IRISH SPIRIT CONCERNS ME
‘Tough mentality’ in O’Neill’s side has impressed Denmark coach
I liked Martin O’Neill as a player and person, too’
IN his younger days, when he needed to get away from football, Age Hareide would sail his boat into the deep waters of Sulafjorden, whose chilly fingers stretch nine kilometres into the North Sea.
There, he’d drop his pots for lobsters and crabs, sit back and admire the stunning emerald and ice backdrop of Hareidlandet, the Norwegian island where he grew up, and after which he is named.
It wasn’t the easiest of journeys, requiring two ferries and a onehour drive from Molde, where Hareide lives, but it was always worth it.
‘I’m in Copenhagen now, a grandfather, so it’s not so easy to get back. Still, I have my books on politics and on literature, and I have my DVDs. Always my DVDs,’ he said with a booming laugh down the phone.
Hareide wasn’t at the play-off draw in Zurich but the Danish FA were only too happy to pass on his home number and arranged for him to take a call earlier this week.
Not only was Hareide willing to talk, he had plenty to say.
During our chat, he recalled his time together with Martin O’Neill at Manchester City and Norwich City in the early 1980s – ‘more down than up at City, more up than down at Norwich’ — and asked fondly after John Devine, the former Republic of Ireland international.
‘I became good friends with John at Norwich. Our daughters were born around the same time. I played against John in the World Cup when Norway beat Ireland. I like to remind him about that.’ Again, there was another laugh.
These days, Hareide is the coach of Denmark, whose team stands between Ireland and a return to the World Cup finals, but there is a lot more to this 64-year-old, who grew up on an island named after his family.
For starters, he loves football with a schoolboy’s passion.
How come? ‘We grew up watching English football on the TV. Every Saturday at 4.0pm, there was a game from the First Division, and everything for me stopped at that moment.
‘My team was Tottenham. I like the way they played, the team of Chivers, Peters and Pat Jennings, who I later played against when he was at Arsenal. ‘I remember the City team of the late 60s, Bell, Lee, Summerbee, it was good too. I still have my magazines from that time, Shoot! and Goal.’
That flair should have twitched Hareide’s teenage antennae is relevant, for his teams have always been pleasing to the eye.
‘I want to score goals, to go forward. All the teams I coached, Rosenborg, Brondby, Molde, were all top scorers in their league,’ he said.
As a player, he was a strapping blonde defender, carved from Norwegian wood, who caught the eye of English managers when he played on the Norway team which stunned England 1-0 in Olso in the World Cup qualifiers in September 1981.
The game became famous for the TV commentary of the late Bjorge Lillelien who taunted Britons at the final whistle in an excitable mix of Norse and English. ‘We have beaten England! England, birthplace of giants. Lord Nelson, Lord Beaverbrook, Sir Winston Churchill, Sir Anthony Eden, Clement Attlee, Henry Cooper, Lady Diana — we have beaten them all. We have beaten them all.
‘Maggie Thatcher can you hear me? Maggie Thatcher, I have a message for you. We have knocked England out of the football World Cup.
‘Maggie Thatcher, as they say in your language in the boxing bars around Madison Square Garden in New York: Your boys took a hell of a beating! Your boys took a hell of a beating!’ GETTY
The result earned Hareide a move to Manchester City a few weeks later but he was unable to command a regular first-team place under John Bond — neither could O’Neill — and the two men moved to Norwich City where Hareide rented a house off O’Neill.
‘I played with Martin, he had lots of energy. He was brought up the Brian Clough way and never lost that. I liked him as a player and as a person, too,’ he added.
‘Later, Martin was manager of Aston Villa when John Carew was there and I was manager of Norway, so we had some talks then. It will be good to see him again.’
Hareide (in Manchester City, Norway and Norwich colours left)won 50 caps, scoring five goals, and while a place at a major final eluded him, there were occasional highs.
‘Beating England was a special moment and we also beat Ireland 1-0 in Oslo in the 1986 World Cup qualification. They had a good team — Lawrenson, Brady, Stapleton, Chris Hughton and my friend John Devine, of course,’ he added with a chuckle.
The Dublin return finished 0-0 and you suspect the former defender would bite your hand off for a similar outcome, home and away, in these play-offs.
For while Hareide is unique in Scandinavian football, having coached clubs to league titles in Norway (Rosenborg), Denmark (Brondby) and Sweden (Helsingborg and Malmo), he has not yet led a team to a major
‘Ireland have great heart, there is no bulls**t’
international tournament.
‘In the World Cup 2006 with Norway, we lost in the play-offs to Czech Republic who were the second best team in the world at the time.
‘In the next Euros, we played Turkey and Greece. We had a strong team with [Steffen] Iversen, Carew, [Ole Gunnar] Solksjaer, [Brede] Hangeland and [John Arne] Riise and we were a very good attacking side.
‘But in vital matches we made one or two mistakes and lost out by small margin. That was a difficult moment,’ he said.
After the 150-game reign of Morten Olsen, which included qualification for two World Cups and two European Championships between 2000 and 2015, Hareide knows success over Ireland would convince the diehards of the Olsen era that he is the right man for the job.
He is already geared up for the playoffs but knows they will not be easy.
‘I’m always at my computer. I’m getting tired of looking at Ireland games and Ireland players, searching for details. I want to get on with the game,’ he said.
‘I see Ireland as a team with fantastic morale. When they put on the green shirt they are inspired. They don’t give much away. They are tough mentally to play against.
‘They chase you all the time, don’t give you any time on the ball. They are hard-working and have great heart. There is no bulls**t about them.’
Denmark are the higher ranked team and possess the best player in either squad, Christian Eriksen. So how does Hareide call it?
‘It’s a 50-50 game. We start in the Parken, which is not a disadvantage as we can stay at home all week and prepare, which is a help,’ he said.
‘When we travel, there is so little time between the games. If we drew 0-0 at home, we still have 120 minutes to get a goal. We have half an hour extra to score which we know we are capable of.
‘Our team is young, and the players have taken time to develop but this year has been one of progress. We played Germany in a friendly and they gave us a good match. And we have improved in the World Cup, especially at home. The players are starting to believe in themselves and what they can achieve.’
‘For me, the details are very important. There is so little between the teams. I have to find the words to get the message across into the players’ minds.’
He will find them for the well-read Hareide is a thinker and a decent football man with much to draw on. O’Neill’s former lodger is not an opponent to be underestimated.