Martin O’Neill
Martin Hugh Michael O’Neill, OBE, (born March 1, 1952 in Kilrea, Northern Ireland) is a former Northern Ireland national football team captain who has previously managed Wycombe Wanderers, Norwich City, Leicester City and Celtic and is currently manager of Aston Villa. O’Neill is perhaps best known for his time as Celtic manager between 2000 and 2005 when he led the club to 3 Scottish Premier League titles and the 2003 UEFA Cup Final in Seville.
O’Neill was introduced as the Aston Villa manager at a press conference on August 4, 2006. At the press conference he stated “It’s absolutely fantastic to be back and with a club such as this. This is a fantastic challenge. I am well aware of the history of this football club. Trying to restore it to its days of former glory seems a long way away – but why not try? It is nearly 25 years since they won the European Cup but that is the dream.”
Villa’s form improved substantially following O’Neill’s appointment. They had the longest unbeaten start of any Premiership side in 2006-07 (9 games), not losing a league game until 28 October.
Villa suffered a mid-season slump but recovered late in the season, winning their three away games in April under O’Neill’s guidance, to end the season how it began with a run of 9 unbeaten fixtures . For this O’Neill scooped the Barclays Manager of the Month for April.
In October 2007 O’Neill was linked to the England manager position after England lost in the Euro 2008 qualifiers. Aston Villa’s owner Randy Lerner said that he would not stop O’Neill from leaving Villa if offered the job, because he respects that the title of English manager is a very prestigious position. O’Neill later dismissed the reports, calling them “unfair speculation”.
Source: Wikipedia
