Martin O'Neill and Roy Keane

[Razors left peg]

This thread is starting to get as bad as the eligibility thread!

[paul_oshea]

I see your point Paul, but citing stuff isn't really a conflict between practical and theoretical. Wikipedia is under constant review, and the people who edit the articles about the symbolism of the Celtic cross, for example, will be people who have experience, or at least have carried out research, into far-right culture. I'm not saying you don't know what you're talking about with regard to the poppy, clearly you do, even if I don't agree with your interpretations, but anyone can say whatever they want about their own subjective experiences. Giving sources and citations outside of that does give extra weight to what you're saying.

I don't disagree with this, but actually i would put more weight to someone who appears to be leaning towards one way, but then perhaps cites through whatever means something that goes against that, what that shows to me is that they have formed an opinion, based on experience mostly, and thats what has given them their belief or altered it slightly. I'm probably not articulating myself well here, but history* for example is almost always stated from some subjective point, if you can find someone who gives an opinion based on experiences with counter arguments, then thats of more value than anything you read from anyone else. And i know yes this could be documented...
*history could be anything really.

CD - I have indeed learnt, but I just know that my experience has lead me to be objective enough and therefore the superiast :D **

** I know you textbook folk on here won't see that joke, so that is a joke and i know there is no such word for those pedantic textbook worms, which is most of you :P

[tricky_colour]

This thread is starting to get as bad as the eligibility thread!

Just when you think it can't get any worse.
http://www.ybig.ie/forum/uploads/5338/158017_120602118003216_4784764_n.jpg
It does.

[DannyInvincible]

Who's that, tricky?


DI, in Manchester would you see many South Asians wearing the poppy, be objective, bar maybe nepalese I mean?

No, but that's the point, isn't it? They may view it differently to how those who do wear it view it. Some, naturally, may not have any feeling, ill or otherwise, towards the poppy at all.


I don't disagree with this, but actually i would put more weight to someone who appears to be leaning towards one way, but then perhaps cites through whatever means something that goes against that, what that shows to me is that they have formed an opinion, based on experience mostly, and thats what has given them their belief or altered it slightly.

Not sure if I'm reading you correctly - I'm more used to reading my text-books, obvs :p - but agnosticism, if you will, on any matter doesn't have to be seen as a weakness in light of a lack of evidence to justify taking a stance one way or the other beyond that lack of conviction on a particular subject. It's just an adherence to the principles of critical thought, simple logic and reason. I think it's a strength to be able to admit you just don't or can't know for certain the truth or otherwise of something beyond your own subjective perception.

Anyway, Martin's looking well!

https://fbcdn-sphotos-h-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/603153_690068744345208_2081228280_n.jpg

[geysir]

I might think a lot of things about Keane, depending on the time of day, but him and Mon wearing the poppy is a non-issue and regardless whether they wear one in their own time or whether it was just stuck on their lapel without making a donation.

Would I wear a poppy if I was getting paid 200k and it was part of the uniform? I think so - I'd probably just do a De Valera.

I'd wear an Easter Lily no problem, I never had an issue with wearing one, though some other people had an issue with me wearing one. But I suppose the Easter Lily means different things to different people. I spent plenty of time travelling around Germany and especially in the villages you get a small insight into different aspects of the devastation effected in the world wars, in the war memorials that are usually to be seen in the village centre. A 2 horse village and a war memorial with some 2 or 3 hundred names and it's nice to see when it's well looked after. Some people can see a war memorial to dead soldiers as glorifying the war effort, some can see it as a living monument to an anti war sentiment and wanton destruction of a generation. The war memorial should be neutral, people can make out of it what they want from it, but it should be there.

[gastric]

This thread is starting to get as bad as the eligibility thread!

Just to ensure it remains so, McClean the weak spineless git should have one on his jersey this weekend!;)

[tricky_colour]

Who's that, tricky?



http://i3.mirror.co.uk/incoming/article1893549.ece/ALTERNATES/s615/One-Direction-1893549.jpg

Any the wiser?

