Full Media Conference — Martin O’Neill previews Hearts (15/05/26)

[0:00] How are you all feeling with everything that's at stake and just how big an occasion this is? [0:04] Yeah, we're really looking forward to it now. And why shouldn't we? I think that it's a big, [0:10] big game. Naturally, we have to win it. Hearts don't. So the advantage is with them in that [0:15] aspect. But yeah, we're going out on just all guns blazing to try and win. [0:20] Everything you've seen and done, is this as big as it gets in terms of a sort of final day shootout [0:25] that both teams can win it? Yeah, absolutely. I've witnessed it before and experienced that. [0:32] Not great experiences of it, but that's a long time ago and I don't think any of the Celtic [0:38] players would have remembered that. How do you feel you arrive into this given [0:43] recent results, recent performances and where you are now compared to maybe previously? [0:48] Well, I think that from, excuse me, I would have said from the game against Dundee United, [0:55] Tannadise, we've woken up, we're a better side and now got a bit more confidence about [1:03] ourselves as well too. And if you'd said to me after Tannadise that you had to win all your games, [1:12] I thought that would have been a tall order. But as it turns out, we've had to do that. [1:16] And I was perhaps hoping that there might have been a slip up somewhere along the way where [1:22] if we did slip, let's say through a game or something, or lost a match, [1:26] that it wasn't fatal as it turns out it would have been. And so we're fine. [1:30] These players have experienced so many big atmospheres in cup finals and old form games. [1:35] Is there a chance that even this though could still be something completely different? [1:39] Is that something they'll have to deal with? [1:41] The players. Yeah, I think that I've, I just think they're ready for the game. I think that [1:49] yeah, they've had, they've had things their own way in recent times. Now they've had to fight and [1:56] so, so far they've shown that they're, they're up for it. They're ready to go. But listen, the game, [2:01] the game's in the balance. Really it is, you know, we're at home, we have to win. Hearts have to just [2:09] avoid defeat. And as I said to you earlier, it's a wee bit of an advantage. However, you know, [2:14] this will be a tough game for both teams. [2:16] Some of the focus has maybe been shifted away from the game just because of the penalty decision at [2:21] the weekend. There's been so much fallout from it. What have you made of just the fallout over [2:26] the last couple of days? It's obviously been magnified, I think, because of the, because of the [2:31] occasion as much as anything else. Right. I think a couple of things. I think one, I think that, [2:38] I think in, I think it's a penalty. I think he's handled the ball, also his arm around his neck as [2:44] well too. But that's beside the point. When you see it again properly, it is a penalty. Now, but what, [2:51] in the wider scheme of things, I think that we, everybody should be looking at, at this. [2:58] Throughout Europe, we have seen penalties given when we all think, well, that would never, [3:03] that wouldn't have happened years ago. It wouldn't have done. It looks very, [3:06] very harsh. A handball, this will, this should be a major point of discussion in the summertime, [3:13] to have a look again, to see what they're doing. And I know sometimes in, in, in European football, [3:20] it's a wee bit different to ours. It shouldn't be, it should be uniform. It should be absolutely, [3:24] it should be straightforward. In this accidental handball, hands in, in, in, what is it, in? [3:31] Unnatural. Unnaturals. Looking for positions and stuff like this here. People maybe even being [3:39] pushed into situations, you know. I think all of that's got to be looked at. But as the rules [3:44] stand at this minute, that was a penalty. Have you been surprised at just how strong the reaction [3:48] has been? Because when you look at a lot of, even the media down south, there's been a lot of focus on it, [3:53] which maybe doesn't happen all that often. Yeah. Am I surprised? No, I'm not surprised because [3:59] everybody wants hearts to win. It's really as simple as that, you know. Everybody outside [4:04] Celtic in the Celtic diaspora wants hearts to win. And so if it wasn't hearts, it would be [4:09] Rangers, it'd be somebody else. You know, that's, that's the nature of it. Can you use that as, [4:13] as motivation if you feel that everyone outside of Celtic is rooting for? Well, I motivate myself from it. [4:17] I don't necessarily have to motivate a couple of lads from, uh, from South Korea and Japan, [4:22] you know. But, um, yeah. But I know that, that's, that's the point, yeah. [4:26] In terms, sorry Mark, just in terms of the occasion, how it, how it's fallen on this final day. There is [4:32] both teams, it is that shootout, as you mentioned. Can you just sum up just the occasion, [4:37] the madness that's going to ensue just because of what it means to both Celtic and