Leicester: O’Neill – Leicester not the club I managed before

Martin O’Neill has reaffirmed his commitment to managing Ireland until the end of the Euro 2016 qualifying campaign at the very least – and potentially on to the Russian Federation 2018 World Cup qualifiers.

O’Neill emerged as a target for the Premier League club last week prior to the installation of Claudio Ranieri at the King Power Stadium, but the former Celtic manager insisted that he was always committed to his role as manager of the Boys in Green.

“When John (Delaney, the chief executive of the FAI) asked me to take job, I said we would take it up until the end of our involvement in the Euros”.

Speaking of his own history with the Foxes, O’Neill said: “Leicester are a very good club”. Their escape was absolutely fantastic and while there’s still a number of people at the club that I worked with before, it’s probably different. It may not be the club that I had before.

“If I honestly think that there has been this progress and, as important, the FAI believes that there is a definite improvement, I think the two of us could come to some sort of agreement”, said O’Neill. “Things like (the Leicester connection) are going to crop up now and again but, seriously, I’m here, I want to do this job and I certainly wouldn’t have wanted to have left it in mid-stream”. And obviously the FAI would have thoughts on that themselves. “But if you feel you are making a commitment and you just have the one competition and you get in and get out, I wouldn’t be totally sure that’s the right thing”. It’ll give him a boost in confidence.

O’Neill also offered some thoughts on James McCarthy’s links with possible moves to Manchester City and Tottenham as he stated: “I don’t know if there’s anything to that, whether it’s speculation or not, I really don’t know. I think that John had said that they were pretty happy”.