Thursday’s 3-1 victory over Feyenoord ended Celtic’s four-year wait for an away win in Europe, while O’Neill, along with coach Shaun Maloney, engineered an extra-time League Cup semi-final win against Rangers.
“I have honestly enjoyed it,” O’Neill said of his interim spell.
And the best part? “Winning games,” he smiled. “That will never change. Beating Rangers always helps.”
O’Neill managed Celtic from 2000-05, winning three league titles, three Scottish Cups, and a League Cup. He also took them to the 2003 Uefa Cup final.
With his only defeat of this period coming away to Midtjylland in the Europa League, the former Northern Ireland international was thrilled by the display against Feyenoord in the same competition.
“I shouldn’t downplay the performance,” he said. “I thought we were really brilliant.
“It was as good as we’ve played in my time here.”
O’Neill had not managed a club since being sacked by Nottingham Forest in June 2019.
“During the time when I wasn’t managing I was always thinking ‘I could manage’,” he said. “The appetite is always there. In my last days on earth I’ll still be thinking ‘yeah, that’s OK, I’ll be able to do that’.
“This has been an opportunity handed to me by the man who gave me the job 25 years ago [major shareholder Dermot Desmond].
“I’ve no doubt I would have been dubious if someone else had asked me to do it on an interim basis. But the call to manage Celtic again was really too great and it’s all come together which is really nice.”
