Michael O’Neil has proved why club/country job sharing is best left for Football Manager | OneFootball

You may have missed it but there is a growing argument brewing in the Championship and it surrounds Northern Ireland boss Michael O’Neill.

On Tuesday, Northern Ireland faced Wales in the most miserable friendly of all time after both home nations failed to make it to the final qualifying round for the summer’s World Cup.

In the friendly, which was a 1-1 draw, O’Neill named a side featuring Jamie Donley and Ciaron Brown. Brode Spender also made an appearance from the bench.

The reason why those players are of interest is they all play for Oxford United, who just so happen to be in the midst of a relegation scrap against Blackburn Rovers.

And who is the manager of Blackburn? That’s right, Michael O’Neill.

The long-time Northern Ireland boss reached a ‘short-term agreement’ to take over at Ewood Park in February, achieving all of our Football Manager dreams by managing both club and country at the same time.

Initially the appointment was thought to be bad news for both Blackburn and Northern Ireland fans with their manager now focused on other matters but it has transpired that the teams around Blackburn are feeling a little hard done by.

For this round of international fixtures, O’Neill called up six players from the rival clubs around Blackburn, four of whom came from Oxford.

It is the U’s who are leading the backlash with BBC Radio Oxford reporting that the club has raised concern with the EFL over the apparent fairness of a rival manager being able to dictate how many minutes their footballers play. For context, uncapped Blackburn defender Tom Atcheson was the sole Rovers player picked by O’Neill.

Oxford United are currently on 39 points, four behind Blackburn and the relentless nature/joy of the Championship means just three days after the international fixture, there is a full round of fixtures.

Oxford face Hull on Good Friday, a team challenging for the playoffs while Blackburn travel to midtable Birmingham.

Portsmouth, who also had a player selected for the Northern Ireland squad, face in-form Norwich while West Brom host Wrexham.

O’Neill isn’t having it, suggesting no club even asked him about minutes.

“If I’m honest, I’m a little bit disappointed,” he said. “These clubs ask for references on players. They ask for character references, level of performance, from us and our staff when they want to sign these players.”

“They were international players when they signed them. Now, suddenly it becomes a bit of an issue that they’re international players.

“If you look at the players in question, you know Isaac (Price) played 45 minutes tonight, Ciaron (Brown) played 60, Jamie (Donley) played 60 and young Jamie McDonnell didn’t play at all. Terry (Devlin) played a little bit more but he didn’t finish both games.

“I’ll always try to protect the players. I don’t want the players coming here and it affecting their club situation.

“So I was a little bit disappointed with that because I didn’t get a phone call from any of the managers. I didn’t get a phone call from anyone from their respective clubs.

“So they felt that, and whatever they decided to do or what avenue they took to raise their concerns, it’s disappointing given that I’ve managed over 100 international games and I’ve always put the players first.”

The EFL has, as usual, suggested there was nothing they could do about it and international call-ups were FIFA’s remit but it is a reminder to us all of why job sharing is best saved for Football Manager.