Martin O'Neill on his Norwich City tenure, Chase and Windass

Everybody has heard it and spoken about what could have been had the Northern Irishman not walked out on his job as manager six months into his reign after his personal relationship with the Canaries ex-chairman became severely strained. 

It proved to be the tip of the iceberg for O'Neill - who decided those conditions were too testing to continue to work within. He became Leicester manager soon after, they went on to win promotion via the play-offs - Norwich finished in 16th. 

O'Neill's departure saw protests against the running of the club intensify. Plenty reflect on it to this day. It is one of those 'what if' moments that still haunt many of the club's supporters. 

For the first time since departing in December 1995, O'Neill has opened up on his Norwich exit and shares those feelings about what might have been if the situation was handled differently. 

After initially being promised a transfer kitty of £5million by Chase on the provisory that it was spent before June 30, O'Neil then sought about adding some attacking edge to his squad. 

Matthew Rush arrived from £350,000. O'Neill wanted Windass as the final piece of the jigsaw. Even though the £5m deadline had passed, O'Neill was confident that a deal around £500,000 could be struck to bring the Hull man to Carrow Road. 

After Chase assured him that he would handle the transfer with the Tigers chairman, O'Neill heard no more. That broke trust and eventually soured their working relationship - particularly after a heated discussion at a board meeting.

"People can pick seminal moments or pick out certain things but it (the Windass transfer) did become an issue. 

"If I was to do my time over again, I would have made it less of an issue and just got on with things and tried to force Norwich back into the big league," O'Neill said.

"Hindsight is a wonderful thing but unfortunately it isn't a quality that belongs to me. Would I do something differently now? Of course. Would I have charged into a board meeting at that particular stage? No, I wouldn’t have done.

"I would have been disappointed that some of the instructions that I had asked for hadn’t been carried out, that’s true, but honestly, there were enough things to be getting on with.

"It became a bone of contention and I wish it would have worked out differently at the time.

"As it turns out, I went to Leicester City and had a real struggle to win some football matches and the crowd weren’t too happy with me at that stage. All of it was having a real effect on me.

"I know this from my own experiences now, but the Norwich situation which I couldn’t get out of my head definitely affected my early days at Leicester City and could have affected my tenure there at Filbert Street."

Martin O'Neill resigned as Norwich City boss in 1995 - becoming Leicester manager days later. (Image: PA Images)

Prior to becoming City boss in 1995 after a hugely successful five year stint at Wycombe Wanderers, O'Neil spent two periods of his career as a player in Norfolk. 

The first ended a 10-year spell at Nottingham Forest working under the formidable Brian Clough. The second saw him propel them to promotion after a brief time at Manchester City in between. 

When the phone call arrived to manage Norwich, it was a no-brainer for O'Neill. With his career trajectory on an upwards curve, the allure of managing a talented group of players proved too tempting to turn down.

What he encountered was a group of Norwich players on their knees and in need of a lift after a painful relegation. 

"Norwich had changed to a new training ground. My time as a player was spent at Trowse training ground and we had moved to a different place. There were a number of new pitches at that facility and the club had moved to a more modern day approach and outlook which was great.

"There was naturally disappointment running throughout the football club that relegation had happened when in actual fact it really shouldn’t have done. I was picking up the pieces from a group of players who felt that they shouldn’t be playing in this league. Unfortunately, they were.

"I honestly think, and again maybe making too much of the Dean Windass thing, there was enough good players at Norwich to recognise that we would definitely be in the shakeup for promotion.

"Let me put it this way, there was very little difference, as I noticed, between the Leicester City players and the Norwich City players. Both were vying, if not immediately, for automatic promotion which Norwich should have been thinking about anyway but getting into the playoffs wouldn’t have been a problem.

"Norwich possessed one or two players who were excellent. They had the young lad Darren Eadie who I thought the absolute world of, I signed Spencer Prior and Robert Ullathorne – players who I thought weren’t just good enough for the old second division but to play in the Premier League.

"Had Darren Eadie not suffered the injuries he did and Robert as well, then they would have gone on to prove themselves as big players at Leicester City. Darren had the heart of a lion, pace to burn and was my type of player."  

Norwich's group was a blend of young talent with some of those players who starred in their famous Uefa Cup run, Bryan Gunn, Rob Newman and Ian Crook, still at the club. 

O'Neill sought to add an energy and enthusiasm to a group that needed a shift of mentality - even if that risked upsetting some of the established professionals in the group.

