O’Neill dismisses resignation claims

Sunderland boss Martin O’Neill has insisted he is going nowhere after the club was forced to dismiss claims he had offered his resignation.

Wearside was buzzing on Saturday evening, hours after the Black Cats’ 4-2 home defeat by West Brom, as rumours of the Derryman’s departure spread like wildfire with the help of Twitter.

But O’Neill admitted he was as surprised as anyone as club officials spent the evening denying the speculation.

The 60-year-old, who will celebrate 12 months at the Stadium of Light next month, said: “Yes, it was a bit of a surprise. 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.”

It was not the first time talk of O’Neill’s impending demise had swept the city in recent weeks, but as he prepared his players for tonight’s Barclays Premier League clash with QPR, the manager was adamant that it was business as usual.

Asked if he was planning to go anywhere, he said emphatically: “Absolutely not.”

The speculation has come amid a sequence of poor results for Sunderland.

The last 26 league games have brought just four victories and yielded only 24 points from a possible 78.

O’Neill acknowledges the need for an improvement on those statistics, starting with tonight’s game, although he is refusing to classify it as a must-win affair.

He said: “I wouldn’t say it’s going to define everything, but all games are important.”