On Days Like These: The Incredible Autobiography of a Football Legend

Product Information

We realise now that a link can be made between this advertisement and the appalling working conditions in Qatar and that was never our intention. We deeply regret this and offer our sincere apologies.” My remit was not to cure the ills of the League of Ireland or anything like that. My job was pure and simple – qualify for the Euros. Then, after that, if you’re going to be around, then of course you can oversee the whole shebang. I had umpteen meetings with the boys taking the underage teams and I took a big interest, but that gets lost in translation. Zlatan Ibrahimovic, sounding a little like a comedian who’s been telling the same joke for 30 years. Apology of the Week

BC: With Ireland, you had a quite limited squad but you can’t come out and say: ‘Well, we’re not very good, are we?’ And on more recent times, lessons are learned in England – as he led Wycombe from Conference to the League, and Leicester City and Aston Villa to unprecedented highs – before joining forces with Roy Keane and taking the Republic of Ireland to the second round of the Euros for the first time in their history.Early on, I would have taken a bit of criticism but not nearly as much as Billy for making the choice. He never told me about it, he never said it bothered him. He was prepared to go for it when for an easier life he could have bypassed me.” Football Association of Wales chief executive (and FAI old boy) Noel Mooney explaining the benefits of Wales changing their name to Cymru, but completely forgetting poor old Cyprus. BC: How good was Henrik Larsson? After Celtic he went on to prove his worth at Barcelona and Manchester United. Do you think he got better with age?

For the first time, Martin O’Neill reflects on one of the most varied and successful football careers in the British Isles. With a journey spanning over fifty years, Martin dives into the exhilarating highs of trophies, promotion and World Cup fights – and the painful lows of fan confrontations, boardroom drama, relegation scraps and getting fired. BC: There are some beautifully written passages in the book. Which part of the book did you enjoy writing about most?Mr. O’Neil takes us on a journey that includes his childhood, his professional football career and then his professional management history. A really fine footballer. Terrific. What he knew about management, you could box in a thimble. We all might have some sort of ego but it can’t all be about you.” As Jan Kooy of Human Rights Watch asked, not unreasonably, when referring to the number of construction workers who died while building Qatar’s World Cup stadia, “they have Google at Jumbo, right?” Seems not. More Word of Mouth

O’Neill is effusive in his praise of Keane, who has not managed since departing Ipswich in 2011. Bert Johnson, O’Neill’s youth coach at Forest, imparted advice which he believes applies to Keane. “You get a reputation in life for being an early riser and you can lie in bed all day,” he says. BC: In a parallel universe, if you hadn’t made it across the water, you might have had a long GAA career with Derry. There’s a passage in the book where you explain going to the 1958 All-Ireland final between Derry and Dublin and you’re there to see your brother Leo play… MO’N: Well, Roy is going to be big news one way or the other. His arguments with Walters and Harry Arter, you knew somewhere along the way those things would leak out and they’d become news, particularly with Stephen Ward and the WhatsApp message. Martin O’Neill is one of the most fascinating and respected figures in football. In On Days Like These, he tells the story of his remarkable career.

Then, Martin delves into his work as a manager, including his celebrated leadership of Celtic – retaking dominance from Rangers in his very first Old Firm match. MO’N: No, I wouldn’t. I saw it on the TV a couple of years ago. It must have been highlights and they were into extra-time and I just switched it off. Somebody said to me: ‘Do you want to see the highlights of Vitor Baia going down with an injury?’ That’s all too clear on the day. I don’t need a TV to remind me of it. BC: There was an adversarial nature to your media relations and I'm sure the media weren't blameless. How could you have handled things better?

I wish I hadn’t fallen out with Robert Chase at Norwich because I’d two spells as a player there, very short spells, and a short spell as manager. So Norwich City will always be dear to my heart. Celtic, of course, was great and my wife says Glasgow was her favourite place. Martin O’Neill is widely regarded as one of the most respected figures in football with a career spanning more than 50 years. A key part of Brian Clough’s legendary Nottingham Forest team in the ‘70s and early ‘80s, he represented Northern Ireland more than 60 times and led them to the 1982 World Cup. Martin recognises that his days at Leicester City, where he won the League Cup, happened around a half a mile away from the club’c current home at Filbert Street. Martin might choose to post his next video from The City Ground in Nottingham, or even Villa Park where he did much better than their recent boss to say the least. He might even make the short hop across the Irish Sea to Dublin where he managed the Republic or up to Belfast where he played for the six counties.

You might also like

We sit by the Ukrainians all the time [at draws and meetings] and that’s nice because we’ve become good friends with them. But we would like to sit by the Croatians and the Czechs a bit more.” For a complicated man, he played a very simple game. He was as good at tactics as anybody but that’s not how he is considered. He is considered a motivator, a shouter or a charmer. He knew the game inside out. He told us things tactically during games that stood the test of time. He would say something to you on a Monday, contradict himself on a Friday and you would believe both.” O’Neill’s memories of a “mesmeric” Clough remain vivid, from the moment of their initial meeting in the winter of 1975. Clough instantly promoted O’Neill to the first team but was not of a mind to fawn. “Hey, you: Stop putting your mate in the shit. You look like a boy who would put your mate in the shit,” was the message in an early training session. BC: There’s a fascinating passage in the book between you and Billy Bingham where he makes you Northern Ireland captain, the nuances of which weren’t lost on either of you as you were a Catholic from Derry going to lead the team. Billy Bingham said to you: ‘No-one will care if we’re winning matches…’