(It's our new midfield).

[tricky_colour]

Who's that, tricky?



Anyway, Martin's looking well!

https://fbcdn-sphotos-h-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/603153_690068744345208_2081228280_n.jpg

Looks like Andy Reid will be playing if they have made a made to measure shirt for him already.

[ArdeeBhoy]

Can anyone explain why Alex Bruce's pic is on the link for the squad announcement?
To appease Not Brazil?
;)

[ArdeeBhoy]

Meanwhile...

http://i218.photobucket.com/albums/cc12/poguemahone85/fa_zps3ed07315.png

http://i218.photobucket.com/albums/cc12/poguemahone85/ifa_zps7120aaae.jpeg

Football and politics, there; mixing...
Hmm, if the cap fits. Though funny how the English can make do with just the one...

[thischarmingman]

I really don't like people who textbook learn, live the world, learn from people immersed in that culture.


But if you think reading books is the only way to learn, good luck to you, each to their own.


I read at college and learnt nothing, I worked for 2 years and learnt everything.



http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/d/dd/David_Brent_111.jpg

[ArdeeBhoy]

The WSC take.
http://www.wsc.co.uk/wsc-daily/1168-november-2013/10662-ireland-gamble-on-o-neill-and-keane

[paul_oshea]

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/d/dd/David_Brent_111.jpg

I left myself open for that really :D As unoriginal and unfunny as it was :P

[BonnieShels]

You'd think the Daily Record of all papers wouldn't get the two associations confused...


Irish FA close to appointing former Celtic boss Martin O'Neill as manager with Roy Keane as assistant
http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/irish-fa-close-appointing-martin-2678290

[Crosby87]

"Bizarre presser" for Mick McCarthy say some:
http://www.independent.ie/sport/soccer/mick-mccarthy-ignores-ireland-questions-at-bizarre-press-conference-29735757.html

[bennocelt]

I might think a lot of things about Keane, depending on the time of day, but him and Mon wearing the poppy is a non-issue and regardless whether they wear one in their own time or whether it was just stuck on their lapel without making a donation.

Would I wear a poppy if I was getting paid 200k and it was part of the uniform? I think so - I'd probably just do a De Valera.
.

That's fine, but it would be great if were spared all the hard man bull and the "what it means to be irish" nonsense at the same time from the duo. Crikey just do the job

[NeverFeltBetter]

John Delaney on Late Late tonight if people are interested, assume its this he's talking about.

[back of the net]

F*cking moron of a Journalist

Fair play to Mick

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=n7VKCeCpWSQ

Think he would have loved another crack at the Job

[DannyInvincible]

O'Neill interviewed by Peter Lansley of the Guardian: http://www.theguardian.com/football/2013/nov/08/martin-oneill-roy-keane-republic-ireland


Do not underestimate the fire that still burns in Martin O'Neill's belly. Roy Keane might be the "iconic figure in world football, never mind Irish football" according to the new Republic of Ireland manager but there is no doubt where the buck stops.

They have been cast as the odd couple since O'Neill's unsurprising appointment as Giovanni Trapattoni's successor was followed by his unlikely selection of Keane as assistantbut the Ulsterman will take responsibility for the team's success or failure over the course of the campaign for France 2016.

"I'm the manager," O'Neill says. "Eventually the decisions will fall to me. That doesn't mean I can't rely on Roy's opinion but this was how I worked with John Robertson for years and years [at Leicester City, Celtic and Aston Villa].

"I would have decisions to make and John would have an input but, if you're the manager, you live and die by those decisions. Having said that, I wouldn't be expecting Roy to be playing a passive role."

Will there be room for two such combustible characters in one dugout? It is one thing sharing a touchline for ITV to exchange a few words on a Champions League game, quite another to resurrect the fortunes of an ailing nation which has fallen away dispiritingly since qualifying for last year's European Championship finals in Poland and Ukraine.

