Blackburn weigh up Michael O'Neill risk - 'it's a stupid idea' | OneFootball

FLW's Blackburn Rovers fan pundit has given his verdict on the possible arrival of Michael O'Neill as manager

This article is part of Football League World's 'Terrace Talk' series, which provides personal opinions from our FLW Fan Pundits regarding the latest breaking news, teams, players, managers, potential signings and more…

Michael O’Neill is now considered the front-runner to become the next Blackburn Rovers manager.

According to the Belfast Telegraph, the Northern Ireland boss will share his duties at national level with the role in the Championship.

The 56-year-old is currently preparing for the World Cup qualifiers, which take place in March, with his side set to take on Italy in their semi-final, with the chance to play Wales or Bosnia and Herzegovina in a potential final.

But the Lancashire outfit are also searching for a coach that can maintain their place in the second division following the decision to sack Valerien Ismael earlier this month.

O’Neill has not worked at club level since his stint at Stoke City, which ended in August 2022.

Michael O’Neill job share idea should be avoided by Blackburn

When asked about the prospect of this appointment, FLW’s Blackburn fan pundit Simon Middlehurst claimed that it’s a terrible idea and that the club should not be bringing in a manager that isn’t fully committed to the club.

He believes that O’Neill will rightly want to pay a lot of attention to these World Cup play-offs in March, and that the Lancashire outfit need someone who can focus entirely on their relegation battle.

“To be honest with you, I think it’s a stupid idea,” Middlehurst told Football League World.

“We’re going into a really important part of our season and we need to be bringing in someone who is going to be fully committed to help us stay in the Championship.

“Bringing someone in on a part-time deal on a job share, it just wouldn’t work, and that just kind of sums up the mentality of our board and hierarchy at the minute to even entertain this idea.

“It’s not great at all.

“Michael O’Neill’s obviously got a big job in Northern Ireland coming up with the qualifiers, etc.

“Obviously, he’s still going to be concentrated on that, so would he be coming in, even if he came in part time, would he be coming in full focused? Absolutely not.

“I think it’s a really daft idea, shouldn’t even be entertained.

“We need to be looking at someone who is going to come in, be 100 percent fully committed.

“But, it wouldn’t surprise me if Blackburn did go for that because that just shows where we are as a club at the minute, and how [head of football operations] Rudy Gestede thinks.”

Blackburn are currently inside the relegation zone due to an inferior goal difference to Leicester City, with the teams 22nd and 21st in the table, respectively.

Rovers have won just one of their last 10 league fixtures, which was a 1-0 victory against 24th place Sheffield Wednesday.

The new manager’s task, should be O’Neill or whoever else, will be to ensure the club remains in the division beyond this season.

Next up for Blackburn is a trip to face 13th place QPR on 14 February in a 3pm kick-off.

Michael O’Neill appointment is messy for Blackburn

O’Neill has proven himself at a Championship level from his time at Stoke, and his recent results for Northern Ireland are also impressive, all things considered.

He will want to make Blackburn hard to beat, and should know what it takes to get results from this squad.

However, it’s true that his full focus will be on qualifying for the World Cup, as that is more important than being able to remain in the second tier.

While it is unlikely that Northern Ireland will qualify for this summer’s tournament, his attention will also be on preparing for that in April and May if they do get through the play-offs, which would be detrimental for Rovers.