Martin O'Neill
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- For information about the politician, see Martin O'Neill, Baron O'Neill of Clackmannan.
| Martin O'Neill OBE | ||
| Image:Martinoneill.jpg | ||
| Personal information | ||
|---|---|---|
| Full name | Martin Hugh Michael O'Neill | |
| Date of birth | March 1 1952 (age 57) | |
| Place of birth | Kilrea, Northern Ireland | |
| Nickname | Aston Martin | |
| Position | Manager | |
| Club information | ||
| Current club | Aston Villa | |
| Youth clubs | ||
| 1969–1971 | Derry City | |
| Professional clubs* | ||
| Years | Club | Apps (goals) |
| 1971–1981 1981 1981–1982 1982–1983 1983–1985 | Nottingham Forest Norwich City Manchester City Norwich City Notts County | 285 (48) 11 (1) 13 (0) 55 (11) 64 (5) |
| National team | ||
| 1971–1984 | Northern Ireland | 64 (8) |
| Teams managed | ||
| 1987–1989 1989–1990 1990–1995 1995 1995–2000 2000–2005 2006– | Grantham Town Shepshed Charterhouse Wycombe Wanderers Norwich City Leicester City Celtic Aston Villa | |
|
* Professional club appearances and goals | ||
Martin Hugh Michael O'Neill, OBE, (born March 1 1952 in Kilrea, Northern Ireland) is a former Northern Ireland national football team captain who has previously managed Leicester City and Celtic and is currently manager of Aston Villa.
Contents |
[edit] Early life
As well as association football, he played Gaelic football as a youth, winning the MacRory Cup in 1970 with St. Malachy's College, Belfast. While at St. Malachy's, he first came to public attention as a soccer player with local side Distillery (now Lisburn Distillery F.C.). This breached the Gaelic Athletic Association prohibition on gaelic footballers' playing "foreign sports", and the resulting disputes heightened O'Neill's profile. After completing his education at St. Columb's College, Derry, he began a degree in law at the Queen's University of Belfast. It was during this period he was spotted by a scout for Nottingham Forest F.C., for whom he signed in 1971, quitting his studies.
[edit] Playing career
O'Neill progressed slowly as a player until the legendary Brian Clough arrived at the City Ground as manager in 1975 and made him a key part of his midfield. O'Neill went on to play an integral role in Forest's golden era, in which they gained promotion to the top flight, then won the League and League Cup in 1978, followed by further League Cup success a year later and the first of two European Cup triumphs.
O'Neill was a regular for his country, captaining the Northern Ireland side at a memorable 1982 FIFA World Cup in Spain, which included defeating the host nation in Valencia. His international career attained him 62 caps. At club level he also played for Norwich City F.C. and Manchester City F.C. before retiring.
[edit] Managerial career
After his playing career, O'Neill began a career in football management, initially at Grantham Town F.C. in 1987. After a brief spell at the helm of Shepshed Charterhouse, he managed non-league Wycombe Wanderers F.C., whom he took into the League in 1993 following a bad-tempered and hard-fought campaign in 1992 alongside Roy McDonough's Colchester United[1]. He became manager of Norwich City in the summer of 1995, but left the club in December of that year due to differences with club chairman Robert Chase.
He joined Leicester City immediately after leaving Norwich. After a difficult start he achieved great success at the club, gaining promotion via the play-offs to the Premiership in the same season as joining the club. Leicester finished in the top half of the Premiership in every season O'Neill was manager. They also won the League Cup under O'Neill in 1997 and 2000.
During his time at Leicester, O'Neill held talks to become manager of Leeds United F.C. but declined the job after thousands of supporters held up placards saying "Don't go Martin!" in an effort to make him stay.
O'Neill did eventually leave Leicester in 2000, taking over from the team of John Barnes and Kenny Dalglish to become manager of Celtic F.C. In his first season they won the treble and he guided them to the final of the 2003 UEFA Cup. In his five seasons there, he won three League titles, three Scottish Cups, and a League Cup.
