This is a tidy little book, it charts the progress of a man who I am sure will be fondly remembered as a football genius by my generation. My remit was not to cure the ills of the League of Ireland or anything like that. My job was pure and simple – qualify for the Euros. Then, after that, if you’re going to be around, then of course you can oversee the whole shebang. I had umpteen meetings with the boys taking the underage teams and I took a big interest, but that gets lost in translation. BC: I expected to read more about your Republic of Ireland managerial career in the book as you spent five years with them. Is that a reflection of you not enjoying it as much as you’d hoped? Martin O’Neill is one of the most fascinating and respected figures in football. On Days Like These tells the story of his remarkable career. MO’N: I think I should’ve taken a little bit more time out. You’re being interviewed immediately after a game, either a win or a loss. When you win, it’s not a problem. Of course, when you lose, you accept the criticism – absolutely. But after Denmark it was really disappointing especially having drawn in Copenhagen [in the first leg].

O’Neill is effusive in his praise of Keane, who has not managed since departing Ipswich in 2011. Bert Johnson, O’Neill’s youth coach at Forest, imparted advice which he believes applies to Keane. “You get a reputation in life for being an early riser and you can lie in bed all day,” he says.

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BC: With Ireland, you had a quite limited squad but you can’t come out and say: ‘Well, we’re not very good, are we?’ MO’N: Seamus Coleman might have been the only player playing in the Premier League at the time. There were a lot of Championship players playing in the side and therefore the most important job was to actually motivate players to play as strongly as possible for as long as possible over the 90 minutes to actually overcome obstacles – obstacles of playing better teams. Just qualifying for the Euros in 2016 is something that I cherish. MO’N: At club level, I found great happiness in all the places I’ve been. For instance, the players at Wycombe Wanderers gave me the opportunity to manage at a higher level. They put their heart and soul into the games, so I owe them a lot. I’d a great time there as my children were just growing up. Leicester City, after a really tough start, turned out terrific, I loved the club. Celtic, of course, was great. And then we’d three top six finishes at Aston Villa. You talk about regrets.

Go behind-the-scenes on his international career for Northern Ireland, playing alongside and getting to know the Belfast Boy himself, George Best.The only disappointment was that as his career progresses, particularly into management in the premiership, he doesn’t go into more depth when describing many of the characters in the dressing room, the make-up of the club and the characters involved. I just really felt like I wanted more from this period. BC: There was an adversarial nature to your media relations and I'm sure the media weren't blameless. How could you have handled things better? BC: How good was Henrik Larsson? After Celtic he went on to prove his worth at Barcelona and Manchester United. Do you think he got better with age? Martin O’Neill: I started to fidget with it early on, my first day leaving Belfast and becoming a professional player and it grew from there. So I would say it probably took around six months. I’d written a lot of it in long hand but then found out there were much easier ways to do it! I just felt putting it down in long hand I could almost hear my own voice in the writing. MO’N: Absolutely. Not only that, when I came to Distillery, I played about five or six reserve games and while there was an improvement in each of the games, I was still a far-cry from being in the first team.