The successful Ireland manager and his controversial assistant under the spotlight
Factfile Ages: 63 and 44
Appearance: studious and scowling respectively
In the news because: the Ireland manager and his controversial assistant led the national team to the finals of Euro 2016last week by defeating Bosnia-Herzegovinain a play-off
There’s always been a desperation when it comes to dealing with Roy Keane. Back in 2005, closing the door behind him when walking out on Manchester United, it caused a frenzy in a newspaper office back in Dublin.
The order came from on high, directed at a respected reporter standing in the middle of the office floor. “Why don’t you go over there, ring his doorbell, tell him you’re a young lad looking for a break, and who knows, he might talk to you?”
The reporter looked more frightened than insulted by the prospect, considering the Corkman’s reputation when it comes to unwanted intrusion into his personal space.
It’s as if there’s a constant panic and a need to scratch away at the surface, break past those ink black eyes and into the Technicolour soul of one of our most interesting sportspeople. It’s why Keane was the news when John Delaney named the management team, why Keane was the talk when investigated for road rage, why Keane was the fascination when there was a minor altercation outside the Irish team hotel, why Keane was the quote when Ireland beat Bosnia last week. But stare hard and long enough at the television and you’ll never notice the books sitting on the shelf beside it.
That’s where Martin O’Neill comes in.
Think back to the early days of what our own odd couple inherited. This was a squad that had been humiliated at the previous European Championships, pummelled repeatedly in World Cup qualifying matches and were attracting nations such as Latvia and Oman for friendlies where hordes of empty green seats were left to create a plastic atmosphere that railed against the past.
It’s also a squad that constitutes Ireland’s weakest in 40 years, and when considering that lack of quality, this may also be our most impressive qualifying campaign ever.
But the difference between then and now? Quite simply, it’s been a restoration of the battling spirit that was once the cornerstone of our football philosophy and a willingness to fight repeatedly against all the odds.
While it’s easy to suggest they are the exact traits Keane brought to his playing days and therefore imbues on this team now, it’s easier still to overlook the fact they are traits O’Neill too has often shown and inspires in those around him.
After all, the late Brian Clough remembered him being one of the few players to stand up to him. “Whenever we had a row he’d always say to me, ‘I don’t have to do this you know, I can go back to university’,” he once recalled. “So one day he said this to me and I said, ‘Here you go’ and I handed him a plane ticket I had bought for him to fly back home.”
Indeed, when managing Leicester back in 1998, the story goes that at half-time during a game against Wimbledon, so frustrated with the performance was O’Neill that, mid-rant, he walked straight into the shower room and returned to continue his tirade in a dripping wet tracksuit without even breaking character.
And let’s not forget this was a Catholic man who was the first from his religion to captain Northern Ireland at a time when it would have been easier, but far less important, to simply say no.
But what O’Neill does well and Keane has often struggled to do in his management is strike a balance between freedom and fury that makes teams want to play for him.
One staff member from his days at Leicester recalled: “He organises a Christmas night out for the backroom staff at clubs he manages. He regularly pays for them to go to dinner and to the theatre. He is a likeable character.” Such acts bring about a spirit that dripped away during Giovanni Trapattoni’s tenure, but is now dripping again from this Ireland side.
The international set-up is probably one more suited to O’Neill at this stage of his career. When initially taking over, the fear was that he was an appointment similar to his predecessor, in that football tactics had moved on and his style was no longer suited to an evolved game. That much was obvious as, during his last club job at Sunderland, while initially producing a spurt of form that saved the club from relegation, once the impact of his personality had worn off he looked hugely outdated.
With Ireland, though, the infrequency of his dealings with the squad means it has remained, and against Bosnia it was very obvious that the impact of that personality was still growing as his team took apart a technically superior side. In fact, while the Germany win reeked of luck, that was a win that was controlled to the point of being Ireland’s most pleasing performance since the 2002 World Cup.
The international set-up is one more suited to Keane at this stage of his career too. And crucially, it keeps him away from the day-to-day dealings with modern players, which might be no harm for his sanity and his career.
In Keane’s own final days at Sunderland, his relationship with the senior squad deteriorated to the point where, when giving a tour to young schoolboy players, on approaching the first-team dressing rooms Keane had some words of wisdom. “Be careful not to trip over the hair-gel containers.”
It was no different as his career unravelled at Ipswich Town, and he regularly complained about footballers caring more about “Bentleys and blondes”. There, he couldn’t stand the team as much as they couldn’t stand him. With Ireland it’s said he’s getting joy from the game again.
As the Guardian put it on his exit from Portman Road: “Keane needs to be less preoccupied with precious security measures, such as the fingerprint entry pads he is insisting on having installed at Ipswich’s training ground, and far more receptive to wise counsel.”
He’s getting that schooling in wisdom when you consider the words of O’Neill’s former teammate John Robertson from his autobiography Super Tramp: “Brian Clough did not have the same education behind him, but they are very similar in many ways. Not least is that they can enter a conversation, debate or argument with anyone at any level and put forward a constructive point of view . . . Like Clough, he has the knack of being able to treat even the most complicated issues on a basic level that people can understand. They were happy places when he was there and it wasn’t a manufactured feelgood factor that he created.
“It came naturally. Martin has this talent to turn average players into good ones, good players into excellent and excellent ones into the very best. There are many examples of how he turned careers around, but the way he got Stan Collymore playing again when his career had hit the buffers best illustrates what I mean.”
As do O’Neill’s five years at Celtic, when he turned a squad of demoralised underachievers into arguably the third-best team in British football, after Manchester United and Arsenal.
O’Neill is known for his curiosity. When the trial of the Yorkshire Ripper was on in 1981, he was so fascinated by the way it unfolded that he took time out and queued to enter the court to watch proceedings. When in Dallas, after inspecting the site of JFK’s assassination, he asked a taxi to take him to Lee Harvey Oswald’s house and when the driver didn’t know the way, O’Neill was able to direct him because of his studies.
He even visited the judge who sentenced James Hanratty to hanging in the early 1960s for the murder of Michael Gregston and rape of his girlfriend Valerie Storie as he believed the verdict was flawed and wanted to tease it out.
It’s that contrast in personalities that makes O’Neill and Keane such an interesting dynamic. And while the input of the latter can be overstated, as sources in the camp say Steve Walford has the biggest impact from the backroom staff, O’Neill was quick to praise his assistant in the aftermath of the Bosnia win. “He’s been absolutely phenomenal,” he enthused of Keane, adding: “I couldn’t be more delighted with him.”
But while both are flawed in the world of modern football management, they’ve been getting the best out of each other of late. And as a result they’ve got the most out of their team.
Originally Posted by geysir
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