Martin O’Neill previews Dundee opener and talks transfers with Sky Sports | OneFootball

Martin O’Neill caught up with Sky Sports Scotland earlier on this afternoon to preview the upcoming season, commencing against Dundee on Monday at Celtic Park on Flag Day…

15th February 2026; Rugby Park, Scottish Premiership, Kilmarnock versus Celtic; Celtic interim manager Martin O’Neill speaks to the media after the match. Photo Vagelis Georgariou

The Bhoys boss was delighted to speak about the upcoming campaign with Luke Shanley and revealed his anticipation at officially getting going when Steven Pressley’s Dundee side roll into town on 3 August, after the fixture was give a later date and kick-off due to policing issues apparently.

Luke Shanley: Martin, how much are you raring to go for another season?

Martin O’Neill: “Looking forward to it immensely. Last season was terrific. It’s gone now. It’s consigned to history. Now we’re ready to go.”

Luke Shanley: The one thing that your team did have at the end of that season, but that very strong mentality as much as you say last season’s been parked. How much do you try and take things like that in the spirit and the courage your team showed?

Martin O’Neill:  “Yeah. Well, I think you’re right. I think it was mentality as much as anything else that got us over the line. It was strong. It was the will to win and we saw it through. That will be very, very important this season with no question about that.”

New Celtic signing Kasper Hogh is unveiled to the mainstream media at Celtic Park. Photo Roddy Scott IMAGO / Shutterstock

Luke Shanley: Kasper Høgh is in the new singing or record signing for the club. How positive is that?

Martin O’Neill: “I think it’s great news. I think it’s great news for us in the football club and I think it’s great news for the fans wanting to try and improve or goal scoring obviously and I’m I think he’s the man to do it. I’m hoping that he will get help throughout the whole time and we not just relying on him. Hopefully the goals will be shared around a little bit but if he is the main man I hope he comes up.”

Luke Shanley: Daizen Maeda’s left and of course Kasper will be a different type of player but does that give you different options in a way or different things to think about?

Martin O’Neill: “I think that there should be more than one way to try and play the game. You know we we’ve been playing like a 4-3-3. We’ve changed it in the last few minutes against Hearts in the last day. There’s no reason why we couldn’t be flexible and that’s something that we would be during the course of the season trying to work on trying to be flexible so that if somebody said to you we’re 4-4-2 for about half an hour. It shouldn’t be a problem to the team. The only way of course it’s not a problem is if you practice it during the week.”

Mika Baur SC Paderborn,14, Football Bundesliga season 2025 2026 VfL Wolfsburg vs SC Paderborn at the Volkswagen Arena in Wolfsburg Germany 21 May 2026. Photo IMAGO / Christian Schroedter

Luke Shanley: How many more can the fans expect to see and or is it just one of those ones? It’s a horrible word, but does the club and the fans have to be patient in terms of new signings?

Martin O’Neill: “No, I think we’re trying to get some quality into the football club. We’ve lost Daizen that he was a big big player for us and so we have to replace him and I think that we’re doing our best to do that. We will get some more players in. There’s no question about that also. But yeah, I want quality rather than quantity.”

Luke Shanley: How tough a game will Dundee be on the the opening evening for Celtic on the Monday night? 

Martin O’Neill: “Well, they caused us all sorts of problems last season and we we got a last minutee equaliser in the Scottish Cup, otherwise we were out of the competition. They played exceptionally well that day at Celtic Park. I expect very much the same again. We won a with a late goal that started our run at Dens Park last season and I will take that all day long or all evening long on Monday.”

Martin O’Neill of Celtic FC. Sporting CP v Celtic, Pre Season Friendly, Football, Estadio Algarve, Portugal – 14 July 2026. Photo Zed Jameson IMAGO/ Shutterstock

Watch Martin’s full interview with Sky Sports Scotland below as Celtic gets ready for the Flag Day opener on Monday night against Dundee at Celtic Park…

Paul Gillespie

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