That's exactly what I mean. He actually has no idea what the guy was thinking when all he had to do was have a quick chat (and it seems like it would have been a very quick chat) with him about it at some point from before announcing the squad up until he had that press conference. But he clearly didn't and then had the audacity/arrogance to think he could bluff the question when asked and get away with it. All he had to say was something like "well we haven't chatted about it but he hasn't raised any issues with me so as far as I know he's an Irish player and we look forward to giving him some game time over the next week". It would be honest, it would be strong and it would have given Obafemi an avenue to say how easy a decision it was, that accepting the call up was a no-brainer etc etc instead of taking some of the flack he took and being on the defensive.
Anyway, its all worked out well despite MON, not because of him and that is pretty damning. This is basic stuff. The man management skills of this management team is consistently shown to be a few steps below the basic expectations. The cynic in me sees Obafemis 10 minutes last night as nothing more than a tactic by MON to be able to take credit for (capped him, dual, young) as opposed to having a plan to use him to better us as a team.
Bookmarks