O'Leary eyes Championship post

O'Leary: Ready to return

Dave O'Leary needs to be working. Dave O'Leary doesn't want to be playing golf.

David O'Leary.
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Former Aston Villa and Leeds United boss David O'Leary has confirmed he is ready to get back into football management.

The 51-year-old former Republic of Ireland international has been without a post after leaving Villa Park by mutual content in July 2006.

O'Leary has had offers to get back into the game, although the positions have not been of a high enough calibre to tempt him into accepting.

The ex-Arsenal defender has not ruled out dropping out of the Premier League to accept a Championship post or one day returning to Leeds.

Requests

"I've had requests to go back into football and it's not me bigging myself up or thinking I deserve a bigger job but I just felt that the jobs weren't right in any way," he told the Daily Mail.

"I've had lots of offers mainly from abroad and I think that can only come from people remembering Leeds in the Champions League.

"Ideally I'd love to get back into the day-to-day stuff. I'm a worker. I'd take a Championship job definitely if it was the right one. Dave O'Leary needs to be working. Dave O'Leary doesn't want to be playing golf.

"Some were with loads and loads of dollars. Jose Mourinho was very good and recommended me for a really big job but I just felt I couldn't live where it was with the family really. That was about six or seven months ago."

Dramatic return

Astonishingly O'Leary, despite being blamed by some as one of the factors behind their dramatic fall from grace, has not ruled out returning to Elland Road down the line as manager.

While Peter Ridsdale took the fall for signing the cheques which ultimately led to the club's perilous position, O'Leary chose the transfer targets and failed to guide the team to UEFA Champions League football in the 2000/01 season.

"I wouldn't rule that out," he said of returning to the Leeds hot-seat one day. "Most of the city would love it to happen and what would give it every chance is Ridsdale is not involved anymore.

"We'd have to wait and see on that. My last memory of Leeds is of 40,000 people applauding me as I walked around the pitch. I left them in the top five in the country."