Michael O’Neill: Northern Ireland boss to ‘turn heads’ with short spell at Blackburn Rovers

Craigan said O’Neill’s decision to stay would come as a big boost to the squad’s youthful talent, such as Connor Bradley, Trae Hume, Dan Ballard and Shea Charles.

“One thing you always hear when interviewing players, they speak very highly of Michael, they like the way he works.

“He’s obviously improved a lot of them personally, even just in terms of tactical shape. The players have taken things on board and made great progress.

“2028 was always the goal for the players in this team but, in the process, getting promoted to Nations League B was huge, a World Cup play-off spot came with it, that was a big bonus as well.

“So with a lot of experience now, it was about collecting caps so they could get as much experience as possible at international level.”

Northern Ireland will face Guinea in Cadiz and France in Lille in upcoming friendlies in early June, before opening their Nations League campaign in the autumn in a group consisting of Georgia, Hungary and Ukraine.

But the priority will be qualification for the next European Championship.

“The next step is going to be qualifying for a big tournament and I think having Michael there by their side, doing that earlier will give the players a lot of hope.

“We know they are going in the right direction, need to do some fine-tuning at the top end of the pitch, be a bit more creative and find a goalscorer.

“It sometimes comes with the players getting a bit older, but they look like a really strong unit and I think having Michael at the helm will give them great confidence, especially coming off two internationals in the summer.

“It was uncomfortable for them to come to these games. If Michael wasn’t there and an interim manager was in charge it would have been easier for them not to come to international football in June.

“It seemed a little random but the fact that he made that decision gives the players a big boost.”