O’Neill remains youthful in body and mind. If his days in the dugout are indeed over, he quite rightly refuses to fully concede as much. “Could I manage at the top level? I don’t think those things leave you. The spirit, the determination, the passion and drive … My last breath on this earth is when those things will leave me.” However, at times it felt a little rushed - for example, both his early professional career and how he felt when he won the league with Nottingham Forest seem to be covered very briefly. I wonder whether it would've been better for the great man to divide this book into two tomes: one dealing with his playing career and a sequel with his managerial one. That way, he could've dealt with his many successes and occasional failures in more detail. Martin recognises that his days at Leicester City, where he won the League Cup, happened around a half a mile away from the club’c current home at Filbert Street. Martin might choose to post his next video from The City Ground in Nottingham, or even Villa Park where he did much better than their recent boss to say the least. He might even make the short hop across the Irish Sea to Dublin where he managed the Republic or up to Belfast where he played for the six counties. Instead he went to Aston Villa, with sixth-placed finishes in each of his last three seasons, but he then had a poor spell in the managerial wastelands of Sunderland and five years with the Republic of Ireland that divided opinion. He has an enviable sense of composition, balancing shape, color, line, texture, and type with a precision that makes it all seem effortless. You have to have a really good eye to do all that. And Martin O’Neill has the best. He is a true master of collage.” – Graham Rawle. June 2019

Pan Macmillan to publish Martin O’Neill’s long-awaited

There are some nice stories in here, but I would have liked to hear more about what Clough was like or what life was like in Glasgow, but he focuses on what happened on the pitch, which is fine.There are already murmurings in the Republic of Ireland about Martin O’Neill’s autobiography. On Days Like These, which charts five decades in football, signs off with a withering take-down of Keith Andrews, Stephen Kenny’s assistant with Ireland. “Stephen’s lieutenant finds himself in a hotter seat in the dugout than the one he occupied in a TV studio when he was an excoriating critic of mine,” O’Neill writes. Tellingly, a number of those had also complained to the club’s hierarchy about his predecessor, Aitor Karanka, and this has been a recurring theme for Forest during 20 years of drift outside the top division: players turning against the manager and, in O’Neill’s case, the people in charge reluctantly concluding that the damage was irreparable. Martin O'Neill is a tremendously articulately and intelligent man, and I thoroughly enjoyed his autobiography, written without the input of a ghost writer.

Martin O’Neill’s Forest reign Goodbye to the Miracle Man: how Martin O’Neill’s Forest reign

The flaw in that argument was that Guedioura had been left out of Algeria’s squad for their games against the Gambia and Tunisia. O’Neill was livid. There was a dressing-room confrontation and, perhaps unsurprisingly, Guedioura did not start another game for the two-times European Cup winner. O’Neill’s memories of a “mesmeric” Clough remain vivid, from the moment of their initial meeting in the winter of 1975. Clough instantly promoted O’Neill to the first team but was not of a mind to fawn. “Hey, you: Stop putting your mate in the shit. You look like a boy who would put your mate in the shit,” was the message in an early training session. O’Neill is effusive in his praise of Keane, who has not managed since departing Ipswich in 2011. Bert Johnson, O’Neill’s youth coach at Forest, imparted advice which he believes applies to Keane. “You get a reputation in life for being an early riser and you can lie in bed all day,” he says. O’Neill made it clear before taking the job that he regarded it as unfair to be branded a “dinosaur” and, to give him his due, he experimented with various formations since inheriting the team. Again, though, the style of play has not always been pleasing on the eye.

And he will continue. “Working intuitively allows him to spot potential combinations, recognizing and then capitalizing on serendipity and the element of chance. While the final choices are informed by assiduously honed design skills. He has worked as an illustrator and artist for two decades and regularly exhibits his personal collages, sketchbooks, and prints. He is also a visiting lecturer across the UK. Martin lives and works on England’s South East coast with his wife and two daughters.

Martin O’Neill | Illustrator Artist (Cut it Out Studio) Martin O’Neill | Illustrator Artist (Cut it Out Studio)

Mr. O’Neil takes us on a journey that includes his childhood, his professional football career and then his professional management history. Because he sees the inherent value in every tiny piece, he develops a unique relationship with his archive. This makes all the difference when he brings everything together in an image because we feel what he feels; his passion is infectious. “ 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. Martin O’Neill has had one of the most incredible careers in football – winning European Cups, captaining his country at a world cup, and decades as a hugely successful manager. On Days Like These tells his fascinating story in his own words for the first time. Signed copies of each one (other than the sold-out Walfrid & The Bould Bhoys) available now at https://t.co/jXLgPJMlRm.Unfortunately for the decision-makers at Forest, it is nearly 25 years since O’Neill had that golden period at Leicester City where he transformed a second-tier side into one that secured four top-10 finishes in the Premier League and reached three League Cup finals, winning two. O’Neill subsequently won seven trophies with Celtic, as well as reaching a Uefa Cup final, and was talked about for a long time as the best qualified man to succeed Sir Alex Ferguson at Manchester United. As for his critics in the dressing room, they grew to dislike his ideas. There have been complaints that his training methods were uninspiring and that, tactically, the squad were unsure about how he wanted them to play. Over the last week, as he led them on a series of punishing runs, attitudes have hardened. Yet the truth is a nucleus of senior players were unconvinced from the start. A key part of Brian Clough’s legendary Nottingham Forest team in the ‘70s and early ‘80s, Martin also represented Northern Ireland more than 60 times and led them at the 1982 World Cup. As a manager he took Leicester City to two League Cups, Celtic to seven trophies, and the Republic of Ireland to the European Championship in 2016. The relationship between O’Neill and the Irish football media during a five-year international tenure remains a source of fascination. We shall return to that later. It would be unfair, as some have suggested, to depict O’Neill’s memoir as a score-settling exercise. Yes, there is occasionally acerbic comment – one would surely expect no less – but an extraordinary career which scaled playing heights under Brian Clough before touching managerial greatness at Celtic and Leicester is depicted with an entertaining tone. There is self-deprecation throughout.

Martin O’Neill’s long-awaited Pan Macmillan to publish Martin O’Neill’s long-awaited

For a complicated man, he played a very simple game. He was as good at tactics as anybody but that’s not how he is considered. He is considered a motivator, a shouter or a charmer. He knew the game inside out. He told us things tactically during games that stood the test of time. He would say something to you on a Monday, contradict himself on a Friday and you would believe both.” Martin O’Neill speaks honestly about the decision to retire as a player, and making the transition to manager. He recalls finding early success with Wycombe Wanderers, and the move to the Premier League with Leicester City. He talks about his years with Celtic, where the team won seven trophies and reached the UEFA Cup Final in 2003, and at Aston Villa, where he achieved three consecutive top six Premier League finishes. He also speaks about managing the Republic of Ireland, and working alongside his mercurial assistant, Roy Keane. Written with O’Neill’s trademark honesty and humour, Martin’s capability relies on being an international contemporary illustrator by keeping his old school technique his strong point of recognition.

This is a tidy little book, it charts the progress of a man who I am sure will be fondly remembered as a football genius by my generation. His international clients encompass advertising, design, editorial, publishing, as well as regular contributions to the UK and US press including Sony Playstation, Faber Faber, Capital One, EMI Music, Wired USA, Camel & GQ India.