"That does not worry me one jot," O'Neill said on Friday, awaiting a coffee as he paused for breath during a whirlwind week taking him from the Basque Country for commentary duties to London for Thursday's contractual finalities and out to Dublin on Saturday morning to meet the Irish press.

"Roy Keane is an iconic figure in world football, never mind the Republic of Ireland, so if you're talking about egos, it doesn't bother me. Roy's appointment has stirred a lot of people, which is great, but right from the off I'd be well aware of that. That's not a problem. Roy is a very strong personality and very well known and people will want to hear his views. Far from shying away from that, I welcome it."

Keane's volcanic relationship with the country he played for 67 times, on whom he walked out on the eve of the 2002 World Cup in Japan, underlines his image as the firebrand of the new Republic management team. Yet it is not so long ago that O'Neill's touchline antics had him down as the Premier League's most emotionally charged manager. Are they so different now? Or is there something of his younger self that the 61-year-old sees in his fellow former Sunderland manager? "Roy has that reputation for more fire than ice and it's probably me being that much older and supposedly a bit wiser that makes people reckon I'll be the calm old head," O'Neill says.

"It's interesting that people take that fire out of their image of me when it's been part of my make-up through a whole managerial career. They ask me if I have regained my enthusiasm for the task after my experience at Sunderland. The answer is I never lost my enthusiasm."

O'Neill's fire was not doused by his 15-month reign at the Stadium of Light but he was burned by it. "In the whole debacle, it gets forgotten that when I first joined, they were third from bottom with 11 points from 14 games," he says. "Because I won a number of games to start with, everyone, including the owner [Ellis Short], started to think we had cracked it.

"[Paolo] Di Canio was allowed to bring in 15 new players at a time and then didn't last six games into this season. Since I left [in March], Sunderland have won three Premier League games. Di Canio, coming in, disparaging about everything, won two of 11 games. They've taken 12 points from a possible 51 since my time.

"I wouldn't have minded the opportunity to be signing 15 players. Nothing is certain in this game but my record in management over 20 years would suggest that we would have got the five points needed to stay up."

O'Neill has a history of improving underachievers and loves the challenge of inspiring an underdog to regain its bite. In his playing days, as Northern Ireland captain, he led the other half of the Emerald Isle to the quarter-finals of the 1982 World Cup and, under the aura of Brian Clough that has of course also covered Keane, helped Nottingham Forest from second-tier also-rans to European champions.

He now has to contend with the best part of a year without competitive games, Ireland's failure to qualify for Brazil 2014 having paved the way for his re-emergence, but he is relishing finding his feet this coming week with friendlies against Latvia and Poland. His contract lasts as long as Ireland's interest in Euro 2016.

"Qualification is what I will be gauging my time there on," he says. "A number of very good managers have done well to lead Ireland to tournaments – Jack Charlton, Mick McCarthy, Giovanni Trapattoni – and we will do our utmost to qualify. That's what we'll be judged on. There's a bit of disappointment lingering around from the end of the last tournament, so maybe it's about trying to galvanise people."

[DannyInvincible]

"Ferguson backs ‘terrific’ appointments of O’Neill and Keane": http://thescore.thejournal.ie/alex-ferguson-martin-oneill-roy-keane-ireland-1167813-Nov2013/


ALEX FERGUSON WAS FULL of praise for Ireland’s new management team on Friday night.

The Scot was at Dublin’s Convention Centre to promote his recently-released autobiography and, when asked by host Eamonn Holmes about the FAI’s decision to hire Martin O’Neill, the former Manchester United boss spoke glowingly about a man he came up against numerous times down through the years.

“I think it’s terrific,” Ferguson said. “I admired Trapattoni because in his seventies, he takes on a job when he can’t speak English.

“It didn’t work out for him and the results tell you that. The enthusiasm and the desire to still do the job in his seventies takes a lot of admiration.

“The appointment of Martin is a different thing. We’re talking about a guy who has had fantastic success as a manager. A European final with Celtic, three league titles in a row.

“So he brings that fantastic experience. And also personality. He has got a good personality.”

