On these shores, Martin O'Neill might be best known for his tenure in charge of the national football team and a magical trip to the Euros in 2016, but in Nottingham, he's a club legend.
As a player, the Northern Irish man spent a decade at Nottingham Forest, earning 285 caps and scoring 41 goals. While his return to the club as manager in 2019 wasn't quite as successful, with O'Neill departing after just six months in charge, judging by his conversation with Forest star Ryan Yates last night, O'Neill made quite the impact while he was there.
Nottingham Forest took on Leicester in a Premier League clash on Friday night, overcoming the 2016 champions 3-1 in King Power Stadium.
Martin O'Neill's protege and Forest vice-captain Ryan Yates opened the scoring after just 16 minutes, with this screamer:
While Jamie Vardy got one back less than ten minutes later, two second-half goals from Chris Wood saw the Reds enter cruise control for the final half-hour, launching themselves into fifth place in the league standings with their win.
Martin O'Neill shares lovely moment with former player
Speaking after the match on punditry duty for Sky Sports, Forest legend Martin O'Neill was reunited with the captain on the night Ryan Yates.
26-year-old Yates joined Nottingham Forest in 2016 before embarking on a number of loan spells in the lower leagues. However, under Martin O'Neill Yates made his return to the Nottingham first team and his league debut, a debut that has spurred him on to become one of the team's most pivotal players.
Reminiscing on those times last night, Yates was full of praise for the former Irish manager, claiming he 'owed everything' to him. O'Neill didn't hesitate to return the praise, with the pair enjoying a lovely moment together.
Yates was out on loan at the time, and you were the best trainer we had, you and Watson who was the same age as me at the time, and you the youngest player.
While Ryan Yates joked that despite his hard work he couldn't get a start under his former manager, O'Neill kept piling on the praise.
You deserve all the credit in the world, you really have done fanstatic, really great. Cnosidering a couple of things about it, number one; I told the lads here you are top five in the country at getting free kicks for yourself, you're still magical about that, there's absolutely no question about it.
But you've got the heart the size of lion honestly and it's really geat, it's great for the family and great for you.
Lovely interaction between Martin O'Neill and Ryan Yates #NFFC
📽️ - @SuperSportTV pic.twitter.com/kge6v8qTOZ— 𝗙𝗼𝗿𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝗙𝗶𝗹𝗺 𝗥𝗼𝗼𝗺 (@forestfilmroom) October 25, 2024
The lovely moment between Yates and Martin O'Neill offered up a unique view of the Former Irish manager's man-management skills that are so often missed in the run of things.
Ryan Yates and Forest are now fifth in the Premier League, five points behind league leaders Liverpool.
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