Martin O'Neill and Roy Keane

[geysir]

Well Martin thanks for coming and tough luck on the prognosis, did you realise at that moment when the doctor told you that your cancer was terminal, that you've wasted most of your life?

[jbyrne]

It's not in any of our interests for interviewers to blow smoke up O'Neill's hole.

neither is sticking a microphone in a managers face 5 mins after a difficult result asking them about their resignation. what other professions (apart from politicians!) would tolerate that?

[Charlie Darwin]

Probably not many, but it's part of the territory.

[DeLorean]

EDIT: Also, I think it is bizarre to describe it as 'Dunphy's 'Wes Hoolahan' agenda'. Many more people than Dunphy (including plenty on this forum) questioned what they saw as O'Neill's underuse of him. Again, I think it's absolutely legitimate to ask why such a player is not being involved, considering the way in which we gave up possession and invited pressure so readily.

I only saw this bit now, as it was added after we agreed to disagree.

There's no doubt Hoolahan is a popular player amongst supporters and I'd normally (maybe even always) want to see him in the starting line-up too. I don't think it's bizarre to suggest Dunphy brings that to another level though, beyond all practical reason. O'Neill also made it very clear early in the time that he sees some games as being suitable for Hoolahan's inclusion and some games where he'd prefer to go a different route. Personally I didn't particularly agree with O'Neill's logic but that's what he's paid for.

When Hoolahan doesn't start we all know it's because O'Neill wants to go with a more physical approach, or that he doesn't trust him fully away from home, or that he's doesn't play two games in a short amount of time, etc., etc. O'Neill (or Trap) shouldn't have to explain this every time.

[backstothewall]

Nobody is suggesting that he blows smoke up O'Neill's hole. What's going on at the moment isn't in anybody's interests, especially the supporters.

100% agreed. My biggest criticism of TOD is that the questions he asked are of very little interest to me. The Stoke story has been done to death, as has the Denmark game and the contract saga. It's all yesterdays news now.

He had the opportunity of an interview with O'Neill. Given what we are hearing about O'Neill bringing in younger players for the upcoming squads the big question I wanted asked was who are the new players he is looking at? Can't for the life of me work out why that wasn't asked.

[osarusan]

I only saw this bit now, as it was added after we agreed to disagree.

Actually no, it was added before your first reply (but maybe while you were replying).

The later edit was to get round the swear filter for the word prickly.

[seanfhear]

Is blowing smoke up someone's hole a practical activity ........

Sorry for going off topic but one would like to know .......

If RTE were serious about Football Punditry would Dunphy be on the panel . When did that man last do something credible in Football .

RTE do not take Football seriously.....Dunphy on the panel tells it own story....he is in RTE’s Court as the Fool / Court Jester .....

[SwanVsDalton]

If I remember right, the seeds for the Noel King vs TOD thing were sown post Germany match a few days before that when TOD asked him about playing Stokes (and someone else on the wing who was out of position) and King corrected him, firmly but relatively beningly.

Then Dunphy completely hatcheted King in the post-match analysis over his line-up, the shape, not playing Wes and Andy Reid and it came back around again.

It's not entirely fair to say TOD is looking to agitate managers but it's not unfair to say his questions tend to parrot whatever controversial line comes out of the panel's (or, possibly more accurately, Dunphy's) mouth...

There's a balance to be found and, god knows we could use some actual answers from MON, but TOD has leaned far too far into becoming an avuncular heckler, a seemingly innocuous dealer of toxic passive aggressiveness. Which has led to him becoming essentially worthless as an actual interviewer imo.

Regardless, O'Neill's effort during the week was really, really poor. There's better ways to deal with this.

[tetsujin1979]

O'Donoghue got a reputation for taking a hard line with Trapattoni, who's English wasn't strong enough to deal with it, and was criticised for it here and elsewhere online. He continued in the same vein with King for the games he was in charge of, and kept it up with O'Neill. There's no doubt in my mind that O'Neill would have been appraised of this well before his first encounter and, as a student of law, is more than capable of dealing with O'Donoghue in a manner he was not accustomed to while interviewing the previous two managers.

Which leads us to the current situation, neither of them willing to back down from their current stance - O'Donoghue with his aggressive form of questioning and O'Neill's unwillingness to accept it.

