Martin O'Neill is expected to reject West Ham’s advances for the second time this year if the Upton Park board offer him the job that no leading manager seems to want.
The Ulsterman is top of the club’s short list after their dismissal of Avram Grant on Sunday and they will try to persuade him to accept the task of guiding them back to the Barclays Premier League.
But Sportsmail understands that O’Neill has the same concerns about West Ham as he had when he declined the invitation to succeed Grant in January and sources close to the former Aston Villa and Celtic manager expect him to turn down any new offer.
O’Neill is more focused on settling his dispute with Villa over his departure last August. A Premier League managers’ arbitration panel is due to hear the case this week.
Sources close to O’Neill point out that if he was not keen on West Ham when they were a Premier League club, he will be even less so now.
However, Cardiff manager Dave Jones may enter the picture at Upton Park now he has failed to gain promotion in six seasons with the Welsh club.Cardiff fans chanted, ‘You’re getting sacked in the morning’, after Reading’s third goal in the Championship play-off defeat.Jones said: ‘I will take stock of my position and decide whether I want to continue. It’s about what the owners want, what I want and what is best for this football club.’
The problem facing West Ham co-owners David Sullivan and David Gold is that other leading candidates have publicly declared a lack of interest in taking the job.
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