Republic of Ireland manager Martin O’Neill has hit back at some strange claims from Kenny Cunningham.
The former Ireland captain said that O’Neill shouldn’t be automatically given a new contract if Ireland qualify for Euro 2016, and questioned whether he, and assistant Roy Keane, has got the best from the players at their disposal.
“If you are asking me, ‘Do I think we have produced our best under Martin and Roy?’, the answer is no,” Cunningham said. “If the answer was yes, then he (O’Neill) deserves another contract.”
“I don’t care if they qualified or not.”
Given that O’Neill’s remit is to lead Ireland to Euro 2016, and it’s difficult to do so without extracting a certain level of performance from his players, one would imagine the Derryman would have met the criteria to earn a new deal should Ireland make it to France next summer.
O’Neill certainly thinks so, and completely dismissed Cunningham’s claims.
“I think that’s nonsense, particularly coming from Kenny, as a former player, it’s even more nonsensical.”
“Kenny actually made the point even if we qualify I shouldn’t automatically get a contract until it was demonstrated that I was getting the best out of the players.”
“Well, I thought if you qualify, there’s a very decent chance you are getting the best out of the players. I might be wrong; I might be totally wrong.”
No, that seems fair enough to us, Martin.
