Trevor Francis LOVED Rangers as Celtic icon Martin O’Neill bigs up £1m legend’s Bluenose credentials

Martin O’Neill has revealed how his friendship with Trevor Francis crossed the Old Firm divide as he told of the former Rangers star’s love for the Ibrox club.

O’Neill paid tribute to his former team-mate after he passed away, aged 69, from a heart attack on Monday. Francis made history when Brian Clough made him Britain’s first £1million player after luring him from Birmingham City in 1979 to Nottingham Forest, where O’Neill had already established himself.

The Irishman grew up a Celtic fan and later managed the Parkhead club and laid bare how Francis was a Rangers supporter and later went on to play for the club when Graeme Souness signed him from Atalanta after the pair had been team-mates at Serie A side Sampdoria. Francis helped Rangers win the Scottish League Cup and he scored in the penalty shoot-out win over Aberdeen at Hampden Park.

O’Neill told the Belfast Telegraph: “I must admit, Trevor was a big, avid Rangers fan himself, but that didn’t stop us from a proper friendship. In fact, we used to laugh about it as much as anything else. When I say laughing, don’t get me wrong. Trevor took Rangers seriously; he was as avid a Rangers fan as I suppose I am a Celtic fan, but it didn’t impinge on our relationship at all.

“I think because our paths never really crossed in Scotland, that might have had something to do with it, and it had a more calming effect, shall we say. It might have been different had he been managing Rangers at the same time I was managing Celtic. I might not have been speaking to him then! He became a player for Rangers under Graeme Souness and Graeme and he both played in the same team [Sampdoria] out in Italy, so that might have been a bit more difficult for him.”

O’Neill was on the bench when