The news will leave the Football Association facing a race against time if it wants O’Neill to become England’s new head coach. The Sunday Times has learnt that despite widespread speculation that he was the FA’s favoured candidate for the post, there has been no contact between O’Neill and the governing body since it began the search for a successor to Sven-Göran Eriksson, who will step down after this summer’s World Cup finals in Germany.
It emerged this weekend that Dutchman Guus Hiddink was sounded out for the job, but ruled out by the FA because he wanted to coach England on a part-time basis while continuing to work with PSV Eindhoven.
The prospect of reviving a club as big as Newcastle appeals to O’Neill, who came top of a local newspaper poll of potential successors to Souness. Last night, however, Freddy Shepherd, the Newcastle chairman, denied he was poised to offer the job to O’Neill.
The Ulsterman is considering whether the improvement in the health of his wife Geraldine will allow him to return to management. The 53-year-old has been out of a job since voluntarily leaving Celtic in May last year to spend more time with her. It is believed he is unlikely to reach a decision about any offer until the results of her latest tests are known in a few weeks’ time.
While O’Neill assesses his options, the FA is faced with a narrowing field of candidates for the England job. Hiddink dropped out of contention because he would consider the position only as a part-time arrangement similar to the one he has with Australia, who he guided to the World Cup finals while coaching PSV, where his contract has another season to run.
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A senior source at Soho Square said: “The very thought that it could be done part-time shows that foreigners don’t really appreciate the special demands and pressures of the job. Sven was taken by surprise and caught out by it, and we can’t afford for that to happen again.”
This helps explain the statement in midweek by Dave Richards, one of the three-man FA committee charged with finding a coach, that the new man should come from within these shores. Last night he elaborated on his later clarification that there was no difference between the new coach being “English” or “British”, saying that it had led the press wrongly to assume O’Neill was a shoo-in for the job. “It was suggested that we had almost appointed him already, which is totally untrue,” he said. “I meant to say that the British public expect an English manager.”
One of the home-grown candidates, Stuart Pearce, the Manchester City manager, last night said it would be “absolute folly” to rule himself out, adding: “I’d certainly go for an interview.”