Blackburn Rovers boss O’Neill on his future after securing club’s Championship safety

Blackburn Rovers boss O’Neill on his future after securing club’s Championship safety

Michael O’Neill admits he is not sure what the future holds for him after guiding Blackburn Rovers to Championship safety.

Rovers’ 3-1 win against Sheffield United confirmed their place in the Championship next season.

O’Neill took over at Blackburn in February until the end of the season, balancing it with his role as manager of Northern Ireland.

“Of course, those discussions will take place,” he said when asked about what comes next.

“The club have a decision to make for themselves on what direction they want to go.

“I’m a contracted manager. So the situation doesn’t really change from, I suppose, for any club. If they wanted me as their manager, they would have to go through the IFA. They would have to meet the terms of the release clause and I would have to want to do it.

“So those are all the things that have existed at any point of my management career at an international level. It’s the same now.

“I guess this was a loan. I suppose, given where we are, it’ll be deemed as a successful loan.

“I’ve enjoyed the club. There’s a lot of really, really good people at the club. As I say, I’m sure conversations will happen one way or the other, obviously, in the weeks ahead.”

O’Neill insists he cannot do both jobs next season, however, as he has done in the second half of this campaign.

“You can’t do both. There’s no way you could do both,” he said.

“I was only able to do the two things because the game was in March. There’s no way you could do it when the games are in September, October and November.

“It’s not possible. It was tough enough, to be honest. I maybe underestimated that a little bit but I was fortunate. I had a really good staff at Northern Ireland.

“The team was extremely well prepared for the Italy game. Unfortunately, we didn’t get over the line in that game. But, yes, at some point, I’ll have to make a decision one way or the other.”