At the age of 74, Martin O’Neill has successfully revived his management career with Celtic.

Last October O’Neill was asked to join the Scottish giants as interim manager and, over two stints at the helm, went on to win the Scottish Premiership and Cup double.

In his new book, which is now out in paperback, O’Neill reviews the changes that have taken place in the footballing world during his long career.

It is a book about the development of football in the last half century. From aspects like how we deal with injuries, foreign influences on the British game, the changing roles of managers and coaches, players and agents. The effect of social media, wage structures, and a few rule conversions adding to the mix.

O’Neill weighs up the pros and cons about whether the game has changed for the better or the worse. He rightly identifies improvements such as the pitches, the fitness of the players, the removal of hooliganism and racism.

But he also identifies plenty of negatives. For example, he comments, “Football stadiums are increasingly becoming a place for wealthy people, rather than the working-class environments they were in my day.

It is good that people are getting into football who weren’t before, but this can dilute the atmosphere and culture when fans are priced out. Football has become a big-money industry.” This was so evident during the recent World Cup when England fans were having to pay £1000-plus for a ticket.

As far as punditry is concerned, he is critical of some of the language that has become common. He says, “The modern media is obsessed with assists. That wasn’t a common concept in my days as a player. An ‘assist’ is just the last player to touch the ball before the goalscorer. Of course, sometimes a goal is the result of a brilliant cross or pass, but I think we put far too much emphasis on assists nowadays, adding them together with goals to accrue ‘goal contributions’, which is ridiculous.”

“Along with assists, the other big statistic that comes up a lot in punditry these days is ‘expected goals’. I think this is total nonsense. You’ve got to remember what the game is about: winning football matches, and that means scoring goals, not recording the expectation of them.”

O’Neill has successfully identified how the game has changed during his lifetime, but he says the essence of the game remains the same – the importance of team spirit, the way that winning or losing a game changes your entire mood for a week, and the basics of attacking and defending.

He has had one of the most successful managing and playing careers winning ten major honours as a manager and winning the European Cup (now Champions League) twice and the First Division (now Premier League) with Nottingham Forest as a player. Incredibly, he’s still winning trophies in his mid-70s.

Martin O’Neill – The Changing Game: The past, present and future of football. Published by Tallis Street Books. Price £14.99.

This review first appeared in the September/October 2026 edition of Late Tackle magazine.