Interesting report about a recent Martin O'Neill BBC Five live interview.
Appears to confirm, what I and others on here thought from the start that he really wanted the England job and was never interested in the Ireland job.
If he is back 'job-hunting', it will be interesting to see which club, if any, takes him on.
Martin O'Neill has confirmed he wanted to become England manager.
The former Celtic and Leicester manager has stayed quiet on the issue and it was thought that his personal circumstances may have forced him out of the running.
Wife Geraldine is continuing to battle cancer, but O'Neill has declared himself ready to return to football, and would have relished the challenge of managing England.
"It is one of the great jobs in world football," O'Neill, 54, told BBC Radio Five Live.
"If Brian Clough, who had the ego the size of 15 houses, had the humility to go for an interview for the England job then the rest of us mortals should be able to subject ourselves to that.
"Had the job been offered, then I would have been absolutely foolish to turn it down."
Following an unsuccessful approach for Portugal head coach Luiz Felipe Scolari, the Football Association named Middlesbrough boss Steve McClaren as Sven-Goran Eriksson's successor and he will take the reins after the World Cup finals.
O'Neill had been thought to have strong support at the FA, and he had talks over the England job, but McClaren was in an apparent position of strength due to him being on Eriksson's coaching staff.
"I think the interview went fine," said O'Neill. "I'm not sure that interviews and I get along, particularly first interviews.
"Overall I didn't get the job, whether people on the other side of the table were impressed, unimpressed, had their own particular agenda, eventually you can come up with all sorts of reasons, the fact is when the dust settled I wasn't the England manager."
Scolari's decision to rule himself out of the running denied the FA a leading candidate, but O'Neill hinted that his expectations were low by that stage.
"I didn't think I was back in the frame. I'm not so sure whether I ever considered myself right in the frame," he told BBC Radio Five Live.
"I did the interview and some time later another manager was appointed. Fine. I have no recriminations and it's over."
O'Neill appears eager to find a new job, after 12 months out of football. He resigned as Celtic manager at the end of the 2004-05 season to care for his wife, but now says: "I think she would want me to get back to football because I'm an absolute nuisance about the place at the moment."
