Martin O’Neill recalls ‘astounding’ hotel eviction after Rangers threaten contract termination
Former Celtic boss Martin O’Neill has revealed that he was once evicted from a hotel after Rangers threatened to terminate their contract.
O’Neill took charge of Celtic for five years of his career and experienced first-hand the fierce rivalry between Rangers and their Glasgow nemesis.
But the now-70-year-old has explained that it wasn’t just the on-pitch rivalry that affected him. O’Neill recalled when he and his family were evicted from a hotel that Gers happened to be staying at.
He told The Scotsman: “It was astounding! I had stayed there during that week. You’d have thought someone might have just come up and said, ‘you know, by the way Rangers stay here’.
“It transpires that the Rangers manager has been told that my wife and daughter are in the hotel. Rangers use the Crutherland as a base for many of their games and have a contract with them.
“If Geraldine and Alana don’t leave immediately, Rangers will cancel their contract with the hotel.”
Petty brilliance
If anyone wasn’t sure just how far the Rangers-Celtic rivalry goes, O’Neill has summed it up brilliantly. Not only is it an on-pitch dispute, but just the mere association with one another is enough to cause irritation.
Having O’Neill’s family evicted from a hotel is equally as petty as it is brilliant. It’s a story he clearly looks back on and laughs at – a moment he later labels “a fun incident”.
However, while O’Neill lived the Old Firm derby for five years of his managerial career, he spoke highly of both sets of supporters when it came to respecting one another on the streets of Glasgow: “I have to tell you I can count on the fingers of one hand when I got verbally abused on the streets.”
There are many reasons why the Rangers – Celtic rivalry is the best in world football, and this anecdote hardly scratches the surface.
But in what has so far been a dire Premiership campaign for Gers and Giovanni van Bronckhorst, it’s always good to have a chuckle at a former Celtic manager.
In other Rangers news, Sean Dyche makes an Ibrox admission live on air with Jim White