It’s O’Neill or bust... Reganmustdazzle in the big interview
THE butterflies will be churning inside his stomach, his palms will be sweaty and the glass of water will be constantly refilled as the most important job interview of his career unfolds.
On the other side of the table, Michael O’Neill should be perfectly calm. When he finally sits down with Stewart Regan in the coming days, it is he who can ask all the pointed questions.
There are very few occasions when the man being interviewed holds more cards than the one doing the hiring, but that is the situation Regan and O’Neill will find themselves in.
The Northern Irishman is open to the idea of becoming Scotland boss. The Scottish FA chief executive can’t afford not to make the deal happen.
An offer should have been put on the table within days of Gordon Strachan being axed at the end of another unsuccessful and unfulfilling qualifying campaign.
The process was rightly put on hold while O’Neill came to terms with the sad passing of his mother, Patricia, late last year, but his future is now back at the top of the agenda.
If the decision from the SFA to go for O’Neill is the obvious one, the choice that he faces is far from straightforward.
The 48-year-old’s stock has never been higher after he took Northern Ireland to the European Championships in 2016 and narrowly missed out on a place at the World Cup in Russia later this summer.
A return to club management holds a certain appeal for O’Neill, who has previously taken charge of Brechin City and Shamrock Rovers, and he would be able to return to the dugout at a considerably higher level this time around.
Both Sunderland and West Bromwich Albion were granted permission to speak to him in recent months before they elected to appoint Chris Coleman and Alan Pardew respectively.
But another offer will come around for O’Neill sooner rather than later. If it is a club job he wants, he may not have to wait too much longer for it.
He now faces a three-way choice. Does he sit tight and wait for the right j ob in England? Does he commit his future to Northern Ireland? Or does he become Scotland boss?
The Irish FA have put a sixyear contract worth around £4million on the table for their boss to consider and few would blame O’Neill if he put pen to paper and remained at Windsor Park.
He has got the most out of his players in recent years but there is no sense in his homeland that he has taken his side as far as they can go. Even if he can’t replicate his previous successes and take Northern Ireland back to a major finals, his reputation won’t be tarnished in the eyes of the Green and White Army.
When it comes to Scotland, the only way has to be up. Our game isn’t quite at its lowest ebb, but causes for optimism remain tempered by years of failure and underachievement.
O’NEILL could well be the man to breathe fresh life into the national side, though, and his track record and credentials make him the clear-cut candidate for the job. Regan knows it, but so does O’Neill.
And that is why the Englishman could face more questions than he asks when the two meet for a conversation that will shape the mood of a nation on both sides of the water.
It surely won’t just be a matter of the salary on offer for O’Neill and everything from the role of performance director Malky Mackay to the future of Hampden is up for de- bate and consideration. O’Neill doesn’t have to sell himself to Scotland but Regan must present a vision for the game at all levels that is convincing enough to entice his man to sign on the dotted line.
The chief executive has had his fair share of crises to deal with during his time in office and big decisions have been blundered in the past. He can’t afford another.
A failure to land his top target would be another blow to Regan’s credibility in the eyes of the Tartan Army and he would need to produce something special if O’Neill spurned his advances.
It is a case of the Scottish one, the Irish one or the English one for O’Neill. The choice could be no laughing matter for Regan, though.