As has been suggested, the best thing for this is for the higher ups in both organisations to come to an understanding and relay this to their respective employees.

BTW in one of O'Neill's first post match interviews, when he made it clear he wasn't going to stand for this type of questioning, when it went back to the studio Dunphy criticised him for that, he said something like "I had my issues with Trapattoni, but he was a gentleman and would never have treated an interviewer like that". I know I'm misquoting him, but he definitely used the word "gentleman". I just thought, "this isn't the first time O'Donoghue has taken this line in a post match interview, but because he was called on it, now you choose to speak about it??"

[irishfan86]

O'Donoghue's line of questioning and method of asking totally fair IMO. O'Neill is entitled to be annoyed by it but I don't think he realizes how he comes across to average people watching the TV.

Would be very strange for "higher ups" at a broadcaster to interfere with completely professional journalism IMO (whether it's tasteful or not).

The more sensible option if these guys have genuine beef with each other would be to have an off-the-record clear the air chat over a beer -- would give them a chance to explain their perspectives and perhaps in future we could have firm but fair questions, and a manager confident enough to actually answer the questions, even if he doesn't agree with the tone in which they're asked.

[osarusan]

O'Donoghue's line of questioning and method of asking totally fair IMO.

I don't think he is 'totally' fair, there are times I think he goes too far, and deserves criticism for that.

A lot of it comes down to whether somebody thinks a question is reasonable or not, and the opinion on O'Neill's response to a question will depend on whether somebody thinks it was a fair question in the first place. Disagreement over whether a question is reasonable or not is inevitable, I suppose.

If TOD does something that I think is unfair or unreasonable, I'll willingly admit that. That's TOD's fault, simple as that. No excuse for it.

But if people are agreeing that on the occasions that TOD's questions are reasonable, and MON's response was wrong, then I think that's MON's fault, simple as that. I don't think that there is any logic to attempts to justify or excuse MON's response on such occasions by referencing previous interviews, other journalists, interviews of previous managers etc.

I think at this stage MON goes into each interview incredibly guarded and wary, expecting a hand grenade in every question, and interpreting them in the worst light, and the interviews end up being horrible. I think the whole 'hard luck' episode is an example of that.

[pineapple stu]

Think it's worth adding that 99% of post-match interviews are utterly pointless. Managers and players are, by and large, too well trained in saying bland nothings.

[jbyrne]

100% agreed. My biggest criticism of TOD is that the questions he asked are of very little interest to me. The Stoke story has been done to death, as has the Denmark game and the contract saga. It's all yesterdays news now.

He had the opportunity of an interview with O'Neill. Given what we are hearing about O'Neill bringing in younger players for the upcoming squads the big question I wanted asked was who are the new players he is looking at? Can't for the life of me work out why that wasn't asked.

its not on rtes agenda unless its a controversial potential player ala jack grealish.

spot on post by the way. sums up my feelings too.

edit: and to illustrate my point:
https://www.rte.ie/sport/soccer/2018...england-radar/

[DeLorean]

I can't see MON agreeing to keep the peace because as far as he is concerned RTÉ are a bunch of w@nkers who are out to spread negativity and make an Irish football manager's life as unpleasant as possible, regardless of the job they are doing. He'll continue to treat TOD with disdain because he doesn't have any respect for him or the level of footballing intelligence on RTÉ generally. He feels he's above being interrogated by somebody who he sees as not only clueless, but also deliberately disruptive.

I think it's hard enough to fault MON for feeling this way, given RTÉ's history, but I also think he needs to play the game a little smarter. For an intelligent, articulate man he's coming across flustered and out of control. He's turning a lot of people against him at a time that he (and the team) need support more than ever. Maybe try killing Tony with artificial kindness for a while or something.

[Fizzer]

Yeah that's exactly the point Del, Tony is a pain in the hole, of course he is, but the worrying thing is how badly O'Neill has handled him. He should be batted away like a wasp. Instead O'Neill has clearly been going around stewing over some perceived dig Tony had at him pre-interview, months ago, practising what to say, then making a hames of it not unlike Lloyd in Dumb and Dumber. He just looks weak and nutty and he's made a show of himself. Passive-agressive 'what did I say'?? Tony is loving it, because it's making news and it's so flippin easy, push button A to get reaction B. If I were an opposition manager, I'd be looking to exploit that weakness.