O’Neill's clear Celtic message to Reo Hatate after talks

 "Alan Parry, the commentator, was a director at Wycombe. He was also a director the first time and had mentioned about coming down for that interview. I do the interview, don’t get it, fine."

Two years later, in 1990, O'Neill's luck turned. "Since I was the only one interviewed, even I couldn’t fail that," he joked. "It is really nice (to reach 1000 games). I went last year to the LMA (League Managers Association) as the chairman and there were five (1000 club members) there at the time; (Jurgen) Klopp, (Jose) Mourinho, Ian Holloway. And Ian was very funny alongside Klopp and Mourinho. David Moyes was there and Mick McCarthy. Holloway kind of stole the show in terms of the talking. Even then, I genuinely didn’t know how many games I would have had."

"When I came here in the first spell (this season), my biggest worry was nothing to do with whether you had written something that happened 20-odd years ago, it was the fact that if you couldn’t win a game you’d be considered too old. It turns out it shouldn’t have been as big a concern in my head as it was.

 "Of course you like showing you can still win, you’d be telling lies otherwise. There are certain things that have not changed in this game, believe it or not. I’d love to have a conversation with Sir Alex Ferguson about what he makes of it

 "But there are certain things you have to align yourself with, different tactics in the game, the playing out from the back, the squeezing, your playing out from the back, tacking risks where they didn’t exist years ago, things like that.

 "You have to try to equate if a lot of these risks are worth taking. I’d love to find the stat on how many times you break the press and how many goals are scored from it. It wouldn’t be phenomenal.

 "I did get some calls from the older managers, it would be unfair to say who. It would be too strong to say I’m flying the flag, but it was like saying we can still do it."

O'Neill's 1000th game comes in the Europa League against Stuttgart tomorrow evening. "This is the last 24, so Istanbul is a long way away, and I don’t mean geographically," he added. "If you were knocked out you would have immediate disappointment, but if it did free up some weeks to give players time to recover, that might be decent.

"But you might get knocked out here, we might get beat on Sunday, we could follow it up against Rangers and Aberdeen within a couple of days. It could all disappear quickly, even if we lost here.

"On the other side, you have to look at it positively. If you can compete here with them, then it surely must give you confidence as they are a fine team."

O'Neill has a multitude of team selection dilemmas ahead of the tie's first leg. Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain has made an immediate impact since joining Celtic on a free transfer just after the January transfer window shut, although he isn't registered in their European squad. Arne Engels is currently sidelined with an upper leg injury, meaning the much-maligned Reo Hatate could be in for yet another start.

Highly criticised for his attitude and performances in recent weeks, O'Neill, contrary to popular opinion, does not think Hatate has downed tools.

"I don't think that's, no," O'Neill said. "That might have existed in the last couple of months or something. But now, since the window, no, he just has to try and regain form. I don't think that's the case.

"He wants to knuckle down. He said this to me. He wants to really knuckle down. I think that there's, you know, some of these lads are concerned about maybe not getting into the (Japan) squad in the summertime.

"I think that should, that eventually will be some sort of by-product of what you do here. He's really got to knuckle down and be the player that he was. I think you'd tell me he was a proper player about two years ago.

"I think he's searching for form. I think that's what it is. And in fairness to the lad, he wants, you know, seriously, he wants to stay for extra. He wants to do things. He's not the first one to leave the pitch at the end (of training). He wants to do things. I think he's frustrated with it because of the player that he was. And then he has to find the reasons for it.

"And I must admit, I haven't had enough time to look back at his glory moments and see what he was doing then, doing differently now, or not doing now that he did then. So I haven't had a chance to see it. Obviously, the people around the football club tell me. It would be better if I checked it out myself or got a better understanding of it. He wants the full commitment now, between now and the end of the season. And that's what he wants to do."

Celtic midfielder Reo Hatate. (Image: PA)

Could this be Hatate's big moment of redemption on the European stage? "If he puts his mind to it," O'Neill answered. "We'll see. I haven't picked a side yet. But I think he knows if he was sat here now with you and had an interpreter, he'd be saying the same thing.

 "He has to search for this form himself. And eventually, you can talk to your blue in the face, but players have to try and sort it out."

Celtic left it late once again at the weekend as they staged an epic comeback against Kilmarnock. It was the third match in a row they scored in stoppage to either win or equalise.

"Well, it is unsustainable," O'Neill admitted. "There's no question of it. It is, absolutely. No, personally speaking, I think we have shown a spirit. I think the lads do keep going. But at the end of it all, it seems as if it's something that you're almost planning. It's not. It's not. And it's not good for my heart at all.

"But it's not something you're planning. And just because it's happened in three very, very quick games, we could play tomorrow night and we could concede in the 93rd minute. We could play Sunday and Hibs could score in the 93rd. It can happen. So there's nothing, there's not a pattern to it in that sense. It only suggests it is because it's three quick games at the time. But no, it's not.

"But the only thing I will say about it is that I genuinely do believe that they want to keep going. The minute that we got the equaliser, I noticed the big boy Tomas (Cvancara) getting the ball out of the net and racing up to put it under the halfway. So that's encouraging.

"But, you know, you can go on forever in a day. It's two each at the game. Then we make a mistake in the match. They force a corner. The fella heads it over the bar. Could have been 3-2 with only, what, six minutes, seven minutes left. Changes the game. You know, there's things that change. But I do think that we've got a, I'd say it might be capitulation tomorrow or over the two games, but I do think we've had really decent spirit among the players."

Some have claimed that Celtic are getting away with their poor performances by consistently scoring at the death. "I saw, yeah," O'Neill said. "No, it doesn't bother me. It would have bothered me 20 years ago. It doesn't bother me now."