Michael O’Neill: Different challenges in club and country roles but no conflict

Michael ONeill insists he has had no trouble balancing the demands of Stoke and Northern Ireland over the past four months but admits returning to club football has required an adjustment.ONeill was named Stoke boss in early November, but remained in charge of Northern Ireland in order to see out the Euro 2020 qualification process though the coronavirus now means it is highly unlikely their play-off semi-final against Bosnia and Herzegovina will go ahead as planned on March 26.That may yet prolong ONeills juggling act, but after eight years in charge of the Green and White Army he says he has the systems in place to make it a smooth process.Michael ONeill took charge of Northern Ireland in 2011 (Liam McBurney/PA)There has not been anything that has the equation of Its Northern Ireland or Stoke, ONeill said.There is nothing that has conflicted, to be honest, and I kind of knew there wouldnt be because I knew that if I delegated well within the staff, trusted their views and opinions that it was manageable.November to March is the quietest part of an international managers calendar and that has coincided with the period Ive been in charge here.It wouldnt be doable if you were doing it September, October and November, that wouldnt be an option.Stoke City can confirm that Michael O'Neill has been appointed as First Team Manager.#WelcomeMichael #SCFC pic.twitter.com/wqe9QdEQf5 Stoke City FC (@stokecity) November 8, 2019ONeill has been known for his acute attention to detail with Northern Ireland, but given the intense schedule of the Championship, translating that to club football has not been easy.Thats been the most challenging thing for me because I try to be as detailed as possible in my preparations and sometimes in the Championship there isnt time, said ONeill, who was Shamrock Rovers boss before taking the Northern Ireland job.The other thing is, the Championship is about momentum, its about keeping players spirits as high as possible and how to deal with little runs of bad form. Everyone has them, what amounts to good consistent form in the Championship is different.We always had little points targets in international football Lets see if we can get six, seven points out of these games or nine if possible and that would set you up for the remainder of the campaign. Its much more difficult to do that.ONeill appears to be succeeding however. When he took charge of the Potters they sat bottom of the Championship with only two wins from 15, but ONeill has won 10 of his 22 games in charge to move them three points clear of the drop zone.The situation we found at Stoke, coming in when the club was bottom of the table, we needed to progress things, get in a position where we could survive, he said. Weve done that now and we need to continue for the remaining nine games.Michael ONeill: We are going to prepare the team as normal and do what were told. We have players in our squad that have played behind closed doors before if that happens. #GAWA pic.twitter.com/i3Fm3z2vTF Northern Ireland (@NorthernIreland) March 10, 2020The coronavirus outbreak may well now have a say on when and how ONeills Northern Ireland reign comes to an end.He would not rule out remaining in charge for the Euros themselves if the Green and White qualified, but with the timetable for the tournament up in the air there are more questions than answers at present.But whenever, ONeill does walk away he will do so with pride.I didnt want a fanfare or a lot of honours, he said. What I can look back on is eight years of a lot of hard work.We had a very difficult time at the start to try and turn things around, it was a slow-burner, it was never going to happen overnight.Ill take away the memories of France 2016 and the qualification. For a lot of people France was their first opportunity to see Northern Ireland in a major tournament and weve got the chance to do that again.(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){i['GoogleAnalyticsObject']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){
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