Soccer:Swansea manager Brendan Rodgers has confirmed he turned down the opportunity to coach Northern Ireland on a part-time basis.
Rodgers, who had previously said he hoped to manage his country later in his career, said he snubbed the chance to step into the role vacated by Nigel Worthington at the end of the Euro 2012 qualifying campaign because he is committed to the south Wales club, and believes that the Northern Ireland job can only be done on a full-time basis.
The Irish Football Association (IFA) made an approach to Swans chairman Huw Jenkins over Rodgers’s availability, but he revealed it did not take him long to make a decision.
Rodgers said: “The story was simple, a couple of weeks ago Northern Ireland approached the chairman and asked for permission to speak to me with regards to doing the job part-time, and my stance was the same as it was a number of weeks ago.
“The job is a big job, something that is very important going forward for the development of football in the country, and for me it’s a full-time post.
“I didn’t have to think about it for a long time, my concentration and focus is always with Swansea.
“The chairman and I have a great relationship. He was very honest and asked if I wanted to take it forward.
“I would love to do it at some point in my career but at the moment, with the respect I have for Swansea, my concentration can only be on Swansea.”
Swansea have also been linked with a move for Cliftonville striker Rory Donnelly, and Rodgers confirmed the club have made a bid, believed to be around £100,000 (€117,000), for the 19-year-old.
“The club have made an offer and we are waiting to find out,” he said. “We can only do what we always do, try and get an agreement with them and once we get that it gives us a chance to speak to the player.
“He is a talented boy and Cliftonville have been fantastic recently, they won 13 games in a row and won the County Antrim Shield which I saw the other week. There are a lot of talented players in Northern Ireland and he is another one of them.”
