Football correspondent of the Leicester Mercury, Bill Anderson, was ahead of the national media who were today buzzing with speculation linking Martin O’Neill with the vacant manager’s job at Celtic.

It was back in mid-April that Mr Anderson told his readers that if former Holland coach Guus Hiddink turned down the Celtic job, Leicester City boss O’Neill would be next in line.

This morning, Mr Anderson was interviewed on BBC Radio 5 Live’s breakfast show where he revealed that he had spoken to O’Neill about the Celtic job.

Mr Anderson told listeners that the manager said neither he nor Leicester City’s chairman have had an official approach from Celtic.

“There are rumours of a press conference tomorrow at which Celtic will introduce their new manager,” said Mr Anderson. “If that is the case, I can tell you, it won’t be O’Neill.”

Mr Anderson said his gut feeling was that this was not the right move at the right time for O’Neill – who in the past has come close to joining both Everton and Leeds as manager.

“I don’t get the feeling that he’s close to joining Celtic at the moment,” said Mr Anderson.

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