Thanks, but no
thanks: Martin O'Neill is expected to turn down the West Ham
job
Martin O'Neill is
expected to reject West Ham’s advances for the second time this
year if the Upton Park board offer him the job that no leading
manager seems to want.
The Ulsterman is top of the
club’s short list after their dismissal of Avram Grant on Sunday
and they will try to persuade him to accept the task of guiding
them back to the Barclays Premier League.
But Sportsmail understands
that O’Neill has the same concerns about West Ham as he had when he
declined the invitation to succeed Grant in January and sources
close to the former Aston Villa and Celtic manager expect him to
turn down any new offer.
O’Neill is more focused on
settling his dispute with Villa over his departure last August. A
Premier League managers’ arbitration panel is due to hear the case
this week.
Sources close to O’Neill point
out that if he was not keen on West Ham when they were a Premier
League club, he will be even less so now.
However, Cardiff manager Dave
Jones may enter the picture at Upton Park now he has failed to gain
promotion in six seasons with the Welsh club.
Cardiff fans chanted, ‘You’re
getting sacked in the morning’, after Reading’s third goal in the
Championship play-off defeat.
Jones said: ‘I will take stock
of my position and decide whether I want to continue. It’s
about what the owners want, what I want and what is best for this
football club.’
Not for me: Steve McLaren (left) and Gus Poyet have
ruled themselves out of the running for the West Ham job
The problem facing
West Ham co-owners David Sullivan and David Gold is that other
leading candidates have publicly declared a lack of interest in
taking the job.
Former England manager Steve
McClaren has said he has no desire to succeed Grant and Gus Poyet
said he would be remaining with the Brighton side he has just
guided to promotion.
‘No chance,’ said Poyet, his
response apparently motivated by the way West Ham treated his close
friend Gianfranco Zola.
The West Ham hierarchy are
still expected to make an approach to O’Neill in the hope that they
can persuade him to accept the challenge. Sullivan conceded that it
had been a mistake to appoint Grant, who is now considering whether
to return to Chelsea in some capacity.
But Grant’s agent, Pini
Zahavi, claimed that the board did not make enough money available
for transfers, particularly to bring in defensive
reinforcements.
