Trapattoni - who would you replace him with?

Walford, Guppy and Seamus McDonagh (goalkeeper coach) to be the coaching staff.

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Originally Posted by Stuttgart88

Dion Fanning also saying O'Neill sees this as a long term thing.

Danny will post the link!

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Duly obliged: http://www.independent.ie/sport/socc...-29722171.html ;)

It's worth a read; features some interesting past quotes from O'Neill in relation to Keane's record and character.

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Originally Posted by Dion Fanning

ROY Keane won’t be a silent partner in the new Ireland managerial dream team, according to his former international team mate Lee Carsley.

The 40-times capped midfielder is excited by the pairing of Martin O’Neill with Keane as his no.2, with the pair set to be officially announced today, almost eight weeks after Giovanni Trapattoni departed.

Carsley says the €2m-a-year pair will thrill Ireland’s players and boost the nation’s chances of qualifying for Euro 2016 - and he believes Keane’s decision to take the assistant manager’s position is a sign of how much he values the job.

“Roy is passionate about football, so the job title won’t bother him,” Carsley insisted.

"He won’t care whether he’s a no.2 or a no.4 - he’ll get his points across no matter what.

"I think it’s a perfect pairing. It definitely says that the FAI mean business, it’s a fantastic choice.

“Martin is very passionate about what he does in the game, he really gets players to play to the best of their potential, while Roy is an iconic figure in Irish football.

“It’s a very forward thinking approach to get two big personalities, two people with such high standards.”

Carsley insists the FAI’s decision to shell out for two of the biggest names in Irish football is a major signal of intent to get back to the big time.

“It will send out a statement to people, especially to the players that this is a new dawn. The players will be excited,” he said.

“It says a lot that they’re both, with great standing in their own right, willing to get involved together - it says how good a job it is.

“We should definitely be excited about Euro 2016, this could be a fantastic appointment if it comes off. There’s good times ahead.”

...

"I think Keane's a very, very interesting character," O'Neill said in 2010. "He would look through you with those eyes as if you didn't exist and he can be as warm as the next man if he feels comfortable in the surrounds – maybe that's part of the thing I like about him."

...

More importantly, however, the FAI have got the man they wanted and, to his credit, John Delaney has kept his word that the past would have no bearing on anything the association would do for the good of Irish football. An O'Neill/Keane partnership may or may not work but nobody could accuse the FAI of not being bold in pursuing what they believe is best for the game in Ireland.

...

O'Neill might have been weakened by Robertson's absence at Sunderland. But their struggles since he departed have confirmed the view stressed by sources close to the club when O'Neill was dismissed that there were many factors in his relative failure and not all of them were caused by the manager.

Keane and O'Neill have got to know each other better in the years since O'Neill gave that interview three years ago and, while they are not close, they have always got on well. They may also find that Ellis Short, Sunderland's owner, is a subject on which their views overlap.

Both feel they have something to prove and the FAI, backed by the financial contribution from Denis O'Brien, were always keen to secure a manager who would capture the imagination. Robbie Keane said last month that he wanted a manager who "had balls". Now Ireland have two.

Once the management team is confirmed, the financial package for O'Neill and Keane is expected to be more than the salary paid to Trapattoni and Marco Tardelli by the time of their departure.

It would be easy to see Keane as O'Neill's long-term successor but Marco Tardelli was once viewed as the next in line so the FAI will know that everything is dependent on success and ongoing success.

"I don't think any international manager has to concern himself with a long-term future," O'Neill said in September. "If he's part of something that he sets up, well and good, but he has to win football matches."

O'Neill is believed to be interested in winning matches in the long-term for Ireland.

In the short-term, there will be the unusual situation where the media might be more interested in hearing from the assistant rather than the manager. O'Neill is an intelligent man but Keane has been central to so much in the story of Irish football and the story of Ireland.

Yet it will be O'Neill's management that ultimately decides if they are a success, although his relationship with Keane will be fascinating.

Three years ago, O'Neill was full of insight and admiration for Keane, even if he understood his struggles as a manager. "He's putting pressure on himself because he wants to succeed. He was such a wonderful player and everything happened because he could dictate on the field what happened. You lose that power as a manager. It's not as if this game is like American football and every play you can go back to the coach and the coach can set something up because the game's stop-start."

