Neil Lennon hopes Michael O'Neill remains Northern Ireland boss

The Hibernian head coach said: "From a Northern Ireland perspective, it's not great. Michael has a bit of thinking to do. His stock is very high. He's worked miracles with the squad he has had and maybe, I don't know if he thinks it's a glass ceiling with Northern Ireland. Only Michael can answer that.

"It doesn't surprise me Scotland are in for Michael. He lives in Edinburgh, he knows the environment very well, he has played in Scotland. He is a very astute, shrewd guy.

"I don't know if he wants another stint at international level or if he leaves Northern Ireland he would go into club management, but I can see why Scotland have an interest in him. From a Northern Ireland perspective, we want him to stay, because he's the king there.''

Lennon added: "He was always intelligent, well-educated, and a very good footballer. I went to visit him when he was the manager of Shamrock Rovers and he did some great things there and he took that on.

"It wasn't all plain-sailing, I think he won one out of 18, but the IFA showed great faith in him and Michael showed great doggedness and turned it all around and found a winning formula. He instilled a great mentality in the team and got the best out of players.''

When asked whether a move to Hampden would be better than a new role in the Sky Bet Championship, Lennon said: "If you're talking about Sunderland, then yeah, the Scotland job would be far more attractive than the Sunderland would be at this current time. Sunderland is a big club but there are some frailties there and the structure behind the scenes doesn't look to be all it should be.

"It's the bottom end of the Championship and the Scotland job is a very prestigious job, but it's a very precarious job. It's feast or famine, like a lot of international jobs. If things are going well you are the greatest thing since sliced bread and as soon as you get a negative result, you're clueless.'

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