MARTIN O’NEILL insists his Celtic future is hanging in the balance with talks with Dermot Desmond planned for this week.
The club’s legendary manager closed the gap to league leaders Hearts with a 4-0 win over Killie.
But O’Neill is still unsure whether he’ll still be in charge after the international break as Hoops chiefs search for a replacement for Brendan Rodgers.
He said: “I genuinely don’t know.
“But if they make an announcement in, let’s say, in the next week or something about a new manager, I will take this fortnight, rather morbidly, to my grave.
“You never know, but it’s been fantastic.
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“Look, I have to go back down to London again this week and I’m going to go into a darkened room and come out on Thursday and see has this really happened.
“But I should imagine at some stage or another during the course of the next week, whether it be tomorrow, whether it be Saturday or Sunday of next week, that somebody will let me know what’s happening.”
Celtic face St Mirren next before a clash with Hibs and he watched the two teams in action on Paisley on Saturday night.
But he added: “I wanted to go to the game because the one thing I’ve always done here, I’ve had complete respect for opponents all the time.
“You never know, if I was around, it would give me an opportunity to watch the game.
“So I was off with Mark Fotheringham.
“He talked the whole way through it.”
O’Neill admits his four-game stint as boss has been tiring. Asked if he would stay on if requested, he added: “Do you know, that is a genuinely good point.
“So I’m going to be serious here. I really don’t know.
“I was going to say it’s a young man’s game. And I’m almost talking myself out of this here.
“But it’s been tough, you know.
“All the things that I kind of thought I knew about it, have come to fruition.
“You know, about the strength of the side, or what I thought I saw from a distance.
“European football is where you want to be.
“But what has happened to the football club since Bayern Munich.
“But if you’re asking me? Well, how do I look? Not great, you know, not great.”
O’Neill headed straight up the tunnel after the final whistle, and didn’t give any hints that it would be his last game in charge.
But he added: “That would have nothing to do with anything.
“The game has changed a lot and I know the players spend about an hour after the match going around the ground regardless.
“But I don’t remember doing that at home.
“I’d always applaud the away fans when we’ve travelled away, but not at home.
“But I didn’t really think about that at all, I genuinely didn’t think about it.
“We won the game and I would dread to think about going round and waving to the crowd if we’d been beaten!
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