O'Neill expressed regret that Keane had left Sunderland when he did. "I was disappointed he left Sunderland. Yeah, of course, you can be arguing with a lot of people and maybe at some stage you think enough is enough. I was disappointed because I thought he had been doing very, very well there. You'll get hiccups along the way and maybe things weren't happening for Roy as quickly as he wanted things done. In management you sometimes have to plateau a little bit and there can be a downside before you go up."

The idea of Keane learning from O'Neill in the job is intriguing but it will be secondary. O'Neill was the man the FAI wanted and, at the end of a frustrating public search, it will all seem worthwhile.

Why the FAI needed any public process is unclear. "It hasn't been conducted in a very dignified way," Eamon Dunphy said on RTE yesterday and he wasn't alone in feeling that way. "Ridiculously frustrating," said one source close to Mick McCarthy before adding: "To ask Mick McCarthy how he would manage Ireland is a load of old ********." McCarthy was understandably unwilling to meet with Dokter and Houghton as he was a manager under contract but he might also have sensed that the FAI were hoping to land O'Neill.

...

O'Neill has known how wounding the job can be and how there can be moments of doubt. "I'm sure there isn't a person in this life who outwardly exudes great confidence like a Brian Clough but doesn't sit in of an evening on his own and actually wonder and concern himself. I'm quite sure that's the case. I'm actually even sure that it's the case with Mourinho," he said three years ago.

There has always been more to both men than the public perception. In 2010, O'Neill reflected on Keane's struggles with management and provided a perceptive analysis. "You're depending on other people. Roy has to depend on people which has not always been in his nature."

Irish football is now depending on O'Neill and Keane. How they depend on each other will be the next great intrigue of Irish football.

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Some further opinion on the appointment...

Lee Carsley: http://www.ciarano.me/post/658824735...shy-little-roy

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ROY Keane won’t be a silent partner in the new Ireland managerial dream team, according to his former international team mate Lee Carsley.

The 40-times capped midfielder is excited by the pairing of Martin O’Neill with Keane as his no.2, with the pair set to be officially announced today, almost eight weeks after Giovanni Trapattoni departed.

Carsley says the €2m-a-year pair will thrill Ireland’s players and boost the nation’s chances of qualifying for Euro 2016 - and he believes Keane’s decision to take the assistant manager’s position is a sign of how much he values the job.

“Roy is passionate about football, so the job title won’t bother him,” Carsley insisted.

"He won’t care whether he’s a no.2 or a no.4 - he’ll get his points across no matter what.

"I think it’s a perfect pairing. It definitely says that the FAI mean business, it’s a fantastic choice.

“Martin is very passionate about what he does in the game, he really gets players to play to the best of their potential, while Roy is an iconic figure in Irish football.

“It’s a very forward thinking approach to get two big personalities, two people with such high standards.”

Carsley insists the FAI’s decision to shell out for two of the biggest names in Irish football is a major signal of intent to get back to the big time.

“It will send out a statement to people, especially to the players that this is a new dawn. The players will be excited,” he said.

“It says a lot that they’re both, with great standing in their own right, willing to get involved together - it says how good a job it is.

“We should definitely be excited about Euro 2016, this could be a fantastic appointment if it comes off. There’s good times ahead.”

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Neil Lennon: http://www.goal.com/en-ie/news/3942/...ted-by-ireland

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Neil Lennon believes that the prospective appointment of Martin O'Neill as manager of the Republic of Ireland, with Roy Keane as his assistant manager, will be "exciting to watch."

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Celtic boss Lennon played under O'Neill during the Derry native's five-year tenure as Hoops boss, as well as alongside Keane for one season in 2005-2006 and noted that the pair were "great characters" who will "have the players on their toes."

"It'll be very interesting," Lennon told reporters. "They're two great characters with a vast knowledge of the game, two very proud men as well. God help the players!"

He continued: "I'm surprised because I didn't realise there was a connection between the two but Roy has a great knowledge of the game, he was a magnificent player, one of the best of his generation and he'll lift any team walking into that dressing room.

"He'll have the players on their toes, as will Martin and it'll be exciting to watch."

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Richard Sadlier's outlook is gloomier: http://www.independent.ie/sport/socc...-29722169.html

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Originally Posted by Richard Sadlier

Draw up the job description of an assistant manager. Outline what the role requires and what qualities are needed to make it work. Now make a case for Roy Keane to perform it.

