), all of whom did not make the Semifinals.[2]

O'Neill was introduced to jubilant fans and the press as the Aston Villa Manager at a press conference on 4th August 2006 and subsequently fourteen new employees were recruited from the Erdington Job Centre to cope with the demand for tickets.

Furthermore to the announcement, Dave Mears - brother of Raymond has tabled a bid of 123 Euros for Doug Ellis's slippers

External links

• BBC biography
• Grantham Town profile
• Martin O'Neill managerial statistics at soccerbase.com