O'Neill rules out Leicester job and questions players' attitude
The former Leicester boss says he will not be returning to his old club, citing the players' role in Ranieri's sacking "If things are not going well, you sort it out in the dressing room".
Former Leicester City boss Martin O'Neill has ruled out a return to the club, questioning the attitude of the playing squad. Claudio Ranieri was sacked on Thursday, less than 10 months after guiding the club to a shock Premier League title win, with a number of reports suggesting senior players had confronted the board to demand the Italian's dismissal.
"A phenomenal achievement"
"Leicester City won the Premier League last season by quite a number of points," he told BBC Radio 5 live. "You're talking about Manchester United, Manchester City, Arsenal, Liverpool, Chelsea and Tottenham unable to catch a side that won the Premier League. It's a phenomenal achievement, it won't be done again in Premier League history and the players took credit for that and Ranieri dropped into background," he went on to say. "Only two months ago I voted for him as FIFA manager of year and he has that right to do it [keep them up]".
Criticism
"The owners have the ultimate say but I think this was a combination of things. Some players went to the owner to talk about whatever they were talking about. Why should players go to owner, even in this day and age? If things are not going well, you sort it out in the dressing room. The players took an awful lot of credit last year, rightly so, they did the playing and this game's still about players. Somewhere along the way if you have to take criticism, you have to look inwards as a player."
Going nowhere
O'Neill has been linked with a possible return to the club, but the 64-year-old insists he is fully committed to his role with the Republic of Ireland. "I wouldn't be going," he said. "I'm enjoying the job here at this moment and there is a big, big game ahead [against Wales] and quite some difficult matches coming ahead. If somebody was trying to do two jobs at same time there would be problems if you didn't get results on both sides," he added.
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