O'Neill denies move to United

Celtic manager Martin O’Neill has denied plotting a switch to Manchester United with major shareholder Dermot Desmond.

O’Neill has been linked to a possible takeover of Old Trafford by a group of Irish financiers dubbed ‘the Coolmore Mafia’.

Desmond is a powerful figure in Ireland and his close links with Alex Ferguson have spawned speculation that such a move would also see Ferguson becoming chairman and O’Neill taking over team affairs.

O’Neill has always tried to laugh off such suggestions, joking that, if results dipped at Parkhead, Maidenhead United would be his more likely destination.

But now he has spoken candidly for the first time on the matter to the club’s in-house publication Celtic View.

He said: “I can honestly tell you that I have never discussed any kind of business with Dermot other than that concerning Celtic Football Club.

“I know nothing about his interests outwith the club and I have no wish to know. The truth is this here: it doesn’t concern me.”

Such is the intensity of football fervour in Glasgow that an Old Firm manager’s every movement is noted and often analysed in a way O’Neill never encountered, even as a European Cup-winning player in England.

The former Leicester City boss’ wife Geraldine is said to be unhappy in the city and yearns for a return south. So much so, that it was said their house had already been put up for sale.

O’Neill, who has two daughters and jealously guards his family’s right to privacy, insisted: “It’s absolute nonsense.

“My wife has followed me everywhere, with little say in any of the moves we’ve ended up making.

“The suggestion that she has been an unsettling influence of some sort annoys me more than anything.

“It seems that all you need to do is say to a taxi driver ‘Ah, it’s a grey day today’ and suddenly you hate the place and want to move. It’s incredibly irritating.”

O’Neill has just signed a new contract, a rolling 12-month deal that was agreed in Barbados with Desmond while the Celtic players were in Florida training under coaches Steve Walford and John Robertson.

And O’Neill revealed that he had treated the first part of that Caribbean stay as nothing more than a holiday.

He said: “The first thing Desmond said to me was that I was looking absolutely wretched – and he was absolutely right.

“I think it was mainly the fact that I didn’t manage to get away during the summer.

“I admit I was relieved to get away and it was good to spend a day or two sitting around not doing a great deal.”

The pair ended up thrashing out the new deal but O’Neill denied their relationship was in any way cosy.

He said: “He didn’t get to the position he’s in by being nice to people all the time.

“We have had one or two arguments and generally speaking – mainly because he’s the man holding the whip hand – I’ve come off second best.”