Michael O'Neill pinpoints 'thing that upsets me most' as Arsenal teen named in Northern Ireland squad amid speculation

Former Linfield youngster O’Neill is now on the books of Premier League champions Arsenal and made his senior Northern Ireland debut during June’s friendlies against Guinea and France.

The 18-year-old had been approached by the Football Association of Ireland (FAI) about the prospect of representing the Republic of Ireland, but it appears Northern Ireland have now won that fight with O’Neill named in a 28-player squad for upcoming Nations League fixtures.

Kilrea native O’Neill was involved with Arsenal’s squad throughout pre-season and has been named on the bench by Mikel Arteta in the FA Cup, but has yet to make his senior club debut.

Northern Ireland chief O’Neill feels the young attacker, who he recently met in London, has been put in a tough position amid speculation – and insists the youngster should be left to focus on football.

"I try not to pay too much attention to it,” said O’Neill. “My focus is on the player and I have a duty of care to the player as his international manager, as we have as an association as well.

"He's been in our pathway since he's been a young boy, he's been part of our academy.

"He's obviously had an approach from another association, which happens. He doesn't have a bloodline to there, but obviously the rules permit them to make that approach.

"As I say, the dialogue with Ceadach has been positive all summer.

"For me, the thing that upsets me the most in this is that putting a young player in a position to make an international transfer before he's been a professional for even two years is, I think, not the right thing that any association should be doing.

"We've done two international transfers in my time: Jamie Donley, who is now a senior international, and Ronan Hale, who was 25 at the time when we asked him to make that decision.

"I think there's a point in a player's career where you've just got to let him play and develop, enjoy his football without creating a situation like this, because we haven't created this situation – Ceadach’s been in our system all along and he's in our squad now.”

The topic of players switching international allegiance isn’t new with many examples of changing allegiance – and is set to remain a talking point with the FAI seemingly stepping up their pursuit of top young talent.

Northern Ireland boss O’Neill says the rule is “not particularly fair” – but insists his full focus is on Irish FA matters.

"It would have been in the past, but it's not tiresome now,” added O’Neill. “I'm able to ignore how it's reported, which is extremely poorly in a lot of cases.

"I think that what we miss in all of this, and we have people who comment on this and talk about nationality and talk about identity and talk about all these different things, which is part of being born in Northern Ireland and growing up in Northern Ireland.

"But I think what we're missing out is that we're putting young players in a situation where they have to make a decision which is irreversible.

"We've seen that happen for some players. If I look at, as an example, Daniel Kearns, how many senior international caps did he get after making a transfer?

"Even Michael Duffy, who was in our squad and has been a really good player for Derry City, made an international transfer, was never recognised with a position in the squad.

"I think that you have to be careful when you offer that situation to a young player, that you can follow through on the promises that you claim to make at that point in time.

"All we can do as an association is look after the players as best we can, give them the best development path we can.

"We exploit eligibility, the same as every other country does, down to the grandparent rule, but this is a rule which is obviously unique between ourselves and the FAI.

"I think everyone recognises it's not particularly fair, but as I say, our focus is to make sure our pathway for our young players is as good as possible.”