He might now be Burnley man (although not for much longer, perhaps), but Jon Walters remains adamant on this: "I'm a Stoke fan."
Having spent seven years and played over 270 games for the club, he spoke openly this morning of his desire to see the Republic of Ireland manager and his assistant take over the club from the recently sacked Mark Hughes:
If I was Stoke City I'd be clambering to appoint him.
Although of initial interest to the club, it had appeared that O'Neill, and by extension Keane, were going to be overlooked for the role in favour of former Watford manager, Quique Sánchez Flores.
While the Spaniard eventually decided to remain where he is in La Liga with Espanyol, Walters believes that the Irish duo possess the necessary skills to bring Stoke out of their current slump.
Going back to simplicity. Stoke need organising, they need something because they're down in the bottom three.
With Ireland, we were fourth favourite to get out of the group behind Serbia, Austria, Wales, everyone gave us no chance and a lot of people are judging him on the Denmark game ... but if you look at how we've done under him with Ireland, I can only sing his praises.
Citing his experience under O'Neill with Ireland as the main reason for appointing him is unsurprising.
Under the former Aston Villa, Sunderland and Celtic boss, Walters has become an invaluable player within the Irish set-up. Absent for Ireland's disastrous loss to Denmark in the November play-off, maybe Walters envisions a route back to Stoke City should O'Neill and Keane find themselves in the role?
Whether or not Stoke City will share Walters' sentiments is unclear. Looking unlikely that they will have a manager in place before Monday's match against Manchester United, one way or another, they will need to move fast.
Martin O'Neill to Stoke City?
We asked someone who knows both very well...#bbcfootball https://t.co/2JrjEJsLrT pic.twitter.com/6tp6nE3r4S
— Match of the Day (@BBCMOTD) January 14, 2018
