STOKING THE FLAMES!
Anger mounts as O’Neill and Keane set to complete move to Premier League side
ANGER is mounting in Irish football over Martin O’Neill’s flirtation with Stoke City.
The Irish football family is increasingly disenchanted with the way the Republic of Ireland manager has allowed the problems of a Premier League club become his chief focus. Rather than sign the contract extension he verbally agreed to last October, O’Neill and his assistant Roy Keane are leading the FAI, the players, and fans, a merry dance. O’Neill was locked in formal talks last night with Stoke City to discuss the finer points of his contract as their new manager-elect.
The duration of the deal was believed to be a key sticking point for O’Neill as his 46-game reign as Republic of Ireland manager appeared to be drawing to an unsatisfactory and confusing end.
O’Neill, 65, was seeking a lengthy contract at Stoke for both himself and his backroom team, headed by Keane, his Ireland number two.
O’Neill reportedly turned down the Everton job shortly after the World Cup loss to Denmark because they only wanted him until the end of the season. The Derry native emerged as the last man standing in the Potteries after Quique Sanches Flores followed Gary Rowett by turning down the job.
Ironically, O’Neill told Stoke on Friday morning he was no longer interested only to find out later of Flores’ u-turn.
O’Neill gave no indication of the dramatic turn of events when he attended the Soccer Writers’ awards in Dublin on Friday night.
It’s understood he received a firm offer from Stoke during the evening and further contact was made yesterday. Strugglers Stoke are desperate to have a manager in place for tomorrow’s Premier League game against Manchester United at Old Trafford. Chairman Peter Coates is adamant O’Neill is the right man to keep them up.
If the Stoke deal is not acceptable, O’Neill could find himself with a serious credibility issue with the supporters who regularly flock to
Aviva Stadium, which would hard to reverse.
The FAI have watched haplessly as O’Neill and Stoke City have ogled each other, to the annoyance of former Irish manager Brian Kerr who last night demanded clarity.
‘Why doesn’t he (O’Neill) come out and say if he’s fully committed to Ireland, or why don’t the FAI make a statement saying, “he can do what he wants, he never signed a contract?”
‘If Flores is out of the picture does Martin come back in? We don’t have a statement, we don’t have any indication from Martin that either him or his representatives have been speaking to Stoke and neither have we any clarity from the FAI.
‘I know we have no matches until March, but there’s plenty of work to
be done, plenty of players to be assessed, plenty of plans to be made.
‘It’s totally unsatisfactory that we don’t know if the manager is committed one way or the other.’
It seems the FAI’s search for the 14th Irish manager is about to begin.
Meanwhile, Flores insisted yesterday he was happy to stay in La Liga. ‘I am and will be coach of Espanyol.’
‘I belong to Espanyol, I have a contract and I’m honest with this club. I’m absolutely content with my situation, and I don’t have to explain anything else.’
He added: ‘I’m here and at no point have I said the opposite. It’s the facts that matter and nothing else. The facts are that the players don’t want to leave and the coach also continues.’
Sanchez Flores, who guided Watford to a 13th-placed Premier League finish and an FA Cup semi-final during his one season in English football in 2015-16, continued: ‘Football brings these types of situations and clubs ask questions and find out what they find out. It happens constantly with the players.
‘But the important thing is that we think. We are happy, we have many things that make us feel like that.
‘We like the connection (with the club), how they treat us, I like that Espanyol are growing. I’m in a great city and involved in one of the best leagues in the world.
‘Everything I need, I have here.
‘I have nothing else to add, only that I have to focus on the next La Liga match.’
O’Neill has been another name in the frame to replace Hughes, who was sacked by Stoke last week following their humiliating FA Cup defeat at Coventry.
Stoke have also slipped into the relegation zone after a run of just two wins in 12 Premier League matches.