Celtic boss Martin O’Neill has explained why he rarely returns to Parkhead, as he opened up on an 'eerie' lockdown game.
O’Neill guided the Hopes to an historic title-treble between 2000-2004 and also four more titles in a memorable spell with the club.
And the popular Northern Irishman also guided the club to the UEFA Cup final as he became a fan’s favourite in the Parkhead area of the city.
But O'Neill revealed: “I haven’t been back to Celtic too often to be honest.
“The torch has passed and it’s time for other people to take it on.
“But I covered one of their matches during the lockdown period when there were no crowds. I know people use this word often but it was surreal, it really was.
“Sometimes the noise was so loud at Celtic Park I could hardly hear my assistant manager John Robertson talking to me and he was right beside me.
“So to be able to hear players on the pitch and hearing almost every word they were saying directing passes with no crowd in it was really eerie.
“Please God I wouldn’t want to witness that sort of thing again.”
O’Neill understandably looks back at his time in charge of the Hoops with fond memories.
And he has no doubts that he faced the “most formidable” Rangers side of all times two decades ago.
“Celtic was great,” reflected O’Neill, 69, whose last management job was boss of Notts Forest, whom he left in June 2019.
“The interesting aspect about Celtic was I went there in 2000 and they had finished a long way behind Rangers.
“A couple of years before Wim Jansen, a great Dutch player - and I was really sad to hear he’d died just recently - he’d stopped Rangers winning 10 in a row which was big, big news.
“Rangers were so dominant at that time so it was a daunting challenge.
“I hate the phrase ‘no disrespect’ because it means you do disrespect, but the Rangers team we were up against it, in my own view, and Gazza’s time had some really good players.
“But the Rangers team of 2000, and you look at the internationals, the Dutch players they had, they had Van Bronckhorst, they had Michael Mols, they had great players. I think it’s the most formidable Rangers team in the last 50 years.
“The challenge was really daunting, but we got off to a good start and then won the first big Old Firm game 6-2 and that gave us a great deal of confidence.
“In fairness we carried all before us that season which was a surprise for all.”
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