Michael O’Neill focused on Northern Ireland job despite Aberdeen links

Northern Ireland boss Michael O’Neill has shrugged off speculation linking him with the vacant job at Aberdeen but said he could not rule out a return to club football in the future.

O’Neill (54) is among the names mentioned as a possible replacement for Neil Warnock, who stepped down as Dons boss on Saturday less than an hour after guiding the club to the Scottish Cup semi-finals, becoming the fifth manager to leave Pittodrie in the last three years.

After naming his Northern Ireland squad for the upcoming friendlies away to Romania and Scotland, O’Neill was braced for questions on his future.

“I don’t really give it much thought,” O’Neill said.

“As I’ve said, I was at Aberdeen against St Mirren two or three weeks ago, I was there to see two Northern Ireland players who play for St Mirren.

“That’s a story that has been in the Scottish media. I’m not in control of anything like that. My focus is always here. I signed a five-and-a-half-year contact when I came back.

“I’m not in control of what people speculate or what people write and it’s not something I give a lot of attention to.”

O’Neill returned to the Northern Ireland job in December 2022. He had previously been in charge for eight years, guiding the team to Euro 2016, before leaving for Stoke in early 2020.

Asked if he wanted to manage in club football again, O’Neill added: “I would never close the door on that but when I came back here I came back knowing the job that was in hand.

“I felt I had a group of players who had possibly one last campaign in them. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case because a number of those senior players missed the whole campaign with injury or some retired.

“We’re now in a different phase, we’re having to go through a redevelopment, to