O’NEILL FACES MASSIVE TASK

Lifting his team off floor is the greatest challenge of O’Neill’s reign Time’s up for veterans in an ageing and predictable Ireland outfit

Had O’Neill quit, it would have been understandable

IMAGINE if things had been different. That Shane Duffy’s goal against Denmark had been the only one of the play-off and the road to Russia now beckoned for the Boys In Green.

Martin O’Neill would have won the Manager of the Year, and a contract for life with the FAI, while every Irish player would have got the freedom of their home town as the country geared up for the madness of a World Cup return.

The giddy talk would be of Peru in Saransk, Australia in Samara and France in Moscow in Group C next June, and what possibilities could lie therein.

Instead, a sense of gloom permeates Irish football that nothing will readily shift, not even success for the women’s team under Colin Bell in their World Cup adventure.

The Republic Ireland don’t play a competitive game until September and right now no one is quite sure of the appetite for the fledgling UEFA Nations League.

For O’Neill, this is his first great winter of discontent as Irish manager, far chillier than that of 201415, which fell following the Euro 2016 qualifying loss to Scotland.

In 2013-14, O’Neill was only getting his feet under the table, in 2015-16 he held the high ground after reaching the Euro finals in France, while a year ago, his reputation was at its zenith as Ireland blazed a merry World Cup trail. And now? Now, there are questions being asked of O’Neill and his management, questions which will only abate when the next competitive game comes around.

Some of the criticism has been ridiculous, like the reporter who suggested to O’Neill moments after the 5-1 loss to Denmark that his ‘luck had run out.’

You don’t get to chalk up almost 1,000 games as manager over 30 years through sheer good fortune.

You get there because you know your stuff, you know how to set up teams to attack, and defend, and how to motivate players and prepare them for what might unfold.

Worryingly for O’Neill, there was scant evidence of these key managerial props against the Danes in Dublin, where Ireland were dismantled and eventually resembled a rudderless rabble.

Having conceded six goals in 11 games, Ireland then leaked five inside an hour of hell. What made it sting was the level of opponents and what was at stake.

This was Denmark not Deutschland; this was the World Cup, not the Carling Nations Tea Cup.

As Ireland went down in flames, O’Neill watched forlornly from the bridge, seemingly helpless to douse the inferno.

He was subsequently bruised, and a little embittered, by the reaction to the Danish collapse. Maybe now he has a sense of what the Republic of Ireland means to this football-daft nation.

There is no proper international outlet for Gaelic games, while the rugby team doesn’t have the same grip on the pulse of the Ordinary Joe and Josie as the Irish football team.

This was a chance to be part of the biggest sporting jamboree of all, and Ireland, under O’Neill, blew it.

Never mind they were the only fourth seeds still standing, never mind they’d won away to Wales, the Euro 2016 semifinalists, and Austria, to get to the play-offs.

This was about following the boys of 1990, ’94 and ’02 into folklore, and for a while it looked as if it might happen. When Ireland led 1-0 two-thirds of the way through 180 minutes of combat, they could almost see the twinkling lights of Red Square. Only, just like Napoleon’s army before, that was as close as they got, and the retreat hurt just as much. Many of the critics who cried out in anguish the loudest were those who cared most, even if O’Neill didn’t quite see it that way, for he doesn’t like censure. The barbs hurt O’Neill and he took a time to reflect on how he felt about the loss, and about continuing his work as Irish manager. Had O’Neill quit his post in the aftermath, it would have been understandable at one level — Mick McCarthy walked away after two successive heavy defeats in 2002 — but his post-match manner suggested he intended to soldier on for a third term. His position held when Everton reportedly enquired about his availability last month and a new contract extension was finally signed off before Christmas.

Approaching half a century of internationals as manager, as well as his 66th birthday in March, O’Neill is confronted by a challenge like no other in his time in charge.

His team is ageing, sluggish, and lacks both guile and a goal-scorer.

Danish coach Age Hareide declared Ireland were easy to read but difficult to play against — not that difficult alas, that they couldn’t be dismantled by Christian Eriksen and Co.

First up, O’Neill must draw a line through those players that won’t be around by the time of the Euro 2020 tournament, for he no longer requires them.

John O’Shea has given outstanding service, Glenn Whelan and Jon Walters too, while the impish Wes Hoolahan, so under-used by Giovanni Trapattoni, has probably picked out his last slide-rule pass.

Others will shuffle from the stage, some quicker than others, although Aiden McGeady, on 93 caps at 31 years of age, should stay on board long enough to join the centurion club.

As a plus, there is time for O’Neill to oversee the necessary rebuild.

There will be a friendly in March plus a likely tournament in the US prior to the World Cup finals where O’Neill can seek out gems like the prospectors of old.

In the summer of 2014, he went to the US for two games, took a punt on Shane Duffy against Costa Rica and duly hit pay dirt.

O’Neill may use the next trip to

the States to look at, among others, Matt Doherty as the heir apparent for fellow Dub Stephen Ward at left-back. Assuming James McCarthy is fit, then he, together with Declan Rice, Aiden O’Brien, Scott Hogan and Seán Maguire should be given game-time too.

Either Hogan or Maguire could be the answer to Ireland’s search for a striker with an eye for goal and may thrive alongside a targetman such as Shane Long.

With Seamus Coleman to return at right-back, the defence looks secure enough for the onset of the UEFA Nations League, while McCarthy will bring energy to the engine room.

O’Neill may even contemplate a tactical reshuffle. A switch to 3-5-2 would allow Coleman and McClean, the two most athletic members of the squad, to maraud the flanks, and would enable O’Neill to keep three in midfield and play a second striker.

For the challenges ahead, Ireland can’t afford to be easy to read any more.