Football
ESPN staff 6y

Martin O'Neill suggests he plans on Republic of Ireland stay

Martin O'Neill has indicated that he plans to stay on as Republic of Ireland manager despite the nation's failure to qualify for the 2018 World Cup.

Ireland's hopes of reaching a first World Cup since 2002 were brought to an end with a 5-1 defeat to Denmark in the second leg of their playoff on Tuesday.

Former Leicester, Celtic and Aston Villa boss O'Neill, who led Ireland to Euro 2016, said he would hold talks with Football Association of Ireland head John Delaney but suggested he expected to remain in the role.

"I'll sit down and speak with John," he said in The Guardian. "I thought John and myself had agreed to stay but we'll see."

The Guardian reported that O'Neill had an informal agreement to extend his stay by two years.

The 65-year-old also said the squad would likely need to be refreshed given the number of older players in the current selection.

"There are some players who, if we'd qualified, would have continued on to the end of the campaign but maybe now they'll rethink that and probably bring their international careers to the end," O'Neill said.

"In my time they've been fantastic for me. We need to start again, think about younger elements and trying to blood them through."

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