WITH just two weekends remaining in the Premiership, the race for fourth place is intense but Martin O’Neill took time out a hectic fixture schedule to speak to PostSport.
The Aston Villa Manager seemed relaxed as he spoke at Adare Manor golf club ahead of the JP McManus Invitational PRO-AM in July. Shrugging off gossip surrounding his future at the Birmingham club he said, “You feel you shouldn’t deny it if there’s absolutely nothing to it, but by not denying it, it grew arms and legs”.
He said he will be speaking to his Chairman at the end of the season, as he always does, and doesn’t expect any fallout as the club are set to qualify for Europe.
He was initially asked to play in the JP McManus PRO-AM in 2000 by Celtic shareholder Dermot Desmond. “I had never played before all through my teens, twenties and thirties and I was a real embarrassment, but incredibly they asked me back for 2005”. According to the Derry man, so poor was his performance at the last event he was even blamed for a stray shot by Tipperary horse trainer Michael ‘Mouse’ Morris that injured someone in the crowd. “Some young lad in the crowd said it must have been that Martin O’Neill because he’s rubbish”.
With his sister married to a Kerry man O’Neill is well acquainted to the Mid-West and said, “I think it’s absolutely fantastic and I really enjoy coming over here”. While speaking about the possibility of mutual promotions between Aston Villa football club and Limerick city he was asked about the possibility of a pre-season friendly. He replied, “If it wasn’t this year I think it could be sometime in the future, they were talking about something in Thomond Park”.
Another Park that remains close to his and many Limerick peoples hearts is Celtic Park: “I enjoyed my time there immensely; we had some great European nights, obviously Seville in 2003 was as memorable as they come”. Unfortunately he feels that that the club cannot sustain itself in the way that it should; “In the SPL there’s not enough money around in the game for it… It’s extremely hard for them to compete with the European teams with the money just not being there”. Such revenue is available in the Premiership and O’Neill said, “It would be fantastic if Celtic or Rangers were ever able to get into the Premiership”. However he feels that there is too much opposition to such a move in England.
O’Neill described fellow Irishman Richard Dunne as one of the signings of the season. “I was absolutely thrilled that he came to us and right up to that moment I was never sure we would be able to complete it because I couldn’t believe my luck”. He believes that he would treble the £5million he paid for him now if he wanted to do so.
An aspect of O’Neill’s life that he is very proud of his link to the GAA and he spoke about it’s role in his childhood. His father was the cofounder of the local Gaelic club in Kilrea and his older brothers ended up playing for Derry. “We had a great allegiance to Gaelic and my brother came on as a sub for Derry in the All-Ireland final in 1958”
When asked if he would have played for the Republic if given the opportunity, the man who captained Northern Ireland at the 1982 World Cup in Spain said: “I’m sure if I had been born in County Cavan it would never have been a problem but the situation at that stage was straight forward”. One thing that appealed to the Villa man was the concept of an All-Ireland soccer team. “You looked across the border and you saw Liam Brady and Frank Stapleton and you thought what if we had only had those players and vice-versa”.
