Pressure builds on O'Neill's principles

So the man from Kilrea says no. Sort of. The fall-out from the internal storm that has evidently raged at Old Trafford over the past few weeks is that Martin O'Neill now seems certain to be dogged by persistent inquiries about his availability for the Manchester United vacancy whenever that may arise. The Celtic manager's irritation was apparent at the weekend. In the weeks and months to come his mood is unlikely to improve.

The yoking together of O'Neill, Alex Ferguson and Manchester United is a phenomenon which has as much to do with coincidence as any other factor. O'Neill went to Glasgow last summer with his report card marked "promising, one to watch for the future". But in the nine months since his impact has been such he has rapidly been promoted to the top of the class.

Running in parallel with the way O'Neill and the team he had assembled were carrying all before them, it was becoming clear the search for Ferguson's successor at Manchester United was becoming much more pressing. Since he put down his marker at Leicester City as a superb motivator, O'Neill cropped up on most short lists for the United job. The extent to which he gave direction to the rudderless ship that had been Celtic football club when he arrived moved him significantly up the pecking order.

But there was more to it than that. Impressive though O'Neill's time in Glasgow has been thus far, is it tenable to say he achieved more this season than say David O'Leary or Arsene Wenger? O'Leary moulded a team from an assemblage of raw but untried material, while Wenger can reflect wryly on the fact that finishing second in the Premiership and qualifying for the Champions League is regarded as something of a disappointment. And yet neither man is mentioned in connection with the Manchester United job with quite the same fervour as O'Neill.

The simple explanation is that the Celtic manager, because he is with a club playing in a league widely derided and dismissed by those outside Scotland, is automatically regarded as being both available and eager to take any Premiership job that comes his way. The point has already been made as to whether it could just be that O'Neill regards the challenge and the job description at Celtic Park as being the equal and greater than anything that might come his way in the Premiership, including Manchester United.

To raise such queries in a media and popular culture so obsessed with the English Premiership is quite obviously to invite ridicule and snide comment. O'Neill has already had to field a succession of barbed comments and criticisms but has responded by fixing his sights on the task of preparing Celtic for credible European competition while at the same time consolidating the foothold he has already made in Scotland.

It is equally unfashionable to muse on the emotional connection that this Derryman has made with a club that was in real danger of losing touch with its Irish roots. Either O'Neill is a more skilled public performer and media manipulator than anyone has given him credit for or he was and is being genuine when he talks of the tie and bond he feels with the football club he now manages. When his father told him to walk to Glasgow if there was a chance of him getting the Celtic job, O'Neill obviously believed he was only half-joking.

FOR better or worse, Celtic and its history does strange things to Irish people from north and south. Just as the heat was being turned up on O'Neill last weekend, Neil Lennon gave an interview to an English broad-sheet newspaper in which he spoke in awed tones about the reverence and adoration Celtic fans reserve for their players compared to the "corporate machine" of the English Premiership.

The other variable that has to be factored into any equation is the personality of O'Neill himself. When, at each point in his career, other more prestigious jobs have been mooted he has shown an innate caution and unwillingness to act rashly or hastily. When Nottingham Forest were starting off on their own managerial merry-go-round and O'Neill was learning his trade at Wycombe Wanderers he resisted the temptation to jump. Similarly, the opening at Leeds was allowed to pass by.

A deep thinker about the game and life around it, O'Neill gives the impression of a man who is seldom hurried into making a decision of any real importance. When the ante was upped significantly at the weekend with reports that his representatives had met the Manchester United chairman, O'Neill said "there's absolutely nothing in it".

Whether this amounts to a denial that a meeting of any kind took place is a moot point. On past history, it would actually be surprising if O'Neill did not make an attempt at some stage to ascertain what exactly was being offered by Manchester United or, in fact, by any other club. He is not the sort of man to allow the minutiae to pass him.

When O'Neill does make public pronouncements they are rarely unguarded. When anyone has dared to mention his future he has repeatedly stated his intention to honour the three-year contract he signed with Celtic last summer. In these principle-free football times this may mean little but, more than most, you would tend to think Martin O'Neill means what he says.

Now that Alex Ferguson has set a definite time-frame in place the pressure is sure to mount on O'Neill and Celtic. In theory we have another year of this to go through but there are inklings that Ferguson will jump before then. As for O'Neill he is in a powerful position and his stock will only continue to rise as long as Celtic continue winning. Whatever happens, it should be fascinating and intriguing because the man from Kilrea seldom makes the wrong call.