On 25 May, 2005, Celtic announced that Martin was resigning as manager at the end of the 2004/05 season, following Celtic's Scottish Cup Final against Dundee United F.C. on 28 May, to take time out of football in order to care for his wife Geraldine, who is battling lymphoma.
O'Neill's last competitive game in charge of Celtic therefore, was the Scottish Cup final 1 – 0 victory over Dundee United, decided by an eleventh minute goal by Alan Thompson. This brought O'Neill's tally of trophies with the club to seven, matching his rival Rangers F.C. manager Alex McLeish, whose team won two championships, two Scottish Cups, and three League Cups during O'Neill's tenure. At Celtic he had an impressive results tally playing 282 games and winning 213, drawing 29 and losing 40.
[edit] Managerial Speculation
Over his time as Leicester and Celtic managers, O'Neill was nearly always linked with the vacancy whenever a manager's position became available in the English Premiership.
On Friday, 23rd June 2006, Australian newspaper The Advertiser reported that Martin O'Neill was being targeted by FFA Chairman Frank Lowy as a possible candidate to replace Guus Hiddink as Socceroos manager.
O'Neill had also been linked with a move to Newcastle, however that position was filled by Glenn Roeder. It was reported that after discussions with Middlesbrough over their vacant managerial post, the two parties couldn't reach an agreement, the vacancy eventually being filled by Gareth Southgate. The main reason was said to be O'Neill wanting to work only four days a week and Middlesbrough insisting on a full time manager.
Despite speculation that, once Sven-Göran Eriksson's tenure ended after the World Cup, O'Neill might have become England manager he was never offered the position. He recently said, "it is one of the great jobs in football. Had it been offered, then I would have been absolutely foolish to turn it down." [2] Steve McClaren was promoted into the post.
He was a pundit during the BBC's coverage of the 2006 World Cup. Having correctly guessed France as one of the teams of the tournament, he put Alan Hansen to shame who had three picks (Argentina, Brazil and England), none of which made the Semifinals.[3]
[edit] Current Position
O'Neill was introduced to jubilant fans and the press as the Aston Villa Manager at a press conference on August 4, 2006. At the press conference he stated "It's absolutely fantastic to be back and with a club such as this. This is a fantastic challenge. I am well aware of the history of this football club. Trying to restore it to its days of former glory seems a long way away - but why not try? It is nearly 25 years since they won the European Cup but that is the dream."
[edit] Outside football
Despite never completing his degree, O'Neill remains an avid follower of criminology and has attended some of Britain's most infamous trials, including those of the Yorkshire Ripper and the Black Panther. His fascination began with the James Hanratty case of 1961.
Martin O'Neill was awarded an OBE for services to sport in 2004.
