Stoke offer O’Neill club return after snub from Flores

Stoke City have offered Martin O’Neill and Roy Keane a return to Premier League management after four years in international football with the Republic of Ireland.

The club were still trying to thrash out terms with O’Neill yesterday evening.

The Northern Irishman is expected to bring Roy Keane with him as his assistant if he can agree a deal to return to club management for the first time since Sunderland sacked O’Neill in 2013. Keane’s last club job ended with his dismissal from Ipswich in 2011.

Although Stoke are understood to have offered O’Neill the chance to succeed Mark Hughes after former Watford manager Quique Sanchez Flores decided to remain at Espanyol, it remains to be seen if he will go. Sources have told Telegraph Sport that the length of the contract may be a sticking point as O’Neill does not want a shortterm deal that may leave him vulnerable to being fired in the summer even if he keeps Stoke in the top flight.

O’Neill had effectively decided to remain in the Ireland job on Friday. Indeed, Keane is thought to have helped persuade him to stay over the past few weeks, but the Stoke offer could prove too tempting to turn down.

Sources have said club owner Peter Coates feels O’Neill’s vast experience of managing in the Premier League make him the best person to turn their season around. O’Neill has never been relegated from the top flight as a manager and had success with Aston Villa and Leicester City either side of a fruitful spell with Celtic.

He had been mulling over signing a new two-year contract to continue with Ireland until the end of their European Championship campaign in 2020, but Stoke are determined to bring him back into club management.

Stoke sacked Hughes last weekend after an FA Cup third-round defeat by Coventry City that left the club with just a relegation battle to contend with, and their league position remains precarious ahead of tomorrow night’s game against Manchester United.

O’Neill has done a good job with Ireland, despite defeat in their World Cup playoff. He verbally agreed a new contract with Ireland before that November loss but was stung by the criticism that followed and decided to delay signing it.