THE DANISH PASTING

Backed by the FAI with a contract that is his to sign but can O’Neill move on from...

FOR Martin O’Neill, to be or not to be the Republic of Ireland manager after the worst of weeks, that is the question. Only he knows the answer. And it’s unlikely to be swiftly forthcoming as O’Neill kept the FAI waiting when they wanted him in 2013, and will probably keep them waiting now.

As he enjoys a holiday in the sun, he can relax in the knowledge there is no blood-thirsty posse on his trail from the working farm of Abbotstown.

Despite missing out on a €10m World Cup finals pay-out, not only is FAI chief executive John Delaney on O’Neill’s side, so too are the real power-brokers behind O’Neill’s association with Irish football.

Denis O’Brien, who pays the bulk of O’Neill’s €1m-a-year wages and to whom the FAI are in thrall, is supportive, as is Celtic chief shareholder Dermot Desmond, who encouraged O’Neill to become the Ireland manager.

With Delaney, Denis and Dermot riding shotgun at his flanks, O’Neill needn’t worry about the mob.

As a further plus for his image, O’Neill has been careful to stay chummy to his friends in the English broadsheet newspapers, whose portrayal of O’Neill has been akin to adoration.

On Wednesday, one of his press pals suggested O’Neill was more annoyed with the reaction to the defeat than he was with himself. He has been careful to stay onside with readers of influence on the far side of the Irish Sea, where he lives and where he may be returning to work at some point.

As things stand, the contract extension to continue for the UEFA Nations League and Euro 2020 is there for O’Neill, and Roy Keane too, to sign.

From this corner, O’Neill is entitled to another term, but it will come with a health warning.

As a keen student of football history — his press conferences are a constant reminder to his achievements as a player and manager — O’Neill could do worse than brush up on the fate that befell his predecessors, almost all of whom stayed on too long.

Jack Charlton lost his grip the day he insisted his players gorge themselves on a feed of fish and chips in Harry Ramsden’s the day before a huge Euro qualifier.

Big Jack was more interested in publicity for his shop than preparing professionally and when Austria won 3-1 in Dublin, the clock was ticking down to his exit.

Mick McCarthy could never win after Saipan, and should have left as soon as the final whistle went in Suwon; Steve Staunton was a dead man walking after Cyprus, while good ‘ol Trapattoni had hyenas on his trail after the 6-1 loss at home to Germany.

For as long as he is Ireland manager, O’Neill will be shadowed by Tuesday’s disaster. If he’s prepared to live with that, and to oversee a successful team rebuild in his 66th year, then let him sign the new contact and move on.

If not, he should alert the FAI sooner rather than later and they can start sounding out successors — the Nations League draw is on January 24 and Ireland next play again at the end of March.

Chris Hughton would be high up on any FAI list but he is under contract at Brighton until 2020 and may feel the Ireland job is a step down right now.

McCarthy, whose Ipswich contract is up next June, would walk over burning coals for a second stint on the helm, while Sam Allardyce, who didn’t get a fair crack at England, might be tempted to return to where his management career began.

This is only conjecture as the ball remains at O’Neill’s feat.

For all his simmering angst at his detractors, all of whom only want the best for Irish football, O’Neill should reflect on how it all went so horribly wrong on Tuesday, and how it must not happen again.

From team selection to team setup, from match strategy, set-pieces to substitutions, O’Neill had a ’mare. By the end, Ireland were a rudderless rabble, broken and bickering, and O’Neill appeared powerless to apply a tourniquet to the bleed.

For a manager of his experience and status, it was a GUBU night — grotesque, unbelievable, bizarre and unprecedented. It was in marked contrast to the gritty exit of the team of his namesake, Michael O’Neill, who also lost a World Cup play-off this week.

The reputation of the Northern Ireland manager soared to the extent that Scotland want him to revive their fortunes.

The elder O’Neill laments the dearth of high-end quality in his squad, yet has far more Premier League players to pick than the younger O’Neill, who was within a dodgy penalty call of earning a shoot-out against Switzerland to go to Russia.

Rather than bleat about the absence of a silk purse, the younger O’Neill strives to get as much as he can from the sow’s ear — it is a lesson for any manager.

Michael O’Neill also takes an active interest in joining the dots at under-age level in the North from the U15s to the U21s and above. Can the same be said for O’Neill, and Roy Keane?

They may attend the odd League of Ireland game but are they in active discourse with the FAI about player development and a pathway to the senior ranks? If not, why not? They may have observations to make about what’s being done.

As he contemplates his next step, O’Neill can expect swift reminders of the Tuesday torment should things go badly wrong for Ireland again.

Only next time, there won’t be a stunned silence in the Aviva Stands, rather calls for McCarthy’s bacon slicer.

‘He’ll always be shadowed by Tuesday’s disaster’