That is why I think Leicester are fortunate to have me here because that is how I see it. "I thought this would be the most difficult season The new stadium is delayed and there is a lack of stability. That is why I have been so pleased with the effort of the players on the pitch - that is where the football club does its talking." They have done so as loquaciously as their manager. They lose a few, they take their eye off the ball and, if you do that, you will be in trouble. "The Premiership may not be everybody's cup of tea but it is extremely demanding, you must look game-by-game because if you lose a spate of them you are in trouble. Yet while Leicester are seventh this morning, the Rams are in the relegation zone. "People say that if you go up the first year is the hardest, which it is, but people then say you are an 'established club'," O'Neill said. "That's nonsense, far bigger clubs than ourselves have found themselves in deep trouble. They [this is not meant as a reference to Derby] might have had that attitude - they were looking at top five or six.

Whether you keep them depends on success but it helps to attract new players, too. Derby, regardless of their present predicament in the league, can and have attracted players because of Pride Park." Derby were promoted along with Leicester in 1996 and, like O'Neill's side, survived and appeared to be prospering. "We have missed a couple of deadlines, there have been a couple of objections, and the stadium we were hoping to be in by August 2000 looks more like being ready in August 2002. "Every time we start to do okay, people talk unrealistically about European football Let's be realistic. We average [gates of] under 20,000; to give yourself a chance you have to average 35,000 or more and we are the only club in the top half of the table - bar West Ham - averaging below 30,000.

In that aspect the club is under-achieving, having been in the top 10 for three years. "We are a similar size to Derby and when they moved their gates automatically went from 18,000 to 29,000. However, he is very aware that the identity of today's visitors could not be more appropriate. Derby County represent both the best and worst case futures for O'Neill. Their stadium, Pride Park, shows what can be done; their form, in the bottom three, shows what must be avoided. "A new stadium is essential to the well-being of the club and regardless of how the boardroom struggle is resolved, whoever gets in should make that the absolute priority," he said. O'Neill's thoughts on the commercialisation of the game - "I feel the man in the street has been pushed aside for the corporate fan" - tend to lend credence to that assessment of where the manager's support lies, but for the moment he prefers not to further inflame a bitter dispute. Instead he is concentrating, with great success, on matters on the pitch. O'Neill is widely believed to back John Elsom, the football club chairman, and Sir Rodney Walker, the plc chairman, against their fellow directors, the so-called Gang of Four led by the chief executive, Barrie Pierpoint. We have been talking in his office for half an hour and the words are tumbling out of Martin O'Neill like ferrets bounding from a sack, but now he pauses and, very carefully, says: "At this minute I'd rather not answer that." We have been talking in his office for half an hour and the words are tumbling out of Martin O'Neill like ferrets bounding from a sack, but now he pauses and, very carefully, says: "At this minute I'd rather not answer that." It takes a lot to silence the Leicester City manager but the impending, crucial Emergency General Meeting of the club's plc has, for the moment, done the trick. The meeting, at Donington Park on Wednesday, should finally settle a boardroom dispute that has riven the club since September.

He wasn't available when we first inquired about him but I would like to compliment Blackburn on the way they have handled the deal since. They have been impeccable. "We are delighted that somebody of his calibre and experience has become available and that he wants to be part of what we are doing here at Leeds. "I hope our supporters will recognise that yet again we have demonstrated our support for the manager when he has come to us and asked to acquire another player for the first-team squad." Wilcox's £3m fee depends on appearances and goals scored as well as Leeds' success.. Leeds lead the Premiership, while they are also in the fourth round of both the Uefa and FA Cups. The Leeds chairman, Peter Ridsdale, said: "This is a player we have admired for some time. Wilcox's arrival is a timely one for the Leeds manager, David O'Leary, who is struggling to contend with injuries to the midfield which includes the loss of both David Batty and David Hopkin. The Scottish international Hopkin is out of the game until mid-January following groin surgery while the England international Batty is likely to remain unfit for another two weeks after a recurrence of a calf injury sustained in the Worthington Cup defeat to Leicester in midweek. In addition, the England Under-21 midfielder Lee Bowyer has been playing all season with the possibility of a hernia operation looming. Although Wilcox mainly plays on the left-hand side of midfield he is certain to become an integral squad member as O'Leary aims for silverware on three fronts. However, the 37-year-old has now retired from international football and will not be affected by the ban..

Leeds yesterday completed the £3m signing of the Blackburn midfielder Jason Wilcox, who has agreed a four-and-a-half-year contract after spending his entire career at Ewood Park. Leeds yesterday completed the £3m signing of the Blackburn midfielder Jason Wilcox, who has agreed a four-and-a-half-year contract after spending his entire career at Ewood Park. The 28-year-old joined Blackburn from school and was a key figure in their 1995 Premiership-winning side. Uefa said it had also taken into consideration "repeated acts of violence" by Cascarino in imposing his ban, which applies to the first four World Cup qualifying games. The FAI said it would appeal against the Uefa ruling which also included a four-match suspension for the Nancy striker Tony Cascarino, who confronted Turkey's Ali Eren Beserler after the second-leg match which ended goalless to send Turkey through. Riot police escorted the Irish players off the pitch as fighting broke out and some Turkish fans rushed on trying to attack the Ireland players.