Specify it to international football if you like, but the result will be the same. It's hard to think of a candidate less suited to the job he is about to be given.

He is surely not being brought onto the back-room staff for his coaching ability. Keane did very little coaching at Sunderland, preferring instead to hand that responsibility to his assistant Tony Loughlin.

The role of assistant manager is often described as a link between the playing squad and the manager, a buffer between factions which can at times seem worlds apart. Keane has not yet shown the flexibility to resolve conflict when it arises or negotiate peace when it is required. How he would perform that aspect of the job given his own personality is beyond me.

Is he there to lighten the mood, or help players to relax between training sessions and prior to games? That hardly requires an answer. If, as it would appear from the outside, this Ireland squad needs its collective morale boosted after the last 12 months of the Trapattoni era, what role could Keane play in that? Particularly after his comments about the players from the ITV studios during the Euros. His assessments made for good television but the reaction within the dressing-room would differ greatly from the response he got from some of the public. And if bridge-building is required on the back of it, is he really the man to begin the process?

Sound bites work great on television, but players require more. Not all of Keane's motivational methods are available to him now either. It's fine to put Gary Neville up against the wall during half-time for delaying a cross but more subtlety will be required in his new role. The moody stare won't work now. Criticising players in public will only alienate him from the squad. Leading by example was something he could do better than most on the pitch, but new tactics are required when you're wearing a tracksuit. Keane had a playing career that probably no other Irish player will achieve again. He has an aura that few in the game will ever match.

But he is no longer known within football just for his extraordinary performances for Manchester United and Ireland. His playing career should guarantee him the respect of every dressing-room in the world, but it will be his performance in the job that matters now. His recent performances at Ipswich and Sunderland are what the players will be concerned about rather than the many heroic displays of the past.

Supporters will be amused to hear he physically challenged players at both clubs during his time as manager, but inside the dressing-room that would have been dismissed as weakness.

And that's the point in all of this. Keane's greatest strength was his ability to lead from the field but that's not available to him as someone's assistant. His reputation as a manager is what goes before him now, not the fact that he was one of the greatest midfielders in the history of the game. And that's without questioning how such a controlling personality would enjoy assisting somebody else.

His appointment as assistant to Martin O'Neill is difficult to make sense of from any number of angles. Fail to prepare or prepare to fail? Unless Keane is prepared to change, then he is a certainty to fail.

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'Why Keane and O’Neill’s coalition is the Metal Machine Music of Irish football': http://thescore.thejournal.ie/roy-ke...58400-Nov2013/

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Originally Posted by Paul Fennessy

THE TRAPATTONI ERA, as has been pointed out before on this site, was like a bad cover version of the Charlton years.

Sure, we reached the Euros, we watched the countless player fallings out and acquired a certain amount of success playing a very basic style of football, but unlike Charlton’s time in charge, there was almost always a sense of irrevocable joylessness characterising the Italian manager’s tenure.

Whereas under Charlton, the highpoint was qualifying for a major tournament in the form of Italia 90, with Trapattoni, making the Euros was arguably the most depressing experience of his entire time in charge.

So in musical terms, if Charlton was Lou Reed’s original 1972 version of ‘Perfect Day,’ Trapattoni was the star-studded but ultimately hollow remake that topped the charts in 1997 — orchestrated by an individual with a great track record, but whose best days were now patently behind him.

And if anything, the soon-to-be-appointed Roy Keane/Martin O’Neill coalition is Irish football’s equivalent of the late singer’s Metal Machine Music album — it’s a bold, experimental, somewhat baffling, last desperate bid at greatness, whose key figures have enjoyed highly successful careers that sadly appear to be winding down.

Granted, it’s hugely risky appointment, but be honest with yourself. Would you really rather see anyone else get the job? Fans complained that the Trapattoni era lacked entertainment value, so Keane and O’Neill look like the perfect antidote to the predominantly bland style imposed by the Italian, where the only thing more tedious than watching the team play was spending time listening to his half-baked jargon during press conferences and post-match interviews.

Of course, Keane and O’Neill could be complete failures, but so could Guus Hiddink or anyone else brave/crazy enough to accept a job that even one of Ireland’s own players has gone so far as to label a “poisoned chalice”. Hence, if Graham Taylor thought the England position was an “impossible job,” then surely the Irish role must, by comparison, seem suited solely to people willing to offer themselves up as a form of human piñata.

