Should Crystal Palace or West Ham consider Michael O’Neill as manager?

Follow us on Google Discover

Both Frank de Boer and Slaven Bilic at Crystal Palace and West Ham are under pressure. Maybe they should consider Northern Ireland’s Michael O’Neill.

Slaven Bilic, manager of West Ham United.

Having lost all three of their Premier League matches to date, the Sun reported that both Slaven Bilic and Frank de Boer potentially faced the sack at West Ham United and Crystal Palace respectively.

Many names have been linked with both London clubs during the subsequent international break, although both look to be keeping their jobs until after the next round of fixtures at least.

Frank de Boer, manager of Crystal Palace looks dejected after the Premier League match against Swansea City.

Yet one manager that hasn’t been included in the mix but perhaps deserves to be is Michael O’Neill, the man who is doing a brilliant job with Northern Ireland.

The nation are currently second in their World Cup qualifying group behind Germany, perfectly placed for a playoff position and possibly their second major tournament in two years having been lead to Euro 2016 by O’Neill as well.

This is impressive stuff in a pool that also contains Czech Republic and Norway, with the Northern Irish having won six of their eight matches and lost just once, away to the Germans. This is despite the fact that O’Neill’s last squad had just three Premier League players in it, with many called up from the Championship, League One and the Scottish Premiership.

Michael O’Neill during the FIFA 2018 World Cup Qualifier between Northern Ireland and Czech Republic.

FIFA’s latest rankings have the Green and White Army in 20th position, their highest ever, yet O’Neill still inexplicably gets overlooked when top flight English teams are looking for a new boss.

Wales chief Chris Coleman, in contrast, was linked with the Palace job by Sky Sports earlier this year after the announcement of Sam Allardyce’s retirement. Coleman did admittedly lead the Welsh to the semi-finals at Euro 2016, but he also has better players at his disposal and arguably the two managers are on a par in terms of their individual achievements.

O’Neill did tell talkSPORT in March that domestic football in England was not high on his priorities, though, saying: “Everyone always thinks the next step for a manager in my position is to go into club football in England and that may not be the case. The game’s a lot more global now. Look at the tenure of a club manager in England and it’s maybe not as appealing as it was.”

However, surely the 48-year-old deserves to at least been mentioned in the mix? After all, as a coach he is used to getting the very best out of what he has in front of him and maybe the Eagles and West Ham could do with a bit more of that currently.