Martin O’Neill reveals he was given only ‘10 minutes’ to decide on Celtic return

Martin O’Neill says he was give “10 minutes to make his mind up” on if he would return to Celtic after Brendan Rodgers’ sudden resignation on Monday night.

Over two decades on from his first stint as Hoops manager, the 73-year-old takes charge on an interim basis alongside former player Shaun Maloney.

Describing his current feelings as a “nervous excitement”, his first assignment will be against Falkirk on Wednesday before renewing Old Firm hostilities with Rangers on Sunday in a pivotal League Cup semi-final.

The extent of the breakdown in Rodgers' relationship with Dermot Desmond was revealed in a scathing statement from the principal shareholder, but O'Neill clearly felt a sense of duty to the Irish businessman when he answered his call, agreeing to a comeback requested by the man who first gave him the manager’s job at Parkhead 24 years ago.

"I sometimes wondered throughout my career whether I ever really, really enjoyed it," O’Neill said, whose tenured managerial career seen him take charge of clubs including Aston Villa, Sunderland and Leicester. "And I'm probably too miserable to enjoy it. But now, at this ripe old age, I'm going to try and enjoy it.

"But the only way I will do, the only way I've ever lived it, is really by trying to win football matches.

"So from that viewpoint, I had no... well, I say no hesitation. I was given only 10 minutes to make my mind up. And so I had to do it in that time. So I'm fine with it.

"I go back to someone who actually gave me the job in the first place a way back 25 years ago, when in all honesty, at that stage, there were a lot of big, big names, bigger names than myself, in for that job. And it was a real honour to manage the football club. And so from that viewpoint, I'm fine."

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"People had been taken aback by that. I assumed nothing would happen until the end of the season for anybody. I was asked if I'd come in and hold proceedings until they found a permanent manager. I had 10 minutes to make up my mind, which I did."

O’Neill stressed that his involvement with Celtic would purely be temporary and admitted he might be back out of a job on Thursday if Celtic cannot beat Scottish Premiership new boys Falkirk in his first game back.

"They could have a new manager in two weeks' time," he said. "If we don't win on Wednesday evening, we might have a new manager on Thursday.

"So I don't know, and that's not great news for Shaun to hear, because he was hoping I'd be around for a month.

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"Celtic will be looking for a young manager to come in with a very, very decent CV."

Maloney, formerly a player and manager of Wigan Athletic, also insisted that a permanent role at Parkhead was not on his radar, having been temporarily promoted from his role as player pathways manager.

"I came back here in a role really with the board, and then Brendan," he said.

"So at this present time, no. I'm going to try my best to support Martin and the players but I'm very similar to Martin, to be interim and then I'll go back to my role."

Additional reporting from PA