There have been several fans and commentators very quick to cast aspersions, in particular, on Keane’s lack of success as a coach, but can his time at Sunderland really be considered an outright failure? People are very eager to focus on the negative elements of his tenure there, but it’s often overlooked that he took a side short on confidence in the Championship relegation zone and promptly got them promoted to the Premier League. Granted, he was far from spectacularly successful thereafter, but Sunderland haven’t exactly thrived since he left. In fact, they have steadily gotten worse and this year, are strong candidates for relegation back to the very position from which Keane rescued them.

Admittedly, his subsequent time spent as Ipswich boss was an unequivocal disappointment, marred by a series of transfer flops, in which he took a side pushing for promotion and turned them into relegation candidates.

So Keane failed at Ipswich. Just as Brendan Rodgers failed at Reading. And Harry Redknapp failed at Southampton. And Mauricio Pochettino came a cropper at Espanyol. Yet the latter three managers are still considered highly astute, whereas somehow Keane’s name is mud in British football. He’s known as a coach who “needs money,” as Alex Ferguson recently stated, to have any hope of thriving in management.

Nevertheless, Keane’s prospective appointment is not the first time a big decision made by Martin O’Neill has been doubted. One of his first orders of business as Celtic boss was to sign Chris Sutton. The Englishman had previously been bought for £10million by Chelsea in 1999 (a lot of money in those days) and flopped so badly that he now makes the same club’s infamous £50 million purchase of Fernando Torres look unbelievably astute by comparison.

O’Neill, however, was adamant that he was signing the striker. Celtic majority shareholder Dermot Desmond, on the other hand, was reluctant to part with the £6million required for Sutton’s services, just as the FAI are now presumably unsure whether the Keane appointment is a good idea. But O’Neill told Desmond in no uncertain terms whose judgement mattered the most in that instance, and he was ultimately proven right, with the English forward going on to enjoy a highly successful career at Celtic Park.

So if given a choice of whether to listen to the doom-and-gloom merchants or O’Neill, I know who I’d trust, and it’s likely many fans would also back the 61-year-old.

Yet perhaps most importantly of all, for the first time arguably in years, there is a sense of excitement and optimism surrounding the Irish team. Perhaps it will turn out to be misplaced, but even the most hard-hearted cynic would struggle not to be somewhat enticed by the inherent romance emanating from this latest improbable development.

And my advice for those people that are still unmoved by this prospect? Take a walk on the wild side.

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I find myself agreeing with much of that.

I second that. I'm really excited about this now

Is there a sense of excitement and optimism?

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Originally Posted by SwanVsDalton

I thought this was a mad wind-up when I first heard. But I've come round to the idea in a 'it's just so crazy, it just might work' sort of way. It certainly isn't boring.

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That's how we felt about Stan and Bobby Robson...

Jeepers, Sadlier needs a ride soon.

Sadlier would moan if we appointed Mourinho or Guardiola.

Is there no role for Manuela at all?

To answer your question,

http://sphotos-b.ak.fbcdn.net/hphoto...03317371_n.png

If only he was being paid the same as the dearly departed Manuela.

For me it's less about the money, more about the potential 'disruption factor' ​that a certain individual brings...

The Shining is on RTE tonight,
perhaps synchronicity personified?

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Originally Posted by ArdeeBhoy

For me it's less about the money, more about the potential 'disruption factor' ​that a certain individual brings...

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Let's leave talk of James McClean for his own thread.

Hmm, nice try. See #1411.
:)

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Originally Posted by SkStu

That's how we felt about Stan and Bobby Robson...

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Maybe but Stan and Bobby are like Pablo Honey to Martin and Roy's Kid A (to borrow the musical analogies above).

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Originally Posted by SwanVsDalton

Maybe but Stan and Bobby are like Pablo Honey to Martin and Roy's Kid A (to borrow the musical analogies above).

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didn't Thom Yorke say Kid A was for the fans, or something along those lines, after it was panned by the critics?

few more mentions of current Ireland players who've played under Keane: http://www.independent.ie/sport/socc...-29723539.html
I'd forgotten about Walters actually.

John Walters is a 'Scouser'​ ? Well I never.