May – Leicester finish eighth in the Premiership, their highest placing, and qualify for the UEFA Cup. The penultimate challenge in the semi-finals was against Boavista; a tough set of matches which saw Celtic come from behind (in aggregate terms) to win and make it to the final (overcoming much of the opposition’s antics). It was a nervy affair, but it was thanks to Larsson’s late winner that Celtic got through. Martin O’Neill was there all the way, and with his team had overcome all challenges to get to the final.

The changes at Ibrox don’t affect our job one jot, certainly nothing that happens over there will influence what I do.” One of my jobs at the start – and you can write this as a headline – was trying to find out why exactly we had spent some of our money on Rafael Sheidt.” January: Signs new 12-month rolling contract. March: Celtic beaten 2-1 by Rangers in CIS Cup final. May: Celtic lose 3-2 in extra-time to Porto in the Uefa Cup final in Seville. Celtic lose SPL title to Rangers on thrilling final day.

April: Celtic secure the Scottish Premier League title. May: Celtic are beaten in the Scottish Cup final by Rangers. Neil Lennon, for whatever reasons, suffers dogs abuse at every single away ground and in particular here obviously. He is well thought of by the Celtic fans for what he has done for us over the last four-and-a-half years. It was to show that Neil Lennon is very popular with our fans and I didn’t want anyone to forget that.” From then on, Martin O’Neill’s teams had to battle and overcome Celta Vigo (violent players and incompetent referees), the highly rated Stuttgart (Germans) and then the big one, Liverpool, the biggest name to date. Martin’s capability relies on being an international contemporary illustrator by keeping his old school technique his strong point of recognition. My work was ‘fine arty abstract collage’ at that point, I hadn’t ever illustrated anything. I didn’t really know if I’d be able to make great collages with specific subject matter at short notice – with my relatively small archive of material, (and no internet at that time of course) but it all started there. I launched into commercial art and in a few months started calling myself an ‘Illustrator’. It took a while to learn how to successfully answer a brief though.

Martin O’Neill was born in London. The Graphic illustrator Artist creates collages for a wide range of International clients through publishing, advertising, design, and installation work. May: Villa finish sixth again, a run of nine games without a win costing them Champions League place. August: Fails to take Villa into the group stages of the Europa League as Rapid Vienna progress on away goals.How was Martin O’Neill to advance Celtic from the previous season’s stellar campaign? Celtic were way ahead of where all expected the club to be (helped admittedly by Rangers imploding), so season 2001-02 was to see the next stage by testing European waters. Resigns on December 17 after a series of clashes with chairman Robert Chase over money for team-building. Appointed manager of Leicester on December 21. Martin O’Neill has reduced the number of nutters at Celtic because he has given them less to be nuts about. ” An important incident from this season showed the greatest aspect of Martin O’Neill. This was when at the end of a game v Rangers ( link), he took midfielder Neil Lennon over to the Celtic fans and proudly paraded him shoulder-to-shoulder after Lennon was racially & verbally abused for the 90mins by the Rangers fans.