Martin O’Neill, blissfully unaware that Celtic were about to pull the ultimate flanker and haul him out of retirement and back into the dugout, had a book to sell towards the tail-end of last year.
Doing that usually involves creating a bit of a stir. Making some headlines. Saying things in public that provoke a bit of debate.
O’Neill ended up going down the road of addressing the use of data in football. He didn’t write it off completely, it has to be said. He remarked that there was a time and a place for it, although it came with certain caveats — primarily that the manager’s opinions had to be a major factor in all things.
Where he really put himself out on a limb was in addressing the focus there has been in football in recent years on the statistic of expected goals.
‘Total nonsense,’ he said in an interview with The Guardian. ‘You’ve got to remember what this game is about: winning football matches, and that means scoring goals, not recording the expectation of them.
‘It’s a clueless development. Some people just use these words to try to sound clever.’
Martin O’Neill has indicated he’d be open to staying on at Celtic, but the club needs fresh ideas
O’Neill was quizzed further on those remarks when appearing on talkSPORT in his role as a pundit. In that conversation, he expressed the view that Brian Clough and Bill Shankly wouldn’t have allowed a player missing chances to stay on the pitch based on his xG.
He also conceded, though, that bringing up the names of Clough and Shankly would see him put back in ‘the dinosaur era’. And, rightly or wrongly, it probably did.
No matter how much O’Neill may now try to argue, he has developed a reputation as someone who eschews the modern approach of facts and figures and analysis for straightforward man-management, motivation and win-at-all-costs football.
That has served him relatively well so far in his latest spell as Celtic boss. Someone making big demands of players was absolutely necessary in the wake of Wilfried Nancy’s nonsense about performance being more important than results.
O’Neill has kept Celtic in the title race when they looked like falling off a cliff, but, ahead of tomorrow’s must-win visit to Dundee, the wheels appear in danger of coming off the cart.
O’Neill’s team is disjointed. The football is rarely pleasing. The performance in losing to Dundee United last time out was atrocious. Kasper Schmeichel, meanwhile, effectively announced his retirement on telly and O’Neill knew nothing about it.
All this must be kept in mind when addressing whether the 74-year-old really should stay on at Parkhead beyond the end of this season in some kind of advisory role or suchlike.
O’Neill gave the impression on Friday that he might be interested, but it shouldn’t happen purely for sentimental reasons.
Celtic need to modernise in so many regards. The place needs rebuilt from the ground up and, if anything proves that data is a big deal in the game these days, it’s that Hearts and Jamestown Analytics are ahead of Celtic in the table despite having spent a fraction of the money.
O’Neill can ill afford another setback on Tayside after losing three times there already this term
O’Neill’s a legend. He’s kept this season alive for the defending champions.
However, they need clued-up, plugged-in individuals capable of launching them into the modern era, putting together a proper recruitment set-up and aligning the medical department along with umpteen other things.
Maybe O’Neill was playing to the crowd a little during the promotion of that book. Maybe he did develop the xG stuff as some kind of schtick.
It just doesn’t create the impression he’s the optimal choice of person to rejuvenate a tired club that desperately needs to stop living in the past.
He might still win a league title as boss. He is certainly odds-on to lift a Scottish Cup.
That, as important a figure in the club’s history as he is, would seem an ideal juncture for him to move on and leave the future to someone else.
