according to the Sunday Express: THE seeds of Martin OâNeillâs return to football with Sunderland were sown the moment Leicester City sacked Sven-Goran Eriksson in October. Suddenly long-term Wearside plans were thrown into turmoil as OâNeill became a front runner to return to the Midlands club he managed for five years and where he won the League Cup. Stadium of Light boss Steve Bruce was struggling for results after a summer of massive change in personnel. Attendances were tumbling while the bile and abuse reminded the ex-Manchester United defender of the difficulty of a Geordie managing the club 12 miles up the road. Owner Ellis Short was now very much hands-on, with Niall Quinn relinquishing the chairmanship. Bruce was vulnerable. Short was prepared to give Bruce longer to turn Sunderlandâs fortunes around even if many of the supporters werenât. After all, he could always turn to the out-of-work OâNeill, a Sunderland supporter as a boy, whenever things became unbearable. Not now he couldnât, if Leicester were going to come calling on their former miracle worker. Sunday Express Sport understands that overtures were made to OâNeill alerting him of Sunderlandâs continuing interest in the 59-year-old as a future Stadium of Light manager. OâNeill didnât encourage Leicester any further â and the writing was now on the wall for Bruce. OâNeill didnât promise Sunderland anything in respect of Bruceâs position, but the fact that he still remained out of work since leaving Aston Villa 15 months earlier meant Bruce was sinking fast. Wiganâs last-gasp winner sparked an explosion of hatred against the manager who was always on a loser with his much publicised love of Newcastle United. The decision to remove Bruce was taken on Saturday night, but to Sunderlandâs credit in the light of the Gary Speed tragedy which was announced the next day, the North East club maintained their counsel. But there would be no going back on the decision, especially in the likelihood they could persuade OâNeill to end his managerial exile. Former Manchester City boss Mark Hughes was desperate for the job and made it known, but it was OâNeill who Short wanted to revitalise the club.
O'Neil turning away from a job after a year out of football so he can come to us and Hughes desperate to join us...? Never seen the like of it in my life time!
To be fair to Steve Bruce, I believe that he was provided with a genuine opportunity to improve our results this season and if he had, he would have continued. Martin O'Neill as good a manager as he is isn't able to predict the future and would have no way of knowing how well Bruce would perform. Martin O'Neill would have taken a job at another big club if it had appeared before our vacancy. Good times nonetheless.
Got him cos ES says.... [video=youtube;uvSTm_UffZI]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uvSTm_UffZI&feature=related[/video]
