brian o'neill: a bhoy's own story

Gregor Kyle
AS part of a series taken from the Celtic View, we have been taking a trip down memory lane with a host of past Celtic favourites to get their own personal take on what it was like to pull on a Celtic shirt. Next up is Brian O’Neill.

ESTABLISHING yourself at Celtic can be a near impossible task, with a young player having to cope with the demands that are placed upon them at first-team level.

With that in mind, there was perhaps a no more difficult period to make your debut as a teenager than the turbulent early 1990s.

Recognised as one of the most talented players of his generation and a member of the Scotland side that reached the final of the Under-17 World Cup, Brian O’Neil found himself thrust into the limelight during a tough time for the club.

There were good times and highlights, including a memorable match-winner in a derby against Rangers, before he moved on to Aberdeen after 155 appearances and 10 goals for Celtic in his preferred position of centre-back as well as the occasional stint in midfield and even up front.

He went on to enjoy successful spells with Wolfsburg in Germany, Derby County and Preston North End and is still held in high regard at the latter, after being forced to hang up his boots early after a knee injury.

O’Neil remains a committed Celtic supporter and here he looks back on his Bhoy’s Own Story.

My earliest memory of the club, the one that sticks out in my mind, was the last day of the season in 1986 at Love Street, when we beat St Mirren 5-0 to win the league. With me coming from Paisley and my grandparents staying about 500 yards from Love Street, me and my mate went to the game. Celtic won the championship that day and it was an unbelievable day and nobody expected it. It was just an incredible occasion and it felt unreal, just being there as the score came through from Dens Park that Dundee were winning. But by that time, we were battering St Mirren. Some of the football we played was breathtaking. The goals were great, we were in full flight and it just topped it off that Dundee beat Hearts.

The one highlight that stands out for me in my Celtic career is a bit of a personal one and it is scoring the winner against Rangers at Ibrox in 1993. It was a dream of mine, growing up as a Celtic supporter, to play against Rangers and score a goal against them. For that goal to happen in the last minute at Ibrox, up at the Celtic End, made it particularly special. Celtic supporters always look forward to the derby games and as a player I was no different. Yes, we had hard times and Rangers were spending a lot of money and it was really hard work just trying to keep up with them. We didn’t have the finances at the club to compete with them and it was an impossible job for the managers who were in charge and you felt for them, because it was so one-sided. They weren’t just spending more than all the Scottish clubs at the time. They were spending more than most of the big teams in England as well. But I still looked forward to those matches and we had our good times against them as well, times where we really stepped up to the plate. Unfortunately we didn’t quite reach the heights that we should have.

I don’t really have regrets from my time at Celtic, although I would have loved to have been at the club at a time when things were going great. But then you think to yourself, had that been the case I might not have been in the team, I might never have got my chance to play for Celtic. Just to have had that opportunity is something I really cherish and no one can take those years away from me. One regret that I possibly have is the time that I left, I should have perhaps knuckled down, stayed and waited for the new manager coming in. But I was perhaps of a mind that a lot of the people I had grown up with had left and it was just a case of natural progression. Nobody forced me to go, but the one wrong move that I possibly made was going to Aberdeen when I did. That’s probably my only one regret in football, going to Aberdeen at that time.

The one ground that I always loved playing at, apart from Celtic Park, was Easter Road. It was a happy hunting ground for us, we went there and usually did well and there was one game where I scored two. But we had a lot of good performances there. I was fortunate in that I got the chance to play at a lot of fantastic grounds in Germany with Wolfsburg, the best of which was probably Hamburg. That was a fantastic stadium and was our local derby and the fans are right on top of you. Germany’s the best supported league in Europe and everywhere you go, you are more or less playing in front of capacity crowds. Kaiserslautern, Bayern, Hamburg, Schalke, Dortmund were all fantastic grounds to play at as well. In fairness, though, you have to go a long way to beat the atmosphere at Celtic Park. In fact, I don’t think anywhere could beat it.

My toughest opponent, without doubt, was Giovanni Elber. There have been a few that I’ve found it difficult to play against and I hated guys who could run, because that was never my forte! Giovanni was perpetual motion, he just didn’t stop and I had to man-mark him. Unfortunately that day, when I had to man-mark him, he scored a hat-trick for Bayern Munich! The game was played in the middle of November and we went down there to find it was 15 degrees. We had come from the north of Germany, where it was really cold and then all of a sudden it was like being in tropical heat. He didn’t stop that day. I was absolutely exhausted.

I would recommend the experience of playing abroad to anybody. It makes you grow up. When I left Celtic and went to Aberdeen I was still a little bit selfish, it was all about me and I used to blame people for a lot of different things. That’s a common trait and a lot of people do it, but when I went to Germany I had nowhere to hide. It made me grow up and I became responsible for myself, I had no one to blame and the attitude was that if you are in the team, you are there to do your job. That’s the German way and it was a good way. I would really recommend it to anyone, even just to get that experience, seeing a different way of life and learning how they go about their jobs.

When I first broke into the Celtic team it was a difficult time for the club and as a young player, it was maybe difficult to handle the level of expectation. I don’t think the young players get that same pressure at Celtic today, but I just feel that there were a few boys who perhaps struggled with it. Stevie Fulton might be a good example, because Stevie was a wonderful talent, a genuinely fantastic player and I know he found it quite hard to come in, because he was expected to deliver consistently from day one. Nowadays young players have the chance to develop, they are maybe in and out the team without that same demand to deliver. But then again, you can’t blame the managers for putting us in, because there were few options and they were under almighty pressure to get the results. It was a tough time, but a good time as well and at the time I didn’t think much of it. You were a young player, getting the chance to play for Celtic and while I think it might have been nice to have been a part of a settled team, I don’t think I can look for excuses.

For the first time in a long time I have had the opportunity to come back up from England for a few games and it’s been nice. To have been away from it and have that opportunity to go back now as a supporter is something important to me. I have two boys of my own and a daughter and I make sure that they know what it’s all about as well. You have that connection with the club that you never lose and there may have been hard times and I can understand the frustrations of a lot of people during that era, but it’s great to go back today and see the team being successful and actually winning things and doing well. That’s all the Celtic fans ever want, they just look for that little bit of success and when I was there they might not have had a lot to cheer, but they were always there in their numbers. That’s the difference between Celtic supporters and fans of other clubs around Europe. They’ll be there through thick and thin, they might give you stick from time to time, but they are always there when the team needs backing.

I never wanted to be anything but a footballer and naively I never thought that I would do anything else. I just always thought I was going to be a professional player, every young player does, but I was one of the lucky ones. I worked hard and it came through in the end, through a little bit of luck and hard work I got the chance, although there were others who were just as good but didn’t. I now work for a sport management agency and I am involved in a property business down here in England, but starting out as a young player I never had any other career in mind.

My advice to any young player who hopes to make it as a Celtic player would be to be prepared to sacrifice a lot. It takes over your whole life, from the minute you get up and impacts on your diet, your sleep patterns, how you train and this includes your years growing up as a kid. You can’t go out for nights out because you have to be right for training the next day, if you are playing on a Saturday or Sunday you have to make sure you get your sleep and you have to practise all the time. Your pals might be going out with their girlfriends, they might be going to a club, but you can’t do it and that’s the sacrifice that you have to make. It’s something that a lot of people don’t appreciate about young players. But it has other advantages as well and keeps you away from a lot of the bad things out there. You can’t get a better life than being a professional footballer, being a part of a team and having a goal in life, even as a kid it’s great.