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— Martin O’Neill —
leaders
the
manager
WINTER 2011
Back in the
Just days before his appointment at Sunderland,
The Manager
met with Martin O’Neill to discuss
his career to date and reveals which managers
throughout the decades have inspired him
words
sue mckellar
PHOTOGRAPHY
henry browne/action images
It’s said that
a week is a long time
in politics. If that’s true, then those
same seven days must represent an
eternity in the world of football.
When
The Manager
sat down to talk
with Martin O’Neill he was ‘between
jobs’ and clearly keen to get back to the
dugout. Just four days later, his wish
was unexpectedly granted when he was
appointed manager of Sunderland.
O’Neill makes no secret of his
childhood allegiance to Sunderland,
but it is pedigree not sentiment that
has secured his appointment at the
helm of the Wearside club. Adept at
assembling teams built on foundations
of strong camaraderie, he brings to
Sunderland a wealth of experience
and an impressive list of honours
that includes two League Cups, three
Scottish Premier League titles, three
Scottish Cups, one Scottish League
Cup and an appearance in the UEFA
Cup final (where his Celtic side were
beaten by José Mourinho’s Porto).
In a fascinating and insightful
interview, O’Neill told us of how his
love for the game began, talked us
through the highlights of his career to
date and revealed the managers who
have inspired him over the years.
When did the football bug
first bite for you?
My earliest memory would probably
be the World Cup final of 1958. I
was very young and our family didn’t
have a television. Three houses away
from us lived the man in the village
who owned TV shops and he invited
my family to come down and watch
the World Cup final. It was an
afternoon match and the curtains
were closed so that we could see the
screen without any sunlight coming
through. A very young man called
Pelé scored a couple of goals as Brazil
beat Sweden in the final.
In 1960 Real Madrid were the
big club side of the time and one
of my older brothers, who I looked
up to greatly, had read the Puskas
autobiography which revealed that
as a kid Puskas could keep an old
tennis ball up with his feet 200 times
without dropping it. I genuinely
believed that if I could keep a tennis
ball up 200 times that I would be
as good as Puskas. To begin with it
used to fall off my foot after about
two or three goes so before my
brother headed back off to university
he said ‘when I come back for the
midterm break I want to see a real big
improvement’. Every single minute I
had that tennis ball with me; it even
went to school me. Within three
months I could keep the tennis ball
up 200 times and when he came back
from university I was able to do it.
You were studying law in Belfast
when Nottingham Forest came
calling. Was it a big decision to
drop out of university?
Interestingly for me I didn’t think
there was any decision to be made
because football was what I wanted
to do. However, my mother who
was a great believer in education and
had done everything in her power to
have all of the family educated was
less convinced and thought being
involved in law was more of a proper
job. I went from being an amateur
player for Distillery in Northern
Ireland on the Tuesday evening to a
professional by Wednesday afternoon
after Nottingham Forest paid £15,000
for me. It was a fair difference to the
lifestyle I had been used to; training
Q
“We had a
really good
time which,
to me is what
professional
football is
all about”