Soccer: O'Neill angry at trophy delay for Irish fans
Celtic manager Martin O’Neill has taken a swipe at the Scottish Premier League for delaying the presentation of the championship trophy by a week.
The man behind the club’s success has asked SPL officials why his team were not presented with the silverware after securing the title against St Mirren.
Instead the presentation will take place after Sunday’s televised match against Hearts at Parkhead, which kicks off at 6.05pm.
But O’Neill believes that some Celtic fans, especially those who travel from Ireland, will not be able to see their heroes parade Scottish football’s biggest prize.
"It seemed strange to me at the time," he said. "Now the wisdom of it is even more questionable.
"I could have understood it had there been two or three sides vying for the title on the same day, but Celtic Park was the only place it could end up.
"It does give us another chance to celebrate, but I’d be disappointed if the late kick-off meant some of our fans were unable to stay for the party.
"Our Irish supporters are the ones that always spring to mind in these situations, but the fact is that anyone living outside Glasgow will find they’ll be getting home late.
"Rules are rules and we’ll have to abide by them, but it’s far from ideal. I just hope most people will be able to hang around. It will be a lovely occasion for everyone who’s there."
Meanwhile, O’Neill has labelled record-breaking striker Henrik Larsson as the striking equivalent of Manchester United defender Jaap Stam.
The former Leicester boss is running out of superlatives to describe the Swede, who broke the club’s post-war scoring weekend on Sunday.
He has worked with some of the game’s top strikers of the past and present in Trevor Francis and Emile Heskey and he believes Larsson is as good as any.
O’Neill said: "Henrik’s a different type of player to Francis and Heskey, but would compare favourably with both of them.
"Trevor was an excellent striker with tremendous pace while Emile has speed, strength and heading ability.
"But Henrik has all of that as well as an exquisite touch and an overall awareness.
"Even in games when he hasn’t found the net he’s always looked like scoring. Defenders know that there’s danger lurking whenever he’s around and, more often than not, he’ll manage to get the better of them.
"If you look at great defenders like Manchester United’s Jaap Stam, what makes them special is they always look in command of their area of the pitch so I suppose you could say Henrik is the striking equivalent of Stam."
