His recent record is very good. Sunderland third from bottom when he took over. 10 points out of a possible 15 from a club that was struggling. It is not a coincidence. O'Neill is a great manager.
Very unfair to label O'Neill a foreign manager. Strikes me Harry Redknapp has a certain history which the press will go to town on if he gets the England job. O'Neill is whiter than white as far as we know, and a superb manager.
O'Neill is Irish and not a fool - he was interviewed for the job once tho' I can't remember if he turned it down or they turned him down.
Either way I can't see him taking it in future. The England manager's job is a mug's game.
I believe O'Neill turned the England job down because his wife was unwell at the time. I can't see Sunderland letting him go now though, not without a fight and a big fat fee.
"I believe O'Neill turned the England job down because his wife was unwell at the time. "
I don't think that's right: he resigned as Celtic manager because his wife was unwell, but she'd recovered by the time he applied for the England job.
O'Neill is most certainly successful, not to mention a master motivator, although Alex McLeish was more successful when they were head to head in Glasgow. Irrespective of that, I don't think O'Neill's style of football would take England any further, although it would probably suit them. If England, or any of the Home Nations, want to move on then revolutionary change is needed.
What England need is a manager who can make the most of their shortcomings against the technically superior sides (esp Spain) by focusing on a conservative, defensive style - an Italian perhaps :-)
Seriously, Duncer is right. England need a revolution in attitude if nothing else: after the 1-4 humiliation by Germany in the World Cup a string of callers to Alan Green's Radio 5 phone-in bewailed the prevalence of the Premier League and the fact that International football was the poor relation. A few months later, guess what: people phoning up to complain about international fixtures getting in the way of the Premier League :-)
And when England fail dismally at Euro 2012, apart from the public lynching of Capello and the crowning of Prince 'Arry, the same thing will start all over again ...
What England need are 11 World class players,we've only got one at the moment and he's unpredictable.
The England managers job is an impossible one because of the media hype and their unfounded view we are better than everybody else.
Most of us England supporters know this but I suppose all the nonsense will start again in the Summer...Put your money on the Germans!
"Hopkirk
Hardly foreign! He is at least British. "
I don't want to point out the obvious, but Martin O'Neil was born in Northern Ireland, so he's not British.
He was turned down for the England job previously, partly because of a dodgy Powerpoint presentation that he used. England's loss I'd say. I believe that he's said he wouldn't apply for the job again.