Martin O’Neill was never going to leave Ireland job

Martin O’Neill says there was never any way that he was going to leave his role as Ireland manager midway through a campaign in order to return to Leicester City and the Premier League.

"I have a commitment here," he said at the Showgrounds in Sligo after making the draw for the FAI Cup third round. "I told you that before, we're halfway through or still slightly over halfway in this competition, we desperately want to try and get to France and the commitment is there... 100 per cent.

“Leicester are a very good club, a really good club. It may not be the club that I had before. I was manager of the club when it was at the old Filbert Street, they’ve since moved grounds. But their escape (from relegation last season) was absolutely fantastic; they’ve now appointed a manager with an excellent pedigree and I wish them all the very best.

“I have a commitment here and this is what I want to do. This is what I wanted to do when I signed here; when John asked me to come and I said we would take it up until the end of our involvement in the Euros. I said to you some time ago that if I thought there was general progress on the side and also the infrastructure that I would re-look at it and see where we are. The FAI would have thoughts on that themselves too. That conversation will be for future time.”

Asked if he would also want to get back into top flight club management in England, he said that: “I can’t be reading too much into a future that may or may not exist.”

O’Neill said that he was happy with one or two of the transfers involving Irish players that have taken place so far this summer but said that he was unsure of what might happen with others and said it remained a matter for the players themselves.

“James McClean, he’s delighted, he’s got a chance to play in the Premier League again which is where he feels he belongs. It will give him a boost of confidence as much as anything else. But the most important thing for me is that our players are playing as regularly as possible in the build-up to the games coming up and the natural progression from that is that they’re playing as high up as possible. The rest of the things are entirely up to the players and their clubs.”

With regard to suggestions that James McCarthy might leave Everton for the likes of Manchester united or Arsenal, he said: “I don’t know how much truth there is in that, whether it’s just speculation or not but I think Everton would want to keep him and if he’s happy at Everton then why not.”