Martin O’Neill

As a player, Martin O’Neill won two European Cups and a First Division title. As a manager, he won the League Cup, the Scottish Premier Division, the Scottish Cup, the GMVC, and play-offs in both the Third and Second Division. He took Celtic to a UEFA Cup final and managed 967 matches with a 50% win ratio. He was a behemoth of the managerial world, and in May 1987, he came close to taking over at Lincoln City.

Again, this comes from Brian Halford’s book, but at the time O’Neill had just finished his playing days. He wasn’t long into his tenure there, and it was decided he didn’t have enough experience to take over at City. He instead started out at Grantham Town, then found his way to Wycombe, where he did exactly what we would have needed him to do for us – he got them out of the non-league ranks, and through the basement division, overtaking us.

After a short spell with Norwich, terminated mutually after falling out with the board over the possible signing of Dean Windass, he went to Leicester and the rest is history.