{"id":423649,"date":"2026-02-13T13:26:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-13T13:26:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/423649\/"},"modified":"2026-02-13T13:26:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-13T13:26:08","slug":"michael-oneill-named-blackburn-rovers-manager-ni-boss-explains-why-taking-double-job-can-be-positive-step-for-world-cup-hopes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/423649\/","title":{"rendered":"Michael O\u2019Neill named Blackburn Rovers manager: NI boss explains why taking double job can be \u2018positive step\u2019 for World Cup hopes"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph__r62CB Paragraph_paragraph--default-sm-default__xk_ec articleParagraph\">Michael O\u2019Neill says he believes taking on the Blackburn Rovers job can help Northern Ireland\u2019s bid to qualify for the World Cup after confirmation that he will assume the manager\u2019s position at Ewood Park until the end of the season.<\/p>\n<p>As revealed by the Belfast Telegraph on Thursday evening, O\u2019Neill has agreed a deal to succeed Valerien Ismael at the Lancashire club but also remain in his role as Northern Ireland manager for next month\u2019s massive World Cup Play-Off Semi-Final in Italy.<\/p>\n<p>Rovers are in the relegation zone in the Championship, with O&#8217;Neill&#8217;s remit to keep them up.<\/p>\n<p>The 56-year-old will continue to lead Northern Ireland during this time &#8211; and it is understood alongside him will be the country&#8217;s most capped player Steven Davis, who has been working with O&#8217;Neill in the international set-up.<\/p>\n<p>Another ex-Northern Ireland player Damien Johnson, who has been interim boss at Blackburn lately, will also work with O&#8217;Neill.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph__r62CB Paragraph_paragraph--default-sm-default__xk_ec articleParagraph\">This development comes just six weeks before Northern Ireland play Italy in a World Cup Play-Off Semi-Final on March 26, with the winners in Bergamo travelling to Bosnia or Wales for the decider five days later.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Michael O\u2019Neill says he believes taking on the Blackburn Rovers job can help Northern Ireland\u2019s bid to qualify&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":423650,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":{"0":"post-423649","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/423649","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=423649"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/423649\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/423650"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=423649"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=423649"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=423649"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}