No one would begrudge him if he left…
JONNY EVANS hopes that Michael O’Neill will remain in charge of Northern Ireland but will understand if he wants to move on.
O’Neill’s managerial stock is high after guiding the Irish to the World Cup play-offs on the back of their run to the last 16 of the Euros last year. Based in Edinburgh, he has emerged as favourite for the vacant Scotland job while several clubs, including managerless Rangers and Sunderland, are understood to have been impressed by his work at international level with limited playing resources.
With stalwarts Aaron Hughes, Gareth McAuley and Chris Brunt all considering retirement, O’Neill, 48, may feel the time is right to move on after six years in the job, even though his contract still has two-and-a-half years to run and he says he has not given a thought to the future.
West Brom’s Evans would be delighted if O’Neill stays put, but would not hold it against him if he moved to enhance his career. “As a manager, he’s unbelievable, we all love him and every single player plays for him,” said Evans. “He’s such a good manager and it’d be a shame to lose him. But we know on the other side of things, management is such a difficult job and if something came up, where it would be difficult to turn down, no one would ever begrudge him that.” Evans says O’Neill’s success is down to his man-management skills and tactical acumen, underlined by the gutsy display to hold Switzerland to a goalless draw in the second leg of the play-off in Basle on Sunday. “The boss is so inspirational and very tactical,” said Evans. “The other night, we’d got off the plane and were on the way to the hotel. He came down the bus and said, ‘We’re calling a meeting tonight and we’re going to watch the first leg because you didn’t play that bad but there are so many basic things you can improve on’. “It gave everyone a lift straight away. He’s got such composure and in team talks he says the right things to get the lads going. We all really, really respect him. “We’ve spoken about when he first came in as manager and it was difficult but look at things now. He’s got a real good group of lads there and he’s created an atmosphere where all the players are thriving.” A controversial first-leg Swiss penalty was all that separated the teams and Evans said it underlined the need for the Video Assistant Referee system to come in. He said: “There is disappointment the only goal has come from a bad refereeing decision. It is hard to take but we’ve all been around football long enough to realise there are decisions which go against you. “Goalline technology has come in and changed the game for the better. I’m sure they’ll have to do more research and analysis on VAR but it’s good to improve.”
We all love and respect the boss