Michael O\u2019Neill admitted he has enjoyed the buzz of club football as he declined to answer further questions on his Northern Ireland future after Blackburn\u2019s Championship campaign ended in a home defeat to already-relegated Leicester.<\/p>\n
O\u2019Neill has juggled the roles of Rovers boss and Northern Ireland manager since arriving at Ewood Park in February, but while he was successful in steering Blackburn to safety, the 56-year-old has said a long-term job share is unsustainable.<\/p>\n
Although O\u2019Neill has not given a direct answer on where he sees his future, those Blackburn fans who want him to remain in charge have heard all the right noises from him.<\/p>\n
This week he said the \u201cconditions have to be right for all three parties\u201d, referring to the Irish Football Association, Blackburn and himself, adding that conversations so far have been \u201cvery positive\u201d.<\/p>\n
O\u2019Neill would not answer direct questions on his future after Saturday\u2019s match as he said his main priority was taking a week off, but he spoke glowingly of his time at Blackburn.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019ve made me and my family feel extremely welcome,\u201d O\u2019Neill said. \u201cMy wife, my daughters love coming here to the games, so it\u2019s been a real positive experience. It has been draining at times. I\u2019m not going to lie.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you\u2019re in that bottom situation, every manager will tell you that\u2026you\u2019re just trying to get your team to a position of safety and obviously it took us to the 45th game, but thankfully we managed to do that.\u201d This has been O\u2019Neill\u2019s first taste of club football since he spent just shy of three years at Stoke between November 2019 and August 2022, a spell that proved a temporary break from the job of Northern Ireland boss he has otherwise held since 2011.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou enjoy it when it\u2019s going well,\u201d he said. \u201cBut yeah, I\u2019ve enjoyed the day-to-day element of working with the staff. I don\u2019t have staff that I work with on a daily basis in my international job. My staff just come in for the camps.<\/p>\n
\u201cBasically I suppose I\u2019m a sole trader, I work on my own and go to games on my own and have conversations with the relevant people and keep in touch with the players.<\/p>\n
\u201cHere you\u2019re walking into a staff that\u2019s here every day, you\u2019re working with the analysts, you\u2019re working with the medical team and obviously the coaching staff and people above me in the club.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt does have a different feel to it in terms of that and from that point of view it is enjoyable.\u201d Former Northern Ireland captain Steven Davis has been a key part of O\u2019Neill\u2019s Blackburn set-up while also part of his international staff, with the 41-year-old still in the early days of his own coaching career.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was an excellent support for me throughout the time because we\u2019ve both been living in a hotel for the best part of three months so we spent a lot of time together,\u201d O\u2019Neill said. \u201cI think we realise now that we probably quite like each other because we had no choice.\u201d<\/p>\n
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