The infamous fallout between Ferguson and Keane ended with the United captain being booted out of the club after criticising his team-mates in an MUTV interview which never aired back in 2005.

Ferguson retold the story from his book about Keane being unhappy with a Portuguese training camp that was organised by the assistant Carlos Queiroz and pinpointed it as the beginning of the end.

"It was only in the last year (that things went wrong),” Ferguson explained. “For ten years he was a fantastic captain and player. Unbelievable player. You talk about all the greatest Manchester United players, Roy is in there."

“The thing that changed was when we went to Portugal. Carlos Queiroz had set us up with a training camp. It was really terrific. Roy was just not having it. We tried it with a few houses but he didn’t like them.

“I don’t think he appreciated Carlos and there was something there. I challenged him on it and said ‘look, this is ridiculous. You’ve got to be one of the boys’. That was the starting point that summer.

“Then he criticised the team and there was no way back from that. My job as Manchester United manager for 26 years was to create a stability and I was expected to make tough decisions. That was the toughest.

“It was a tough, tough call. I had to let players know that you can’t go criticising your team-mates the way he was doing. There was no other way.

“When he went to Sunderland, I was sat in the office with Carlos and one of the staff said that Roy Keane was here to see me. I didn’t expect it but he came in and apologised.

“When he was at Sunderland there was no one who helped Roy more than Alex Ferguson. I gave him three players on loan – (Danny) Simpson, (Johnny) Evans and (Phil) Bardsley.

“I did my best to help him to get a start. The tough decision had to be made and it was the correct thing to do.”

O’Neill is set to officially start his new role after a press conference on Saturday afternoon while Roy Keane will attend games in England over the weekend and join up for training on Monday.

And Ferguson insists that, whatever happens, he will improve as a manager because of it.

"I think it is terrific about Roy. He had some bad experiences as a manager but he is young. He went straight from playing with us, to Celtic, to manager. It’s hard that."

“Now he has got the experience of Martin O’Neill which he can lean on and learn by. And if he does come back into club football, he has got that advantage now. That is better preparation for him.”

[DannyInvincible]

That's fine, but it would be great if were spared all the hard man bull and the "what it means to be irish" nonsense at the same time from the duo. Crikey just do the job

That speech was a few years ago. Martin's not been dwelling on it since the appointment though, has he? Maybe wearing a poppy on ITV was one of those seeming "contradictions" that have been part of being Irish for him.

[geysir]

That's fine, but it would be great if were spared all the hard man bull and the "what it means to be irish" nonsense at the same time from the duo. Crikey just do the job
Thats a crock of pseudo uber-irish, judgemental nonsense.
Maybe Mon just doesn't want to deal with the poppy fascist mentality in England, possibly he thinks that there are loud ignorant elements of the English media and football supporters, who are just too thick to expect that they would respect a decision not to wear the poppy.
Not unlike the reactionaries who jump to conclusions about the sense of Irishness of Irish people in England who choose to wear the poppy.

[Stuttgart88]

What was Delaney like on the Late Late?

[ArdeeBhoy]

MO'N also got plenty of stick during his time in Glasgow, even though he came from an, er, British colony.
Ok, it was more than 10 years ago, but still.
http://www.heraldscotland.com/sport/spl/aberdeen/police-called-after-union-flag-planted-in-o-neill-s-garden-1.159537

[paul_oshea]

Thats a crock of pseudo uber-irish, judgemental nonsense.
Maybe Mon just doesn't want to deal with the poppy fascist mentality in England, possibly he thinks that there are loud ignorant elements of the English media and football supporters, who are just too thick to expect that they would respect a decision not to wear the poppy.
.

