O’NEILL IS LURED BY TOP-FLIGHT POTENTIAL
NEW Stoke City manager Michael O’Neill highlighted the club’s Premier League potential as one of the keys in deciding to step into the hotseat.
The 50-year-old was appointed on Friday and took charge of yesterday’s bottom-of-the-table Championship game at Barnsley.
It’s the start of a busy couple of weeks for O’Neill, who will continue in his role as Northern Ireland manager for their final Euro 2020 qualifiers against Holland (home) next Saturday and Germany (away) on Tuesday, November 19.
He is also set to take charge of the national team if they have Euro 2020 play-offs in March.
While it is an unusual situation, O’Neill believes now is the right time to return to club management. He had bossed Brechin City and Shamrock Rovers before taking the Northern Ireland job in 2011.
He led his country to Euro 2016 and to the 2018 World Cup play-offs, enhancing his reputation in the process.
However, he faces a major challenge at Stoke, who headed into the weekend second bottom and have been toiling since relegation from the Premier League a year and a half ago.
But O’Neill believes there is scope to get back there in the medium term.
He said: “I think in this day and age as a British coach you typically have to manage a team into the Premier League and I think this is a club which certainly has the potential to go to that level - albeit at the minute our immediate situation is making sure we climb up the Championship table.”
The feeling in recent times has been that Stoke have a decent squad, but they have underperformed on the pitch.
Making the transition back to the second tier after a decade in the Premier League has been harder than expected.
O’Neill said: “We have a lot of players with international and Premier League experience but the Championship is a different animal, a different challenge and players have to adapt to that as well.
“It’s about building togetherness. This squad is very big actually and sometimes that can be a bit more difficult because players are disappointed when they don’t play.
“But we have to try to maximise the talent we have in the building here, get everyone hopefully playing to the level they are capable and if we do that the club can only go in one direction.”
Gary Rowett, now in charge of Millwall, and Nathan Jones, sacked by the Potters just over a week ago, couldn’t get Stoke soaring in the Championship, but O’Neill is determined to get the mentality right at the bet365 Stadium.
He added: “The facilities are fantastic and everything is here to build a top-class football club. We have to get everyone aligned to that, get everyone thinking in the right way.
“The challenge is massive because of where the team is at this minute in time and we have to address that.”