Martin O’Neill has dismissed speculation that he had offered his resignation after Sunderland lost 4-2 to West Brom on Saturday.
Speculation was rife about the future of the former Celtic boss with Sunderland forced into contacting media outlets to deny the story.
O’Neill faces a six-pointer tomorrow night at home to Harry Redknapp’s QPR but felt obliged to comment on the resignation issue.
“It was a bit of a surprise, really,” he answered in his usual roundabout manner. “Nothing probably should surprise me in the game, but yes, there was nothing in it.
“Anybody can tweet these days. I think it happened a couple of years ago as well, something like that, a similar sort of thing but that’s the nature of it. But no, I was pretty surprised.”
Looking at the visit of QPR chasing their first win of the season he added: “We are not capable of treating anybody lightly, far from it. We are not good enough to do that at all but in many aspects with him (Redknapp) coming in, it’s a game for us that we know now the players’ concentration has to be absolutely at its height.
“We have just got to go and try to create some chances against a side that looked as if it had played very well against Manchester United, so they will come, even though they haven’t won yet, with plenty of confidence themselves.
“From all accounts – and I have watched a good deal of the game against Manchester United at Old Trafford – they played very well, took the lead and played very well up until the equalising goal.
“Manchester United, of course, are a very fine side, but in terms of performance, they will have gained a great deal from that.”
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