Martin O'Neill's trophy-strewn reign as Celtic manager in the first five years of the millennium was full of banter and bust-ups.
But the bond forged by the Northern Irishman and his team lasted a lot longer than that and remains as strong now as it was when O’Neill led them to the UEFA Cup Final in Seville. The 20th anniversary of that agonising defeat to Porto will be marked next May and the passing of time hasn’t diminished the hurt felt by the players who came so close.
And yet when Stan Petrov looks back on his time with O’Neill, it isn’t the football that prompts the strongest emotions. It’s the humanity of the man who helped him through the darkest hours of his life seven years after they parted company in Glasgow. In 2012 the Bulgarian was captaining Aston Villa, O’Neill managing Sunderland, when Petrov got the earth-shattering news he had acute leukaemia.
After contacting his wife, his next call was to O’Neill, who had left Celtic seven years earlier to devote more time to his wife Geraldine who had been diagnosed with lymphoma.
“Martin came with a passion and a desire to win,” Petrov, now 43 and restored to full health, recalls. “He built a team to fight and
to win every single competition. But there is a side of Martin not many people know. We know he left because of his wife Geraldine.
“When I got ill and I was diagnosed, he was the first person I contacted because I needed somebody I could trust, who could give me guidance and a second opinion. I remember phoning. He was at Sunderland and was outside taking a session, so I had to phone his secretary to try to get him.
“He was on the phone within about 30 seconds and spent about an hour with me. He didn’t even go back to training. He just made sure I was OK and that I would get the right treatment. He put me with the right person.
“So it’s not just Martin O’Neill as a manager, it’s Martin O’Neill as a human being as well.”
Petrov’s discussing the O’Neill years with former team-mates Chris Sutton and Jackie McNamara on the latest edition of BT Sport’s Currie Club’ podcast with host Darrell Currie.
The trio’s affection for their former boss, now 70, is obvious. As is their pride in the manner in which he turned around Celtic’s fortunes from also-rans to Treble winners in his first season.
But, as is typical of so many players past and present, it’s the ones that get away that are remembered as much as the triumphs and trophies. And that 3-2 loss to Porto in Seville will never be forgotten.
“As a footballer, you want to be part of history,” says McNamara. “That would have been a great moment for us, personally and collectively. It was a sore one.
“To not go away with anything that season was hard but I wouldn’t change anything. The whole UEFA Cup run, we put so much into it and to come away with nothing that season, no silverware... but the memories I wouldn’t change anything.”
The run included wins over Blackburn plus Liverpool and Sutton, who won the league with Rovers, took a particular delight in the 2-0 victory at Ewood Park after boss Graeme Souness had labelled the first leg “men against boys” despite Celtic winning it 1-0.
“I don’t know whether Souness said that because of his Rangers connection,” says Sutton. “It was a throwaway line. But what we do know is it was a really daft thing to say and he should have known better because he ended up with a massive dollop of egg on his face.
“The tie wasn’t over and it was disrespectful. I am English but I always thought when we drew Blackburn and then had the games against Liverpool, they were really important for Celtic and for Scottish football.
“You can’t get away from the way Scottish football is viewed from down south. A lot of people have Mickey Moused it off over the years. I had played for Blackburn, so (beating them) was a nice two fingers up.
“You feel for Henrik (Larsson) because his performance and the goals he scored that day were absolutely phenomenal. He ended up having seven years at Celtic and giving so much to the club. It would have been really fitting.
“Martin’s last words before leaving the dressing room were, ‘Don’t let the game pass you by’ and most of us would feel more than a tinge of (regret).”
The final may have hinged on Bobo Balde’s extra-time red but the Guinean wasn’t blamed for the defeat – unlike when he gifted Hibs two goals in a defeat near the end of O’Neill’s final season. The Bulgarian laughs about it now. At the time? Not so much.
“The game had finished and I stayed out there clapping the fans,” he says, smiling. "Neil Lennon was already in the dressing room and having a pop at Bobo. I just walked into the dressing room and gave it ‘for God sake’ or something maybe a wee bit more aggressive.
“Bobo jumps up and Bobo is a big guy. The first person who tried to stop him was John Robertson. Bobo just used one finger to push Robbo over the massage bed.
“Everybody else just walked away – Chris keeps saying he tried to stop Bobo but he didn’t – so I ran and tried to grab him by the throat. But he just pins me up against the wall. By that time Sutty, the fitness coach Jim Hendry, everybody was trying to pull Bobo away but he didn’t move. His eyes were massive. He had me pinned in.
“Then all of a sudden it was as if he just realised. The fire went out, he just dropped me and ran into the sauna. He stayed there for 45 minutes. I might have said sorry!”
Those moments were few and far between. O’Neill’s former players insist the camaraderie he developed drove them to seven trophies under the man they still call “gaffer”.
Sutton says: “We had an understanding and a way of playing, a good relationship on and off the field. Standing in the tunnel, I don’t think there was any team who would really faze us. We could trust each other, absolutely. That’s all down to one man really.”
McNamara concurs. “He changed the club,” he says. “Changed the mentality, not just domestically but getting to the next stage of European competition. I thought he was fantastic.”
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