Former Stoke City man Gerry Taggart has made a bold claim over the new managerial appointment of Michael O’Neill. Speaking to Stoke On Trent Live, Taggart believes that O’Neill will be a huge success at the Bet365 Stadium.
O’Neill is expected to be unveiled as the new Stoke City manager after eight years in charge at Northern Ireland who he took to a first major tournament in 30 years.
The Potters currently sit bottom of the Sky Bet Championship and have only won two games all season and are in grave danger of facing the next campaign in League One should their results not improve.
The former Stoke City and Northern Ireland centre-half Taggart told Radio Stoke: “It’s pretty interesting. I’m not really surprised to be honest. Michael has been in the news about taking on jobs for a while now so it doesn’t really surprise me.”
“He’s done a fantastic job with Northern Ireland and in my opinion he’s a manager who could easily manage in the Premier League. I’m not surprised at all that a club like Stoke would be interested in his services.”
“And probably most importantly, especially with Northern Ireland, he’s dragged every last ounce out of all those players to get them in contention for qualifying for Euro 2020.”
Taggart has also commented on O’Neill and how he believes he will be able to handle being a manager on a day-to-day basis as opposed to on the international scene.
“He’s a manager who’s made his name in international football and as for as the players he has playing for him on the international scene they all speak very highly of him, none more so than Leicester City’s Jonny Evans, who I know pretty well. I don’t think that’ll be an issue.”
