MOTHERWELL manager Stephen Robinson admits that it would be an honour to be linked with the Northern Ireland job should current head coach Michael O’Neill decide to leave the post.
Robinson has impressed since taking over at Fir Park, guiding a struggling side to safety from relegation before revitalising the squad in the summer, leading them to the Betfred Cup final and fifth place in the table as it stands.
While he insists he is happy in his current role for the moment, he concedes that as a proud Northern Irishman, the pull of the national job would be a tough one to resist.
“I probably will be linked with the job, yeah,” said Robinson. “It’s a big honour for me to even be linked with something like that.
“I’m very patriotic about my country and I’m very proud of where I come from. I’ve obviously worked at that level before and it was a massive honour for me to do that.
“That’s all ifs, buts and maybes though, I’m very, very happy as the Motherwell manager and Michael is still the Northern Ireland manager, and I very much hope he remains the Northern Ireland manager, so we’ll worry about that when it happens.”
One thing that Robinson has ruled out however, is joining O’Neill’s backroom staff should he decide to take up the Scotland post, as previous Motherwell managers Stuart McCall and Mark McGhee have done in the past.
“I’m not so sure,” he said. “My focus is totally on Motherwell at this point in time, and I’m not sure as a manager you could do both roles.
“If you go away and you lose two or three games, it would be thrown at you that your focus isn’t at Motherwell, so I would say that would be very unlikely.
“I’m not surprised that the SFA have made an approach for Michael at all.
“If I was sitting on any international board in the world, he would be one of the first names on your lips.
“Look at what he has done and what he has achieved with 35 or 36 players with four of them playing in the top-flight, then it’s a massive achievement.
“He would very much be near the top of the list I would imagine for any international board that are looking to be successful and qualify for major tournaments.”
If Robinson was at all worried about his Motherwell players losing focus with the Betfred Cup final on the horizon, his squad’s refusal of an offer of tailor-made suits for the big day told him everything he needed to know about their priorities.
The Hampden showdown with Celtic may be all that anyone in the town wants to talk about, but Robinson says that his men are so grounded that tomorrow’s trip to face Aberdeen is all that’s on their minds.
“To be honest, there hasn’t been a lot of talk about the final,” he said. “We have a grounded bunch here.
“I don’t doubt that it’ll be at the back of their minds, although they won’t speak to me about it, but if they look that far ahead then they won’t be playing at Hampden.
“I’ll pick a team that I believe can win the final and the team which plays against Aberdeen will have first shot at that.
“What we said after beating Rangers was: ‘Sort the ticket allocations out straight away’ so I don’t want players running around next week saying they need two, 10 or 15 tickets – that’s all been done.
“A lack of focus doesn’t come into it for us. Aberdeen away is a tough game.
“We know what we’re up against and what Derek brings to the table with his team.
“They have only lost two domestic games – one of them to us – and that gives us something to aim for.”
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