Michael O’Neill: Manager’s Northern Ireland return ‘exciting for everyone’ – Aaron Hughes

Irish FA technical director Aaron Hughes says the widely welcomed return of Michael O’Neill as Northern Ireland manager is “exciting for everyone”.

The appointment of O’Neill, who guided NI to the Euro 2016 finals in France, was confirmed last week, just one month after Hughes was announced in his role.

“Michael’s appointment is huge. It’s given everyone a real lift, seeing the reaction it has got already,” he said.

“When I was consulted I was very positive around the whole thing.”

O’Neill will lead Northern Ireland into the forthcoming Euro 2024 qualification campaign as part of a five-and-a-half-year deal with the Irish FA.

He previously managed the team from the end of 2011 to 2020, before leaving to concentrate fully on managing Championship side Stoke City, with Ian Baraclough named as his replacement.

Baraclough was sacked in October, two months after O’Neill suffered a similar fate at Stoke, opening the way for the latter’s return to the post he occupied for over eight years.

Former NI captain Hughes played under O’Neill as part of a senior international career which saw him rack up 112 caps, before retiring in 2019.

He joined the IFA last year as an elite football development consultant, before assuming the role of technical director as part of the IFA’s senior leadership team.