Martin O’Neill has a slight chuckle when he hears people accusing Celtic of being paranoid after a raft of recent decisions went against Ange Postecoglou’s men. The Parkhead icon reckons it was even WORSE in his day.
O’Neill’s tongue might have been in his cheek, or perhaps it is with a hint of mischief, but he’s not surprised to hear some familiar complaints coming from the Celtic class of 2022. He’s been there and got the T-shirt – and he still mulls over the big calls he felt slighted his side during his five-year spell in charge from 2000.
Speaking exclusively to the Record Celtic Podcast, O’Neill admitted to thinking his men were hard done by at times. The Treble winning boss said: “We definitely felt that. People used to say it was paranoia but I just felt there were a number of decisions that we are weren’t given against us.
“It’s funny, from a distance I actually think Celtic have had better decisions in recent years than way back. That might be my paranoia setting in. There were some ridiculous decisions at the time. When the league is so close they can be so decisive. Even in the Motherwell game when Rangers pipped us to the title.
“Motherwell should have had a player sent off inside the first 15 or 20 minutes for a second bookable offence. It didn’t happen, but anyway, I don’t think about it that often, only ever three days!”
Scottish football has a new toy in VAR but O’Neill’s early optimism about the technology has evaporated. Back in the day he’d like another look at John Hartson’s wrongly disallowed goal in the losing 2002 League Cup Final – and his World Cup moment of glory that was whipped away for no reason in Spain in 1982.
But in the main, the video refs have caused more problems that it’s worth. O’Neill said: “I really thought VAR was going to be a fantastic idea. I knew there would be some pitfalls and it could take some of the spontaneity out of the game with waiting to see if a goal had been scored or it was half a yard offside or something.
“I also thought there would be a lot more penalties, with players constantly holding on and so on. Never for a minute did I think it would cause the sort of controversy it has done. It’s been absolute mayhem.
“It seems like it’s causing more problems than you’d imagine. When a referee goes over to a monitor the chance are he’ll change his mind. One or two stick with the decision, and that’s okay. But they do so as they believe in what they saw, and it’s subjective at that stage.
“I thought VAR was meant to take all subjectivity out of it and it would clear things up. I would go back to Spain in ’82 when I scored a perfectly good goal against France in the quarter final. It was disallowed but I was at least a yard onside. Where was VAR then? But generally speaking it’s causing more confusion.”
It’s not necessarily VAR’s fault for the recent controversy surrounding Connor Goldson’s handball at Ibrox, or the other recent flashpoint. O’Neill reckons the laws are as clear as mud right now.
He said: “This idea about an unnatural position. What is an unnatural position? it looks pretty natural when it’s attached to your body. I can understand when a player has his hand out and it hits it from about a foot away. But the number of decisions I’ve seen given when everyone knows is not a penalty. You see players almost firing the ball at people now because there’s a chance of getting a handball.”
The big debates haven’t stopped Celtic surging ahead in the title race and O’Neill has been impressive with the job Postecoglou is doing at Parkhead. The Aussie has made a stellar start to the defence of the title with a points tally on a par with O’Neill’s record breaking seasons in 2000/01 and 2003/04, along with the Brendan Rodgers Invincible campaign.
Celtic fans worship Postecoglou like they did O’Neill back in the day, but the former Hoops gaffer believes his successor deserves credit beyond his own support. He said: “Ange is doing a terrific job. He came in in difficult circumstances and didn’t get off to the best of starts.
“He signed players very few people will have heard about and he had to come through that sticky period. But he had enough belief that it would eventually come right and that’s exactly what happened.
“He’s carried it on this season. When you have done so well in your first season and keep it going there’s almost an expectation, a sense of ‘well, we expected this anyway’. He’s doing so well but maybe Rangers are still in a state of flux as it were. I’d be surprised if he wasn’t getting the credit because he’s doing a super job.”
Martin O’Neill’s autobiography, On Days Like These, is now available.
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