Almost 20 years after last being immersed in Glasgow’s unique sporting conflict, Martin O’Neill has a confession to make.
‘I have to say, for my five years there, I was obsessed with Rangers,’ he confides.
‘For instance, if we were playing on a Sunday, you knew that Rangers dropping points away from home on the Saturday was vital.
‘The number of times that on the Saturday, after we’d finished our training and before meeting at the hotel, I would be driving around, listening to the last 25 minutes of the game at Ibrox.
‘If it was still a draw at the time, I’d say, oh please, just wrap it up now, wrap it up now.
‘If you switched it off and you came back on again, you just knew from the crowd that they’d scored.
Martin O’Neill quickly got into the spirit of life in the Glasgow goldfish bowl
O’Neill’s introduction to Old Firm combat came in a scarcely believable 6-2 win for Celtic
O’Neill’s admits now he was ‘scared’ of his Old Firm adversary across the city, Dick Advocaat
‘It was wild. Honestly, I did that until my wife told me: ‘Catch yourself on, you can’t influence a game over there at Ibrox”. But it was like that.’
Born in Kilrea in Northern Ireland, O’Neill grew up a Celtic supporter. He recalls watching the 1967 European Cup final in Lisbon on a black and white telly while a boarder at St Columb’s College in Derry.
And yet, when it came to the significance of Old Firm games in the eyes of supporters, he now freely admits he arrived in Glasgow with something to learn about them.
‘Early on in my tenure, I genuinely thought that even if we lost the four games against Rangers and won the league, that would satisfy the Celtic fans,’ he explains.
‘I was at a function at a social club in Perth and I was told, “No, no, it’s not on the agenda”.
‘I was well and truly censured and I never ventured that opinion after that again.’
His first experience of facing Rangers is enshrined in Parkhead folklore.
Chris Sutton celebrates scoring in that 2000 derby that sent shockwaves through football
Three goals up inside 11 minutes on August 27, 2000, his side won a pulsating match 6-2 to send shockwaves through Scottish football.
For a club that had been in perpetual crisis before he arrived, it was a seminal moment.
His attempt to immediately dampen expectations by insisting Rangers were still ‘the benchmark’ was viewed by many observers as a public front, but he maintains to this day that his words were sincere.
‘I thought Rangers were the benchmark for the very obvious reason they were miles clear of Celtic,’ he says. ‘They finished 21 points ahead the previous year and they had really good players.
‘I remember Dick (Advocaat) saying when he signed about five lads from the leagues here, he said: “This is my league team — my European Cup team is elsewhere”.
‘I thought, oh, good Lord. So, that was kind of scary at the time. He did scare me.’
Paul Lambert scores Celtic’s third goal, inside 11 minutes no less, in O’Neill’s first derby
Volatile and emotionally charged, these games can always change in an instant. Victorious in 16 of the 27 derbies he was involved in, O’Neill contends that the feeling he had after those prized wins was like nothing else he’d experienced in football.
‘Walter Smith said this to me way back, that it was relief,’ he continues. ‘Honestly, in equal measure, I think euphoria and relief hit you at the same time.
‘Pleased that it’s over because the build-up has been almost the complete week. But if you’ve got a result then, yeah, absolutely, you are on cloud nine.’
A generation on, Celtic supporters have grown accustomed to that lofty position. They’ve known defeat only once in the past dozen meetings and even then, that 3-0 loss at Ibrox in 2023 came after they’d wrapped up the title under Ange Postecoglou.
Philippe Clement clearly can’t be held entirely responsible for Rangers’ poor record in the fixture over the past decade, yet his four-game winless run going into Sunday is inescapable.
O’Neill, who presided over seven straight derby wins at one point, believes winning and losing are both hard habits to break.
O’Neill enjoyed many dugouts jousts with McLeish, winning 17 of 28 encounters against him
‘Very much so. Absolutely. And you have to overcome that,’ he insists.
‘And what happens is that, whether you like it or not, that stat is churned out for you just before the game and in the week building up to it.
‘You haven’t done it, you haven’t done it. And you know yourself, you have to change that.’
With home advantage and no Rangers fans present on Sunday, Brendan Rodgers’ side naturally start as favourites. The one inscrutable aspect in the build-up is the possibility of either side making late additions to their squads before the transfer window closes. Would O’Neill advocate baptisms of fire?
‘It’s very difficult,’ he stresses. ‘I had guys like Alan Thompson who got himself sent off (in a 2-0 loss at Ibrox in November, 2004), albeit (Peter) Lovenkrands went down so easily.
‘So, some boys learned relatively quickly and others didn’t. But, overall, I think once they had participated in their first game, they realised the significance of it.
Philippe Clement is winless from his four derbies to date, and the pressure is on to end that run
‘If anyone is making their debut on Sunday, I think that you would have to gen those boys up in the 48 hours beforehand.’
Rangers could certainly do with a couple of opposing debutants struggling with the occasion. Across two spells, Rodgers has been the master of this fixture, chalking up 14 wins and three draws from 18 matches.
Notwithstanding the fact there will still be three league clashes to come this season, an extension of that sequence this weekend would feel ominous.
‘It would be a massive step for Celtic to win on Sunday, even at this early stage,’ says O’Neill. ‘Psychologically, Rangers have lots to overcome at this minute.
‘What is it? One victory in the last 12 or something? No matter how unlucky you can be, and you can point to the fact that they didn’t do badly in the cup final and things like this here, but it’s another defeat.
‘It starts to play with your mind. There’s no question about it.
‘You have to overcome that. And if they lose on Sunday, it’s, you know, it’s not disaster because it’s so early in the season. But it’s a psychological blow again. Brendan’s record in this game is really good.’
Martin O’Neill and Graeme Souness were guests on The Warm-Up, the essential William Hill SPFL preview show.
