Martin O’Neill at Rugby Park. Kilmarnock 2 Celtic 3. Scottish Premiership. Sunday 15 February 2026. Photo Vagelis Georgariou (The Celtic Star)
Q: So, Martin, first of all, congratulations. Tomorrow’s going to be your 1000th game as a manager. How are you feeling about reaching that milestone? Did you ever think you were going to make it?
Martin O’Neill: “Well, two things. One, it’s a real surprise because I’ve never counted the games. Genuinely, never. When the LMA told me yesterday about it, it did come as a big surprise to me. It’s nice to do and it’s really pleasing. But, yeah, I have to thank Celtic. Otherwise, it wouldn’t have happened. I didn’t know that was the number of games left to do. If I’d counted them up, then I would have definitely asked some football club could they have me in to just cover the rest of the games. But, yeah, it’s nice.
📰 Martin O’Neill inducted into @LMA_Managers 1,000 Club
👏 Tomorrow night against Stuttgart will mark his 1,000th professional match and his 301st in charge of Celtic ⤵️#CelticVfBStuttgart | #UEL | #CelticFC🍀
— Celtic Football Club (@CelticFC) February 18, 2026
Q: It’s obviously some game to mark the milestone as well. A big European night at Celtic Park. How far do you think Celtic can go in the Europa League?
Martin O’Neill: “Right, OK. Well, that’s a major test for us tomorrow. If you’d been having a conversation with me, which you might have done, after Midtjylland, we’d have got long odds about being here this evening, for a start. What I’ve said in the past, we went to Feyenoord, got a great result there. Fought the 10 men for about 60 minutes in the match against Bologna. So I just didn’t want those games not to count for something. So we beat Utrecht and we’re here, so we might as well give it a go.
VfB Stuttgart pose for a photo during the DFB Cup quarter final match between Holstein Kiel and VfB Stuttgart at Holstein-Stadion on February 04, 2026 in Kiel, Germany. (Photo by Selim Sudheimer/Getty Images)
“Stuttgart are flying at this moment. They’re fourth in the Bundesliga. They’re in a Champions League position. I’ve had a look at them. They’re obviously very strong physically. We’ve got a lot of good players playing for them. So they’ll be difficult games for us. But while we’re there, let’s go for it.”
Q: You said a couple of weeks ago that there’s no point being in it unless you’re going to win it. Is that the message and the attitude that’s going to be relayed to the players to really go and give this a good go?
Martin O’Neill: “Well, I’m answering your question in a roundabout fashion. You’ve asked me the same question twice. In that sense, I think that… Well, you go into a competition and when you start off, I think you dream about the final and then reality hits you very, very quickly.
Alan Thompson of Celtic celebrates scoring the opening goal of the match during the UEFA Cup fourth round second leg match between VFB Stuttgart and Glasgow Celtic held on February 27, 2003 at The Gottlieb-Daimler Stadium, in Stuttgart, Germany. VFB Stuttgart won the match 3-2, with Celtic winning the tie 5-4 on aggregate. (Photo by Stuart Franklin/Getty images)
“I wouldn’t have thought that we would be thinking in this competition with the teams that are still left in it, including our opponents tomorrow night. I don’t think that anybody starts off… Well, I wouldn’t even know where the final is. Where is it at? Istanbul. Well, it’s a long way away. A long way away, I don’t mean in terms of geography. A long way away in my mind. But, yeah, just let us see how we do here tomorrow night. It’ll be, honestly, it’ll be really difficult games if Stuttgart show their sort of Bundesliga form. It’ll be a difficult evening as well.”
Q: The last time Celtic won a knockout tie in a European competition, you were the manager 22 years ago against Barcelona. What are your memories of those couple of games and how eager are you to really try and put an end to that long wait tomorrow?
Alan Thompson of Celtic scores during the UEFA Cup Fourth Round, First Leg match between Celtic and Barcelona at Celtic Park on March 11, 2004. (Photo by Michael Steele/Getty Images)
Martin O’Neill: “It’s a long time ago. A long time ago. I didn’t realise it. And I was responsible for some results in those days as a manager, both good and bad. But please don’t blame me for intervening 23 years or whatever it may be. I wasn’t around! I’d like to try and… It would be nice if we could do that. It genuinely would be nice. I’m just having a bit of a joke!”
Q&A continues on the next page…
