The Celtic manager mantra rejected as club icon offers Brendan Rodgers contract hope
Gordon Strachan believes every Celtic manager has a shelf life. And it rarely lasts longer than three exhausting years at the coal face.
But Martin O'Neill begs to differ.
And, having cherished the position for almost five years during his own time at the helm, he's yet to be convinced that current boss Brendan Rodgers will be in any rush to move on at the end of this, his second spell in charge.
O'Neill was speaking at Hampden to help launch Premier Sports coverage of the new top flight season - knowing Rodgers is now entering the third and final years of his Parkhead contract.
And the veteran Northern Irishman strongly suspects that, having not long turned 52-years-old, his compatriot should have plenty left in the tank should he want to prolong his stay in the hotseat.
Asked about Strachan's assertion that three years might be more than enough O'Neill insisted he would have no intention to bow out two decades ago had it not been for the failing health of his wife Geraldine.
He said: 'Well, I never felt that. Honestly, I never felt that at all. Eventually, I would have outstayed my welcome but that would have been to do with results.
'Somewhere along the way, you would get a spell of results that nobody wanted. But, no, if my wife had been well enough, absolutely I would have stayed here until, until it's gone.
'Eventually everybody gets fed up with people, no question. Fans get fed up with a manager even if he's doing alright. The manager might think it's stressful - but that's part of the game and it's enjoyable at times. The only thing I hated about it was talking to you guys!'
True to form, the barbs remain as sharp as they ever were. But O'Neill has mellowed over time nonetheless.
What still burns as strong as ever is his desire to see Celtic stay on top of the domestic pile. And he insists Rogers and owner Dermot Desmond share the same raging ambition for their club.
In fact, although Rodgers might be entering the final 12 months of his deal, O'Neill would not be surprised if the pair of them have already reached a secret, verbal agreement to extend their time together - just as he used to do with Desmond back in the day.
Asked why an agreement hasn't already been thrashed out and announced he said: 'OK, good point. But I've had times with Dermot as well, where I might have signed a contract in January but didn't do it until August time. It honestly didn't really bother me.
'Do I think there might be something similar in place between Dermot and Brendan? Yeah, I would.
'I don't want to sound incredibly sycophantic here about Dermot but if you do come to an agreement with Dermot in August and nothing happens in October, I would still say that that's still on.
'That's my view - even if it's a kind of biased view.'
O'Neill, though, admits relationships can become strained when the transfer window is open for business - and the pressure is on.
He added: 'If I turn the clock back, every season I was always looking for more players for the exact same reasons that Brendan's talking about. You have to keep on improving.
'For me, it was trying to get through and, first of all, qualify for the Champions League, which we had to do sometimes. After you've done that you try to make it through to the next stages, which Gordon did.
'So the minute you don't do that, then you think, 'Well, gosh, we're not improving,'. Brendan will have these things on his mind. He set a standard there last season, and he'll want to surpass that. And that would be difficult even if you got another three players in.
'The draw might not be as favourable to you this particular time. It should be OK this season because you're still going to have a couple of clubs of your supposed standing. I haven't spoken to Brendan since the back end of last season, so I don't really know what his position is.
'All I will say to you is that if Brendan is making noises about not improving the team then the contractual situation is the very obvious second part of that.'
O'Neill was asked if Rodgers might be upping the ante on Celtic's board in public in order to ensure that his ambitions are matched before agreeing to put pen to paper on his own extension.
He said: 'That's a good point and I genuinely don't know the answer. The one thing I do know is that he's working with the fella that I worked with for all my time there at the football club and, seriously, I had a verbal agreement with him a number of times. And it always came to fruition.'
But he believes, if Rodgers is ready to call it a day then Desmond will already be working on his replacement. He added: 'If I'm a club owner and someone said to me, 'You've got a year to think about another manager,' I'd be happy with that. There'll be other managers out there at the time.
'But Brendan's done a brilliant job since he came back, which was a brave decision 'But the very fact that Dermot brought him back would tell you everything about the relationship.'
And O'Neill admits that, after a summer of more targeted, high end spending in last year's market on the likes of Adam Idah, Arne Engels and Auston Trusty, Dermot is unlikely to be a pushover where the current demands of Rodgers are concerned.
He said: 'I always knew the parameters in which I was working but I don't honestly ever remember Dermot saying, 'No, you're not having that other player'.
'And who's to say who's right or who's wrong? Yeah, I must have had a lot of free rein at the time. Life changes a wee bit, you know but I did have that and I enjoyed it.
'The dynamic might be different now in the sense of how the club is run. Dermot may well say that it's run far better now than it was when I was here.
'Again, it's about a bit of trust. All I will say is, on the other side, if Dermot puts something to him and he wants him to stay at the football club, he'll do his very, very best to keep him.
"I have to say I was never unhappy with the model I worked with. You might say, well, no wonder if you're able to get John Hartson for £3m! And I'd take your point.
"But let me put it this way, if I walked into that situation and that was the thing that was put in front of me, I would have to work like that anyway. So yeah, the model has definitely changed but I would have had to find a way to work with that, you know? I'm not that intransigent!'
Martin O'Neill was promoting Premier Sports' coverage of Scottish football including over 80 matches from the Scottish Premiership, Premier Sports Cup, Scottish Cup and KDM Evolution Trophy. Fans can watch an entire season of football for only £99 using promo code PSCUP25.
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