Are you saying Martin wants the easy life, and coward away from controversy cos he isn't really a hard man :D

[tetsujin1979]

What was Delaney like on the Late Late?
Not bad, spoke well. Brian Kerr had said Martin O'Neill was approached before the Sweden game, but Delaney refuted that. Gave away tickets to the Latvia game to the audience. Should be on RTE player

[ArdeeBhoy]

Here you go...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BD6j-4l8ey4&feature=player_embedded

[Closed Account]

Most of it over by now but press conference here
http://www.rte.ie/player/ie/live/7/

[Crosby87]

Good for the media, says the Telegraph:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/republic-of-ireland/10436710/Republic-of-Irelands-management-team-of-Martin-ONeill-and-Roy-Keane-will-succeed-where-Sven-Goran-Eriksson-failed.html

[DeNiro]

Keane at Villa-Cardiff game today. Presumably looking at Clark and/or getting Shay back on board.

[Paddy Garcia]

Hopefully not the latter.

[back of the net]

Keane at Villa-Cardiff game today. Presumably looking at Clark and/or getting Shay back on board.

Cannot see any chance/reason of them wanting to get Shay back on board

[NeverFeltBetter]

We need to get over Shay Given. Great keeper, in his day, but that day is long done. He can barely get a game anymore.

[DannyInvincible]

Thats a crock of pseudo uber-irish, judgemental nonsense.
Maybe Mon just doesn't want to deal with the poppy fascist mentality in England, possibly he thinks that there are loud ignorant elements of the English media and football supporters, who are just too thick to expect that they would respect a decision not to wear the poppy.
Not unlike the reactionaries who jump to conclusions about the sense of Irishness of Irish people in England who choose to wear the poppy.

He might even have worn it voluntarily for his own reasons, irrespective of whether or not ITV might have expected their pundits to wear it. Either way, I don't see how it should bring his Irish identity into question.

[DannyInvincible]

MO'N also got plenty of stick during his time in Glasgow, even though he came from an, er, British colony.
Ok, it was more than 10 years ago, but still.
http://www.heraldscotland.com/sport/spl/aberdeen/police-called-after-union-flag-planted-in-o-neill-s-garden-1.159537

They planted a Union flag in his garden? They say you can't eat a flag, but can you eat its fruit?

[DannyInvincible]

We need to get over Shay Given. Great keeper, in his day, but that day is long done. He can barely get a game anymore.

Shay's media "appeals", if you could call them that, do appear rather desperate at this point, unfortunately. I can't imagine there's be too many Irish fans seriously urging a return for Shay.

[DannyInvincible]

Some audio clips from O'Neill's opening press conference earlier: http://balls.ie/football/audio-martin-o-neills-opening-press-conference/

[tricky_colour]

Roy Keane was at the Villa match presumably watching Clark.

[DannyInvincible]

Roy Keane was at the Villa match presumably watching Clark.

C'mon, tricky; we're a dream team now. If your heedless impulses had been keeping up with your superfluous sister thread, you'd have noticed that DeNiro made that observation a full twelve hours ago (http://foot.ie/threads/184787-Roy-Keane-and-Martin-O-Neil-to-managed-Ireland?p=1721059&viewfull=1#post1721059)! :)

[bennocelt]

Thats a crock of pseudo uber-irish, judgemental nonsense.
Maybe Mon just doesn't want to deal with the poppy fascist mentality in England, possibly he thinks that there are loud ignorant elements of the English media and football supporters, who are just too thick to expect that they would respect a decision not to wear the poppy.
Not unlike the reactionaries who jump to conclusions about the sense of Irishness of Irish people in England who choose to wear the poppy.

That's a fair comment:D
But I cant help having my opinion either, just different people, some argue some dont;). i didnt tend to play the paddy role when i was in the uk, unlike some i dare say.(edit not a dig on some on here, just some Irish that appear on TV, etc)

[bennocelt]

Here you go...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BD6j-4l8ey4&feature=player_embedded

Ryan Turgidy, no thanks! Im sure his football knowledge is as bad as Pat Kenny's

[ArdeeBhoy]

Except it's about yer mate Delaney...
:)

[Gather round]

Weren't you the one who carried Delaney out of that pub in Tallinn? Not just a mate, you're practically in his inner circle.

