O’Neill had a hugely successful career as both a player and as a manager.
As well as impressing on the pitch, O’Neill has also made a name for himself off it too.
He’s seen as one of the most popular pundits in the business, offering expert insight on the game.
He’s excelled on the likes of BBC Sport and ITV Sport, showcasing his encyclopaedic knowledge of the game as well as enjoying amusing exchanges, too.
During World Cup 98, as a studio guest with Des Lynam and Alan Hansen, O’Neill famously admitted to pop star Robbie Williams that he’d thought he’d struggle after the break-up of Take That, only to praise him for hit song ‘Angels’.
He told him: “To be fair, like, you’ve done really well because I thought you would struggle after Take That. I really did think that.
“You can’t play, you can’t write, you can’t play guitar. I thought you’d really struggle. Gary Barlow probably kept the band together.
“But the Angels song was top class, I have to say that. Absolutely top class.”
During World Cup 2014 coverage, after some playful teasing from Patrick Vieira, Fabio Cannavaro and host Adrian Chiles, O’Neill fired back: “Despite the fact that there are two World Cup winners here, actually when it comes to the Champions League, which used to be the European Cup, I’ve won two of them. I’d just like to know, how many have you two won?”
Before his stint as a pundit, O’Neill made his name as an all-action midfielder for this weekend’s opponents, Forest and enjoyed enormous success under Brian Clough.
O’Neill won the European Cup twice in succession in 1979 and 1980 in an era of British dominance of the competition and also the First Division title in 1978, the League Cup in 1978 and 1979 and the European Super Cup in 1979.
MY CITY NIGHTMARE XI | MARTIN O’NEILL
He also captained Northern Ireland during the Spain 82 World Cup.
After two spells at Norwich, he also spent time here at Manchester City.
John Bond paid £275,000 for him in the summer of 1981 but he ended up playing only 16 games in for City but departed after just the one season.
He does look back with fondness at his time in the sky blue and admits he would have loved to have had more time at the Club.
After eventually retiring from playing, he enjoyed enormous success in the dugout, especially at the likes of Wycombe Wanderers, Leicester City – where he took the Foxes to Premier League promotion in 1996 as well as two League Cup wins in 1997 and 2000 – Celtic and Aston Villa.
At Celtic Park, he won three Scottish Premier League titles as well as three Scottish Cups and a Scottish League Cup.
FOREST V CITY
City travel to Forest on Saturday for a 15:00 kick-off and you can follow the game on the Official App.
We will start live updates at 13:00 on our Matchday Centre and that will run throughout the day.
Our Matchday Live programme will begin shortly before team news arrives at 14:00.
Natalie Pike will be in the studio with Martin O’Neill and Nedum Onuoha.
During the game, Alistair Mann will talk you through proceedings with our radio commentary offering.
Afterwards, we will bring you all the reaction before short highlights are available from 19:00 (UK time).
Our extended highlights will be online from midnight as will our full-match replay of the whole 90 minutes for subscribers to CITY+ and Recast.
Don’t forget, the best way to follow Manchester City is by downloading the Official App!
And when you do, turn on notifications to get alerted when our Matchday Live show, featuring O’Neill and Onuoha, starts.
Download on your mobile phone or tablet via Apple’s App Store or Google Play Store, or, if you already have the app, then simply visit the stores and update.