[edit] Playing honours
[edit] Image:Flag of England (bordered).svg Nottingham Forest F.C. 1971–1981
- Winners
- European Super Cup – 1980
- European Cup – 1979, 1980
- Football League Championship – 1977/78
- League Cup – 1978, 1979
- Runners-Up
- European Super Cup – 1981
- Football League Championship – 1978/79
[edit] Managerial Honours
[edit] Image:Flag of England (bordered).svg Wycombe Wanderers F.C. 1990–1995
- Winners
- Football Conference – 1993
- FA Trophy – 1991, 1993
- Division 3 Play–Off Winners – 1994
[edit] Image:Flag of England (bordered).svg Leicester City F.C. 1995–2000
- Winners
- League Cup – 1997, 2000
- Promotion to Premier League – 1995/96
- Runners-Up
- League Cup – 1999
[edit] Image:Flag of Scotland.svg Celtic F.C. 2000–2005
- Winners
- SPL Championship – 2000/01, 2001/02, 2003/04
- Scottish Cup – 2001, 2004, 2005
- Scottish League Cup – 2000/01
- Runners-Up
- UEFA Cup Runner-Up – 2002/03
- Scottish League Cup – 2002/03
- SPL Championship – 2002/03 , 2004/05
[edit] Image:Flag of England (bordered).svg Aston Villa F.C 2006-
[edit] Managerial stats
| Team | Nat | From | To | Record | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| G | W | L | D | Win % | ||||
| Wycombe Wanderers | Image:Flag of England (bordered).svg | August 1 1990 | June 13 1995 | 112 | 52 | 28 | 32 | 46.42 |
| Norwich City | Image:Flag of England (bordered).svg | June 13 1995 | November 17 1995 | 20 | 9 | 4 | 7 | 45 |
| Leicester City | Image:Flag of England (bordered).svg | December 21 1995 | June 1 2000 | 223 | 85 | 70 | 68 | 38.11 |
| Celtic | Image:Flag of Scotland.svg | June 1 2000 | May 31 2005 | 282 | 213 | 40 | 29 | 75.53 |
| Aston Villa | Image:Flag of England (bordered).svg | August 5 2006 | Present | 19 | 7 | 3 | 9 | 36.84 |
[edit] References
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[edit] External links
| Preceded by: Jim Kelman | Wycombe Wanderers F.C. manager 1990-1995 | Succeeded by: Alan Smith |
| Preceded by: John Deehan | Norwich City F.C. manager 1995 | Succeeded by: Gary Megson |
| Preceded by: Mark McGhee | Leicester City F.C. manager 1995-2000 | Succeeded by: Peter Taylor |
| Preceded by: Kenny Dalglish caretaker | Celtic F.C. manager 2000-2005 | Succeeded by: Gordon Strachan |
| Preceded by: David O'Leary | Aston Villa F.C. manager 2006-Present | Succeeded by: Incumbent |
| Image:Flag of Northern Ireland (bordered).svg | Northern Ireland squad - 1982 World Cup | Image:Flag of Northern Ireland (bordered).svg |
|---|---|---|
|
1 Jennings | 2 J. Nicholl | 3 Donaghy | 4 McCreery | 5 C. Nicholl | 6 J. O'Neill | 7 Brotherston | 8 M. O'Neill | 9 Armstrong | 10 McIlroy | 11 Hamilton | 12 McClelland | 13 Nelson | 14 Cassidy | 15 Finney | 16 Whiteside | 17 Platt | 18 Jameson | 19 Healy | 20 Cleary | 21 Campbell | 22 Dunlop | Coach: Bingham | ||
| Aston Villa F.C. - Current Squad |
|---|
|
1 Sørensen | 2 Delaney | 3 Samuel | 4 Mellberg | 5 Laursen | 6 Barry | 8 McCann | 9 Ángel | 10 Baroš | 11 Petrov | 12 Davis | 13 Taylor | 14 Djemba-Djemba | 15 Agbonlahor | 16 Bouma | 17 Whittingham | 18 Hughes | 19 Ridgewell | 20 Sutton | 21 Cahill | 22 Moore | 23 Berger | 25 Olejnik | 26 Gardner | 27 Osbourne | 31 Agathe | Manager: O'Neill |
fr:Martin O'Neill ga:Martin O'Neill id:Martin O'Neill nl:Martin O'Neill pl:Martin O'Neill
Categories: Articles lacking sources from December 2006 | All articles lacking sources | 1952 births | Living people | Alumni of Queen's University, Belfast | Aston Villa F.C. managers | Celtic F.C. managers | FA Premier League managers | Leicester City F.C. managers | Manchester City F.C. players | Natives of County Londonderry | Northern Ireland international footballers | Northern Irish Roman Catholics | Northern Irish football managers | Northern Irish footballers | Norwich City F.C. managers | Norwich City F.C. players | Nottingham Forest F.C. players | Notts County F.C. players | Officers of the Order of the British Empire | People of Irish descent in Great Britain | Wycombe Wanderers F.C. managers | FIFA World Cup 1982 players
