Martin O’Neill, who leads his Celtic team for the last time in Saturday’s Cup final against Dundee United, faces a major task restoring the morale of his players following the club’s surrender of their Scottish title on the last day of the league season.
After relinquishing the title to arch-rivals Rangers, O’Neill confirmed he would be leaving the club to care for his wife who has cancer.
However, O’Neill is confident his players will bounce back from last week’s setback.
“There’s a group of players here I would stake everything on,” said O’Neill.
“They have been the mainstay of this club and they will go again on Saturday, without any shadow of a doubt.”
Captain Jackie McNamara has vowed to win the cup as a farewell gift to O’Neill.
“The manager would be the last person who would want us to talk about doing it for him in the final,” said McNamara.
“But he kept it together while under tremendous strain and we were the ones who fell apart. This one’s for him.”
