I wish Roy all the best for future, insists Arter

HARRY ARTER felt Martin O’Neill had ‘a difficult job’ as Irish manager as the squad changed so much in the wake of the play-off loss to Denmark. The Cardiff midfielder believed there was ‘media pressure’ in favour of change which may have contributed to O’Neill’s departure after five years. ‘I was really disappointed for Martin, he’s done so well for us as a country,’ said Arter yesterday. ‘There was a lot of pressure from the media in Ireland to have a change in management. ‘The squad has changed a lot over the last 18 months and I feel it was a very difficult job for him to get the lads playing the way he wanted them to in such a short time. ‘I’m sure Martin will be eager to get back into football at some point. He still definitely has that passion for football and probably missed the day-to-day part of a football club. ‘Hopefully he finds something he wants to do. The right opportunity comes up and he will be successful.’ Arter who was on the receiving end of a Roy Keane rant last summer, said he wished Keane ‘all the best’. ‘I’m not sure what Roy wants to do next in the game — whether he wants to be a manager himself. He has experienced that in the past, this time around he was a coach, and done some punditry.’ Arter’s aim this season is to keep Cardiff City in the Premier League and make his loan move from Bournemouth permanent. ‘The dream season would be Cardiff to stay up, the manager [Neil Warnock] to stay on and then hopefully I can sign because I’ve loved every minute here,’ he said.