O’NEILL: I WON’T REPLACE RANIERI
Martin O’neill has ruled out leaving his job as manager of the republic of ireland to return to leicester.
O’neill, who won the league Cup with the club in 1997 and 2000, also dismissed the possibility of combining both roles.
‘i won’t be going back,’ the 64-year- old told BBC radio 5 live. ‘i’m enjoying the job with the republic and we have some big games coming up.
‘i haven’t even thought about doing both jobs. i think, in general, someone doing two jobs at the same time can encounter problems, especially if you don’t get the results on both sides.’
O’neill believes Claudio ranieri did not deserve to be sacked by leicester after winning the Premier league title last season. ‘He had the right, in my opinion, to see it through this season,’ he said.
‘it is not as if there are three games left and they are adrift. a couple of wins will take them out of trouble. So i think it was a really sad day.
‘leicester won the league by quite a number of points, a phenomenal achievement. it is only two months ago that i voted for ranieri for the FiFa manager of the year.
‘i know that there is pressure on and how important it is financially to stay in the Premier league. But leicester, while in trouble, were not the only team losing matches.’
He added: ‘ it has been mentioned that some players went to talk to the owners. But why should they do that? if things are not going well, i think you try to sort that out in the dressing room.’
asked if players were getting harder to control, O’neill said: ‘i think there is something in that, and it is obviously to do with the money.
‘i played in the days when players had no power. You could walk in one day and find out you were being transferred and had little say in it. that was the way it was.’
liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp, whose side visit leicester tonight, does not believe that the squad went to the owners to get ranieri sacked.
He said the way clubs are set up now, with so many layers between the dressing room and the boardroom, it is almost impossible for players to determine the fate of a manager.
Klopp said: ‘Players are not more powerful. it depends always on the board. if there is a direct way to the board… if the owners sit with the players and ask, “how are you?” and they say, “not too good because of the manager”. But i’ve never had this situation. there is never a direct line to the owner.
‘as long as the players talk together there is no problem. it is not about how powerful. the players need to be powerful but not in sacking managers. they never did it. it’s not like the leicester players did. it is if someone asked and they gave an answer.’
Craig Shakespeare will be in caretaker charge tonight with leicester in the bottom three following Crystal Palace’s win over Middlesbrough.
But Shakespeare is hoping to recreate their great escape of two years ago when, as firstteam coach under nigel Pearson, he was a central figure as the club won seven of the last nine games to stay up after spending months at the bottom of the table.
He said: ‘it was a great time then in that we were written off. We are not written off now. there are enough games for this squad to win matches and that is what we aim to do.
‘We have enough talent in the dressing room to go on a winning run. Of course i understand the seriousness of it in terms of where we are in the league. We have to make sure we are doing everything we can to climb up that league.
‘ Confidence can go very quickly but it can come back very quickly. My aim is to try to restore it as soon as possible.’