Martin O’Neill is the runaway favourite to replace Giovanni Trapattoni as Ireland manager but would he be the right man for the job? Two JOEs add their voice to the debate.
Mike Sheridan says… There was a reason why Martin O’Neill was once thought of as a future Manchester United manager, why he was once part of a final three interviewed for the England job and why he was actually a lot of people’s favourites to take the gig ahead of eventual boss Fabio Capello.
It says a lot about Martin O’Neill’s calibre as a manager that Gordon Strachan’s successful run as Celtic boss following O’Neill was met with a collective shrug by a lot of the fans. While O’Neill’s record while he was in charge at Parkhead was formidable (a win rate of over 75%), it was the passion he showed on the sideline that seemed to translate to not just the players, but the fans, whose love for the Irishman hasn’t waned with time.
O’Neill’s detractors argue that he is far too old school and his teams too negative, a point ostensibly underlined by the fact that these were the very same criticisms aimed at Trap throughout his reign as Ireland boss. But fans who have watched, often through their own fingers, Ireland play since the Euros will have witnessed a team that was playing without passion, without organisation and ultimately without purpose.
We all want to see ‘Total Football’. We want the ball to be taken down and played – predominantly through the midfield – utilising the fledging talents of James McCarthy. But in reality very few managers at the level required would be able to instil that mentality (and indeed ability) into players who aren’t part of a similar system for their clubs week in, week out.
What they do need is to be organised and highly motivated; two things that Martin O’Neill has proven he is capable of delivering in spades throughout his career, and with generally average players, bar a couple of exceptions… sound familiar?
Whether or not O’Neill wants the job remains to be seen. One thing is for sure; the man knows both the English and Scottish Premier Leagues like the back of his hand.
He has one undeniable failing as a manager, Sunderland. The Ireland job could and should be his along and should help accelerate a return to prominence for one of the best and most well respected coaches in modern European football.
Conor Heneghan says… Ask most of the Irish fans that wanted Trap gone as Ireland manager what their biggest gripes with the Italian were and there’s a good chance that the style of football he implemented and his refusal to look beyond a core group of players would figure highly on the list.
Football, and particularly international football for a country of Ireland’s status, should be a results business; but for a large portion of Irish supporters, the end didn’t justify the means as far as Giovanni Trapattoni was concerned. Even qualification for the Euros wasn’t going to change their opinion that the Italian should go.
That’s not to try and defend Trapattoni, it’s long since been time for him to go, but Irish fans wishing for Martin O’Neill should be wary of the fact that it might not be a whole lot different if he does get the job.
The widely-told anecdote of Aston Villa’s fringe players sending each other picture messages of champagne bottles when he left is probably more damning in what it says about the ‘me first’ mentality of the players who sent those messages, but also serves to illustrate that O’Neill isn’t much of a man for squad rotation.
If you’re one of the 15 or 16 players in the first team picture, great, if not, it can be a long road back to being considered for selection once again. The same applied at Sunderland, even though James McClean ended up being a chief beneficiary of O’Neill’s approach. Disgruntled Irish fans often throw out the names of players who Trapattoni might have considered but history suggests that O’Neill’s search for new talent for the national side might not be the most expansive either.
O’Neill has acquired a sterling reputation in the game based mostly on his exploits with Celtic and Aston Villa and there is no doubt that he seems to have a gift for motivating the players who play under him; even Sunderland enjoyed an instant transformation after he took over as manager in his most recent stint.
But then remember where Sunderland were when he left them, teetering on the brink of relegation and probably lucky to avoid it, a team that seemed devoid of both motivation and inspiration and generally in a bit of a mess that Paolo di Canio is currently doing a pretty bad job of trying to solve.
Similarly at Aston Villa, although O’Neill must be given huge credit for guiding the Villains to three consecutive sixth-place finishes, they came at quite a cost financially and after tricky spells for Alex McLeish and Gerard Houllier and a troublesome first season for Paul Lambert, it is only now that they are beginning to resemble a solid top-flight outfit once again.
I don’t like going too hard on O’Neill because his success with Celtic and Villa demonstrates that he is in fact a decent manager and while Villa played some good football with some very good players (Dunne, Petrov, Barry, Young, Milner et al), Sunderland weren’t so impressive.
At this stage, I feel that O’Neill’s reputation is based a little bit on past glories and am not convinced that he is the right man for the job. If he does get the job (and I imagine the majority of Irish fans will back him to the hilt) the concerns of Irish fans that arose during the Trapattoni era could raise their heads again sooner rather than later.
