 | EXCLUSIVE O'NEILL INTERVIEW Listen to the interview in full
Five Live Sport
7 June, 1900-2200 BST |
Martin O'Neill has revealed he would have accepted the England manager's job had the FA offered it to him. The Northern Irishman - who topped a BBC ICM poll about who should succeed Sven-Goran Eriksson - was overlooked after being interviewed for the job.
He told Five Live Sport: "It is one of the great jobs in football. Had it been offered, then I would have been absolutely foolish to turn it down.
"But I didn't get the job. I have no recriminations and it's over."
Referring to his former Nottingham Forest manager Brian Clough, who was passed over for the job in the 1970s, O'Neill said he did not regret what had happened.
"If Brian Clough, who had an ego the size of 15 houses, had enough humility to go for an interview for the England job, then the rest of us mortals should be able to subject ourselves to that," O'Neill said.
"It was a fantastic experience."
| I'm not sure whether I ever considered myself right in the frame |
Steve McClaren will succeed Eriksson at the end of the World Cup finals after Portugal coach Luis Felipe Scolari rejected an approach from the FA.
Ex-Celtic and Leicester boss O'Neill believes McClaren was always a front-runner because has been Eriksson's assistant.
The 54-year-old Northern Irishman met FA officials to discuss the job and said: "I think the interview went fine.
"Whether people on the other side of the table were impressed, unimpressed, had their own particular agenda... you can come up with all sorts of reasons. The fact is when the dust settled I wasn't the England manager."
Even when Scolari pulled out of the running, O'Neill had resigned himself to the fact that he would not get the job.
"I didn't think I was back in the frame. I'm not so sure whether I ever considered myself right in the frame.
"I did the interview and some time later another manager was appointed."
O'Neill thinks there were flaws in the FA's selection process.
"In hindsight, I feel they would have either come to a quicker conclusion or, probably better, waited until after the World Cup," he said.
| Football is something I would dearly love to get back into because I've missed it |
"Then you have everyone you think you might want for the job in your sights. I think it would have solved an awful lot of problems."
The former midfielder also revealed he had not been given a debriefing by the FA following his interview, but insisted "I don't think that's important".
O'Neill, who has been out of football since quitting as Celtic boss in May 2005, revealed he was desperate to return to the game.
"I think my wife would want me to get back to football because I'm an absolute nuisance around the place at the moment," he said.
"It's something I would dearly love to get back into because I've missed it.
"I've tended to go to football matches for enjoyment's sake. I've now gone past that and I want to get back into the unenjoyable part of it.
"It's such a fantastic game that even to be on the periphiphery is nearly enough."
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Feature: Pat Murphy talks to Martin O'Neill