"I knew what the players were feeling at the time, remember it wasn’t that long ago since they were playing European football and getting some really big results.

"Suddenly they found themselves catapulted into the second division, there was a disbelief among the players that this could ever have happened and that it had happened so rapidly. The second half of the season that they were relegated was like a fall from grace and was like falling off the precipice.

"You have to pick them up and regain confidence," he said. "That was part of my job and I never felt that was going to be the most difficult thing.

"There are always a few players where you aren’t their cup of tea and they rally against training methods or the way of enticing them or cajoling them into playing but overall, the players were accepting of what we were saying and trying to do.

"I genuinely believe, had I stayed there, regardless of whether Dean Windass came to the club or whether he didn’t, we had the wherewithal to get promotion ourselves."

A dispute over the failure to sign Dean Windass led to Martin O'Neill resigning as Norwich City manager in 1995. (Image: PA Images)

That last sentiment is one that perhaps Norwich fans will feel most disappointed at - the man himself believed he could have taken that squad, in its current guise, back to the Premier League. 

It is a thought shared by many of a yellow and green persuasion. O'Neill's exit is often reflected upon as a sliding doors moment. 

In truth, O'Neill doesn't believe there was much in terms of quality between the Norwich side he started the campaign with and the Leicester team he eventually took to the top-flight. 

In amongst his personal battles with Robert Chase were protests from supporters and a general unrest that eventually led the City chairman to sell the club to current majority shareholders Delia Smith and Michael Wynn Jones. 

"Sometimes you just have to divorce yourself from that (fan feeling). I genuinely felt that I had the crowd on my side," O'Neill said.

"Not every moment of my managerial time there was a beautiful moment, we lost a game against Leicester City 1-0 that I felt we could have won and could easily have won.

"There were other games where we were resoundingly good. We managed to get ourselves on a late cup run and won a big game at Bradford City one evening. After the match was over, we stopped off in a restaurant in Bradford and by the time we got home from Norwich it must have been about five o’clock in the morning but it was wonderful and a great feeling.

"The players were up for the game and it felt really important. We were getting things together, I genuinely felt that, and we had a whole half of the season from Christmas onwards to put a couple of things right.

"We didn’t need that much of an overhaul to get promoted, that is my view and I still feel that. At the time when Leicester got promotion with me there with it, that could easily have been Norwich. "

O'Neill went on to be successful at Leicester. That earned him a move to Celtic where he is fondly remembered for creating some incredible moments - winning three Scottish titles in particular. 

But he does reflect on his short spell at Carrow Road with real fondess, even if it is overcome by regret. 

"Even for the short periods that I was there both two as a player and once as a manager, it can hardly add up to a cup of tea but I honestly really enjoyed it," O'Neill said.

"There was part of me that didn’t even mind the tête-à-têtes with Robert himself. I would try and mention something to win a couple of brownie points here and there, then he would come in and reject it for something else.

"Maybe sometimes I needed to get control of myself and say that these things happen, forget about it and just deal with it. If you’re not going to get your way then don’t go off in a huff, that’s too bad – just get on it. Maybe sometimes I learn these lessons too late in life.

"It was only because I felt that Mr Chase hadn’t chased up on the whole Dean Windass situation and that was a bit uncomfortable.

"If I could analyse it and put myself back in there now, I would have not remonstrated at one particular board meeting.

Martin O'Neill holds regrets over his short Norwich City tenure. (Image: Newsquest)

"But remember, I’m the same person who, quite a number of years earlier, stormed into a board meeting that Sir Arthur South was holding one summer evening back in 1982 so from that viewpoint, I just needed to get a hold of myself and to look at it from a different perspective perhaps."

And what of his relationship with Chase? Since departing Norwich in 95, O'Neill has never seen, heard from or encountered the former City chairman again. 

But there was a conversation recently that shined a new light of regret onto his Norwich spell. 

"I never did see him again. I was speaking to Martin George (ex-Leicester City chairman) who was celebrating his 80th birthday recently, I went to his party a few weeks ago. He said when he was dealing with Robert Chase, he said that Robert was incredibly complimentary about me as a manager at the club.

"That took me aback a bit so I’m even more regretful now than I ever was before. I’m an absolute soulful wreck now!"

Former Norwich City manager Martin O'Neill has released his autobiography detailing his extensive career in the game. (Image: Pan Macmillan)

- ON DAYS LIKE THESE: My Life in Football by Martin O’Neill is published by Macmillan and available to purchase now.