to Hearts on this final day? [4:43] Well, if, if, if, if hearts, if hearts, uh, win or draw the game, then they deserve to win the league. [4:49] It really is as simple as that. And if we, if we can win, then somewhere along the way, [4:54] I think we've deserved to win it. You know, it's the number of points that you end up with at the [4:57] end of the season that determines these things. But in terms of the atmosphere, it'll be, [5:02] it will be electric. There's no question about it. We have got, um, at least, uh, at least for [5:09] temporarily that we have got, um, seem to have a bit of, uh, a bit of a unified situation at Celtic [5:17] Park, which has been massive for the side. I don't think it should be underestimated. [5:21] The team has been kept going, uh, by the crowd and, uh, and we will need that, uh, tomorrow. And [5:28] they, the crowd don't need reminding of how brilliant they've been in recent weeks. [5:32] Personally for you, the rollercoaster of coming in, going out again, then coming back, [5:38] if you were to get over the line, what would, what would this rank for you? [5:41] Oh, we're not, we're not over the line. We're, we're a million miles off it. So I, I, I can't [5:48] deal in something that I, I genuinely don't know what will happen. [5:52] I don't know if it's been a big effort, obviously, Matt, for your players the last few weeks. [5:58] Yeah. Is that just the case now of these last two big games of the season, [6:02] as can we give everything for them? Oh, yeah. I mean, I think they have been, [6:06] you know, I, I quite, you know, you can, you know, we, uh, we have faults in our team, naturally. [6:12] Uh, we have, but I have, I can't honestly, um, I could not question their commitment or their [6:19] willingness to get back again. Probably the only time, um, was at Tanadise when I thought that, [6:26] you know, we just didn't perform. Don't know whether we wanted to try and put the pitches [6:29] in as an excuse or whatever the case may be. And it was, you know, and a lot of it was down to me [6:34] as well too, you know, so I, I didn't deal with it too well, you know. Um, so, um, and we had the [6:40] time then after to reflect on things because of the, um, international break, but the team has come [6:46] fighting back and roaring back. And so they've deserved this opportunity to, to, to get to the [6:51] last match. I don't know if this is sort of explicitly being said publicly. Are you, [6:56] are you feeling that this will be your final match in charge of Celtic? Are you leaving the [6:59] door open that potentially there could be a future that you... I would, I, I was asked that [7:04] question there, funnily enough, by Luke. And I'd say, yeah, I, you know, more than a, uh, a reasonable [7:12] chance, reasonable suggest something, but, uh, that I, that'll be my last game. [7:16] How are you feeling? Cause it's going to be an incredible atmosphere tomorrow anyway, [7:20] but for you to step out into that dugout for the final time, this Celtic manager was so much [7:25] at stake with the relationship you've got with the club. That's, I imagine it's going to be [7:29] quite emotional for you. Yeah, I, I, I suppose it is. I, I, I genuinely, and I also said this in here [7:36] that it's not, it, it, yeah, I'm, it was a privilege to come back again for a start, uh, this particular year. [7:44] I'd never have thought in a million years that this could have happened really. And so I should [7:50] actually enjoy it. I should actually enjoy it more than I'm doing. And, um, but yeah, it gives me, [7:55] um, I mean, look, when I left here in 2005, I didn't come back and become the manager in 2007 [8:02] or 2009 to wait 20 odd years to do that. So I, I should enjoy it a bit more than I'm doing. [8:11] Um, just the, in the last few hours, the club released a statement to fans just about if they [8:16] were to get over the line, just to celebrate sensibly, reasonably. And, and do you echo that [8:22] comment from the club and what would be your message to supporters? Absolutely. This is, this is it. [8:28] You know, I think that, um, um, if we were fortunate enough to win and that's a long way away, [8:33] uh, in terms of people celebrating, I know that, um, I think that, um, and the community would be [8:40] worried about that people in excess of, of, of, of celebration that's happened in the past, [8:45] you know, and, um, no, I just want people to, you know, be safe really as much as anything else. [8:52] And so the message that the club is, again, I've just added a little bit to it myself. [8:57] You'd want the, the focus to be on the football after, it's not any, any sort of, the last few [9:01] years, it's maybe been a few instances where the football's taken second place, but this weekend, [9:06] sorry, in terms of that local community aspect, it's, it's been, but the message is, [9:12] I'm, I'm with you. Absolutely. Yeah. [9:13] Who's your squad? Oh, we're, we're, I think we're okay. Yeah. [9:19] No casualties from the, from the other night? Yeah. [9:22] Yeah. Physically? No, it's a, yeah, but, uh, that we're okay.