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Bookies Stop Taking Bets on O'Neill
Friday, 1st Nov 2013 09:24

Former Celtic, Leicester and Sunderland manager Martin O’Neill looks increasingly likely to be named the new boss of the Republic of Ireland. A number of bookmakers have now stopped taking bets on the 61-year-old Northern Irishman, who along with Blues manager Mick McCarthy has always been one of two frontrunners to succeed Giovanni Trapattoni.

Headhunters Ray Houghton and Ruud Dokter are understood to be reporting back to the FAI next week having spoken to various interested parties, but not McCarthy, with Town join-managing director Ian Milne confirming that no approach had been received at Wednesday’s Supporters Club AGM.

One of this morning’s Irish papers claims O’Neill, whose odds plummeted yesterday, is due to tell the FAI whether he wants the job before the end of this week.

Confirmation of a friendly against Latvia in Dublin on November 15th is a good indication that an appointment is close to being made with the game likely to have little appeal to Irish fans if no new boss was in place.

Interim manager Noel King has been charged with naming a 40-man preliminary squad for that match — and another friendly away against Poland in Poznan four days later — with the new manager likely to reduce that number down once he is installed.


Photo: Action Images



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JimmyJazz added 09:49 - Nov 1
So did MM shoot himself in the foot by refusing to speak to the headhunters? His approach that he only wanted to speak to the FAI and not their monkeys seemed a bit high and mighty, unless he really did want to be asked just so he could tell them to 'getta fock'
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DeVOS added 09:56 - Nov 1
I can see light at the end of the tunnel on this saga.

A few weeks ago honestly I thought he was going but as the days and weeks have passed you get the feeling that MM was here for the long term.

However I am sure some bookies stop taken bets on MM a few weeks so until o'neil is signed sealed and delivered we still cant rule anything out
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BillBlue added 10:08 - Nov 1
This is the greatest fame the FAI have ever had so just let them enjoy it!
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coyb99 added 10:29 - Nov 1
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/24770300 really pleased, would have been disappointed and angry if McCarthy left town for ROI.
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Lightningboy added 10:31 - Nov 1
Great news ahead of tonight's game,let's hope we can finally put this cobblers to bed and move onwards with Big Mick at the helm.
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tractordamage added 10:42 - Nov 1
@JimmyJazz
Can you explain how you convinced yourself that he was leaving?
For me, the issue once again was people's desperate need to be negative; with the media controlling your opinions and whether you click on an article.
You still seem to be looking for the scandal in your comment. Are you therefore believing journalists (hired to create negativity, for readership), ahead of a straight-talking bored-of-media-patterns manager?
Maybe I missed a crucial piece of info, but this seemed to be yet another example of the gullibility of the modern-day scandal-seeker fan. Usually the big club fans do this, hence they pick their team for the office/schoolyard juvenile one-upmanship...smaller club fans tend to have more class and intelligence.
Looking at the poll, a massive 60% either fell for the media spin, or know something the rest of us don't.
What did we miss?
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broadside added 11:05 - Nov 1
Totally agree with tractordamage. This was just one media hype. MM doesnt walk away from contracts and Marcus Evans would never have released him anyhow. Mick is our man and now we need to focus on getting up that table. Oh and does anybody else think that MM has a striker up his sleave, like Ebanks Blake when he gets fit for example? He and we all know we need another goal scorer as well as McGoldrick
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itfc24 added 11:53 - Nov 1
I think it was reasonable to at least believe there was a good chance he was going. It certainly wasn't 'media spin' as there was only ever going to be a couple of people in with a shot of the job taking into account the fact that the FAI probably weren't going to go with another Trappatoni type manager.

The Irish Times have been citing him as the man to take over the national team for a long time and I think it is fair to assume that someone at the Times will have someones ear at the FAI. Their back page last Saturday was dedicated to it.

The fact is also, for reasons I don't understand fully, national football management is a big draw for most managers and it is therefore fair and reasonable to assume that the same is for MM when it comes to Ireland.

Taking the above into account I don't understand why any of our 'negative fans' can be criticised for believing there may have been a reasonable to good chance he may be on his way.
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Walk_the_Wark added 12:05 - Nov 1
Noooooooo!!!!!!
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cthulhu added 12:07 - Nov 1
I think a lot of people were simply being realistic rather than negative. I like MM for his plain speaking style, and all it needed here was for him to say "If they ask, I'm staying here anyway" and there would have been no room for speculation.

Although the players say they've been professional and ignored it, I challenge anyone to say that the rumours haven't had a negative impact on the team.
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JimmyJazz added 12:27 - Nov 1
I was saying that I thought the report that MM would not speak to the headhunters was a strange decision, and as you say, that may have just been journalistic fantasy. But if it was true it seemed to result in MM not being contacted at all.

But, as mentioned so many times, all MM had to do was rule himself out (even if it was just for now) and this whole media hype doesn't happen.
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TimmyH added 12:56 - Nov 1
Really!?! - it was just a couple of days ago everybody was saying he was taking the Palace job, why such the big change all of a sudden?
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jas0999 added 12:57 - Nov 1
Good news. Lets hope this gets confirmed ASAP and we can all move on.

Hope the fans show appreciation to MM tonight - exactly one year on since he joined us and thankfully we are still a Championship club.
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DiamondGezzer added 14:39 - Nov 1
jas0999 :- Agree totally, and considering the position we were in and where we are now, I think a jolly old round off applause tonight is in order.
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Keaneish added 17:02 - Nov 1
'A shoe in'.
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Vic added 17:41 - Nov 1
Yessssssssssssssssssssssssssss.
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