Being more pished than Ardee Bhoy, what a recommendation ;)

[ArdeeBhoy]

What are you on about, now?
:confused:

[DannyInvincible]

Two seasoned Sunderland supporters give their low-downs on the respective reigns of O'Neill and Keane at Sunderland: http://www.thescore.ie/roy-keane-martin-oneill-sunderland-interview-1166868-Nov2013/

[DannyInvincible]

Brian Hanley's take on the contemporary poppy-wearing of Martin, Roy and Irish people in general: http://www.irishtimes.com/news/politics/the-fuzzy-nostalgia-encouraged-by-poppy-day-facilitates-the-justification-of-war-1.1588719?page=1


Those who tuned into ITV’s Champion’s League coverage on Tuesday night to catch a glimpse of the new Republic of Ireland management team could not fail to notice that both Martin O’Neill and Roy Keane were sporting poppies.

A decade ago the sight of a man from a nationalist background in Co Derry and a former Republic of Ireland captain wearing this symbol might have raised hackles, but these days it is barely commented on. Indeed, some increasingly see the poppy as a way of commemorating Irish relatives who served in the Great War.

The instinct to remember is understandable. Among the 20,000 dead on the day the last great German offensive of the war began in March 1918 was Pte Michael Leahy from Caherconlish in east Limerick. I remember how pleased my grandaunt was when I gave her a copy of the entry recording her uncle’s death from Ireland’s memorial records. For her this was a real connection with a long-lost family member.

More than 200,000 Irish men served and over 30,000 died in the first World War. There is no doubt that the conflict was central to the shaping of Ireland over the next decade. Without it there would have been no Easter Rising. But understanding the importance of the war should not mean embracing a strange soft-focus view of sacrifice, symbolised in many ways by the poppy, that avoids the real issues behind Ireland’s involvement.

Firstly, it is important to stress that the poppy commemorates not just the dead of the world wars but all British military losses since 1914. Many who have no problem with commemorating Great War dead justifiably baulk at honouring those who served in Britain’s colonial and post-colonial dirty wars.

One of the reasons the flower is so omnipresent at this time of year is because it is practically compulsory for those in the public eye in the UK. What one historian has called “poppyganda” is part of a renewed militarisation of British public life. As a group of British veterans of the Iraq war complained two years ago, the build-up to Armistice Day now amounts to “a month-long drum roll of support for current wars”.

Jingoistic and reactionary

The poppy has not always been so prominent as a symbol of remembrance. Historian Padraig Yeates, who grew up in Birmingham, recalls how his father, decorated during the second World War, “never wore a poppy and anyone I knew who served with him never wore a poppy”.

“They regarded it, and the British Legion, as symbolising all that was worst, most jingoistic and reactionary in the British establishment.”

Part of the renewed interest in the Great War in Ireland is based on a desire to promote reconciliation. Because both Irish nationalists and unionists served together, the argument goes, this understanding will help promote peace today.
But this ignores the reality that many of those men joined up for opposing reasons, hoping to prevent or to guarantee Home Rule, or to gain military experience.

There is little evidence to suggest they abandoned their antipathy post-war. Veterans would soon confront each other as IRA volunteers, Black and Tans, B-Specials and Free State soldiers.

In Belfast ex-servicemen from nationalist backgrounds would be driven from their homes by loyalists.

Motivations varied for many recruits. The future IRA leader Tom Barry was honest enough to admit that he went “for no other reason than to see what war was like, to get a gun, to see new countries and to feel like a grown man”.
Others were driven by economic imperatives. In August 1914, Jim Larkin’s Irish Worker lamented that “several of our best comrades are leaving the North Wall to fight for the glory of England”. By 1915 perhaps 2,500 transport union members were in British uniform.

There they found that class still mattered. A recruiting officer of the Royal Dublin Fusiliers complained that “men . . . of education and refinement” were reluctant to enlist because “they did not care to be mixed up with . . . corner boys”.
British officials lamented that “this class prejudice is probably much more pronounced in Ireland than elsewhere in the United Kingdom”. But there is little recognition of issues such as this in all the commentary about “shared” sacrifices.
Much of what is claimed about “shared history” in Ireland suggests a commemorative trade-off, whereby nationalists celebrate the Easter Rising, unionists the Somme, and both sides congratulate each other on their maturity.

