Caretaker manager Martin O’Neill still plans to stay at Celtic short-term, but he is open to negotiating a longer stay after leading Celtic to the Scottish League Cup final.
O’Neill and Sean Maloney followed up midweek’s win over Falkirk with a 3-1 extra-time win over 10-man Rangers at Hampden Park after being installed as interim successors to Brendan Rodgers.
Extra-time goals from Callum McGregor and Callum Osmund secured Celtic a place in the final against St Mirren on 14 December.
Callum McGregor puts Celtic ahead in extra time
Asked if he would still be in charge then, O’Neill said: “There’s no indication at this point. There’s really no indication. Absolutely not.”
“Then you would have thought that we would have Midtjylland (Europe League) on Thursday night and then Kilmarnock on Sunday, so the board will probably have time over the international break to think about something.”
Asked if he would like to lead Celtic again at Hampden next month, the 73-year-old said:
“Look, we work results-oriented and all these things can change. “In fact, I went to see Midtjylland play Nottingham Forest and they were really too good, and that was at the City Ground, and we have a game against Kilmarnock coming up on Sunday.
“So, to be honest, these games are all about the result and that will determine whether the board takes the time to think about it. If we had lost today, we might not even have seen Thursday.”
Martin O’Neill leads Celtic to first Old Firm match win in over 20 years
Asked if he would be open to talks with major shareholder Dermot Desmond, who offered him an interim role on Monday, O’Neill said: “The very obvious answer is yes, we will. But we don’t really know what will happen.”
“When I saw their game and then the international break, I thought it would give them a few weeks to think.
“I haven’t even talked to him since. In a perverse way, I’ve enjoyed these two games, but not that much.”
Callum Osmund scores Celtic’s third goal against Rangers
“Don’t get me wrong, I’m really happy to win the game. It was a really strange feeling to be in the locker room at Hampden, it was really weird, but I’m glad we won.”
“If it had been the other way around, it would have been really bad.”
Asked if he was open to staying permanently, the former Republic of Ireland manager said: “Well, I don’t think there’s any talk of that. I really don’t think it will happen.”
“I came here and deep down, maybe I was enjoying it a little bit more than I’m going to tell you, but not that much. So it was really weird.
“I’ve had a huge amount of help from the backroom staff,[Sean]Maloney, Mark Fotheringham and Stephen[McManus]. All three of those guys were managed by me at one stage or another. Heck, they’re standing next to me in the coaching ranks now.”
“Yeah, it was great. It’s a great feeling in the dressing room when you win a game like that.”
Ralston praises ‘great’ O’Neill
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Celtic defender Anthony Ralston shares his reaction to Serro Aasgaard’s red card tackle
Celtic defender Anthony Ralston praised O’Neill’s influence and said he was impressed with the Northern Irishman’s return to the hotseat after such a short period of time.
The Scotland defender said: “He’s been to this game a number of times and the rest of the coaching staff have been to this game as well, so it was great to have his knowledge.”
“And it also helped that we had some players in the dressing room and on the pitch who had as much experience of this game as well.
“So we were very calm, we were focused, we understood the job we had to do, and I felt as human beings that we did a great job today.”
“He (O’Neal) is great and funny.
“He let us know he had been playing games away for a long time which was humorous and it was great to give us the experience of being able to go out there with confidence and play our own football and have belief.
“And I think you can see that in the performance.”
Meanwhile, Ralston believed Cerro Asgord gambled during Celtic’s win over their Old Firm rivals and lost the tackle that gave the Rangers midfielder a red card.
He said, “If you go in too high and forcefully, you take a risk.
“So the boy took a risk and it didn’t work out.
“It was a game changer and we felt like we took advantage of it.”
