Celtic Chief urges O'Neill to match United
Sunday, 8 April 2001 11:41Celtic's major shareholder Dermot Desmond wants Martin O'Neill to emulate Manchester United, not join them. But whether the man who has brought the championship back to Parkhead in his first season will get millions to build a squad remains to be seen.
"Our aim is that over the next four or five years we can attain the same position as Manchester United of being regular and winning competitors in European competitions," the Ireland-based director said.
O'Neill already had European experience with Leicester City as a manager and, of course, twice lifted the European Cup as a player with Nottingham Forest. Now he must achieve what no other Celtic boss has managed - to negotiate his team through the qualifying stages to reach the Champions League proper.
Desmond told the Irish Times: "It will be nice to be in it, that's the first thing. But to say that we have a team strong enough to win the Champions' League would be outrageous. I'm not going to anticipate the budget there will be, but there will be no surprises for Martin."
"We are looking at the resources that will have to be made available if we are to be competitive in Europe. But we're a public company, reliant on generating results on and off the field. We're beginning to do that on the field but off it we're still running at a deficit," Desmond added. (PA)
Filed by Sinéad Kissane