The issues that divided Irish people in 1914 are glossed over, and the role of Britain virtually ignored.
But we cannot understand participation in the war without reference to Ireland’s relationship with Britain. There was no Irish parliament with a mandate to authorise “our” participation. These life and death decisions were taken by a British government, which stationed 30,000 troops in Ireland and governed ultimately by its ability to deploy them.

Irish republicanism

It is ironic that many of those who promote the memory of the Great War are critics of Irish republicanism. Yet far more Irish people died between 1914 and 1918 than in any conflict on Irish soil in the last century. By appealing for support for the British war effort, John Redmond and Edward Carson sent many more Irish men out to die than any Irish republican leader.

Large numbers of Irish people never embraced the war and recruitment was declining even before Easter 1916. One of the most significant moments in Ireland’s war came in April 1918 when a general strike ended the threat of conscription.

When remembering the dead of the Great War we should also commemorate those who resisted it and who hoped that a new world would emerge in which such slaughter would never occur again.

Embracing the fuzzy nostalgia of the poppy only encourages those who want to justify that war – and others.

[DannyInvincible]

RTÉ have uploaded full video footage of yesterday's press conference. 'Tis available to view here: http://www.rte.ie/sport/soccer/international/2013/1109/485692-oneill-on/

O'Neill was "nervous" and "guarded" in the opinion of Dunphy, who is also featured in a separate audio clip discussing the press conference with Des Cahill.


At his first press conference as Republic of Ireland boss, Martin O'Neill had his say on a number of topics, including Robbie Keane and exiled players.

Martin O’Neill on assistant manager Roy Keane

"I am not there to change Roy Keane, not at all. I want Roy, essentially, the way he is. I think he is very, very keen and very excited by it. He wants to do well and that is good enough for me."

On Robbie Keane

"I haven’t spoken to Robbie yet. I intend to obviously. [LA Galaxy] didn’t make the [MLS] play-offs so I am hoping he is going to be available for these games. I will sit down and speak to him."

On return of exiled or retired players

"In general, I don’t have a problem with that whatsoever. I would like to get these two games out of the way and start to assess it and have a look at it. Anybody who is going to be of value to the Republic of Ireland set up here and is worthy of it, I would certainly have a very open mind."

On talent in group

"We have some very talented young players in the side; gifted lads that I hope can go and express themselves. I am obviously dependant on my best players being available for me for the big games."

On League of Ireland

"Obviously, I want to try to see what is in this island and if there are some young players. I would like to see it because you never know there might be just some 18-19-year-old that perhaps someone has missed and you think he could do it."

On style of play

"There is not a system that I am not aware of. There shouldn't be at this particular stage of my life. At club level, we have, during different spells at different clubs, we have had different systems that I felt adapted and adjusted to the teams that I was picking."

On the fans

"I am hoping obviously that they will come back and the only way for us to bring them back is to win some games and to win them with a little bit of style and a little bit of panache, if that is at all possible."

[Crosby87]

Stupid Question probably but do you chaps reckon Robbie could go on loan to a Prem club?

[SkStu]

C'mon, tricky; we're a dream team now. If your heedless impulses had been keeping up with your superfluous sister thread, you'd have noticed that DeNiro made that observation a full twelve hours ago (http://foot.ie/threads/184787-Roy-Keane-and-Martin-O-Neil-to-managed-Ireland?p=1721059&viewfull=1#post1721059)! :)

http://media.tumblr.com/bcd864f78d1937b92608f9d5d57d2dfe/tumblr_inline_mpoklyA4tl1qz4rgp.gif

[bennocelt]

Weren't you the one who carried Delaney out of that pub in Tallinn? Not just a mate, you're practically in his inner circle.

Being more pished than Ardee Bhoy, what a recommendation ;)


Ha the truth comes out, no wonder you always had a soft spot for him!:o