Andrews: Let’s Harry up and sort this mess
OVER the course of 35 caps, Keith Andrews didn’t kow-tow to anyone, on or off the pitch. And if Roy Keane had launched into him the way he with did Harry Arter, the former Ireland midfielder wouldn’t have walked away.
‘I’d probably have gone down the Jon Walters route,’ he said with a wry reference to the Keane-Walters bust-up during training last summer. ‘I wouldn’t have missed out on playing for my country because of one individual.’
That’s what Arter chose to do, after explaining his reasons to manager Martin O’Neill. It left Ireland light in the trenches in Cardiff last Thursday and Keane with some apologising to do after Stephen Ward’s audio on the events became public. The attack on Arter left Andrews reeling. He feels Keane crossed a boundary from what is expected of a No2.
‘I think it is a big issue if this is the norm, what’s going on. It’s far from what it should be because that is not the role of an assistant manager. I’ve been a first-team coach, I’ve worked with assistant managers as a player and that [Keane’s actions] is not your role. When you go to the side of staff at a football club, your role is to help the manager.
‘If the incident is what we’re led to believe from the leaked WhatsApp, then that’s obviously not getting the best out of players.’
Asked if he felt the squad was united after the flare-ups, Andrews observed, ‘I wouldn’t be so sure’. Even so he thinks Arter should make himself available again once Keane has offered the hand of conciliation.
‘I would be willing if I was in his [Arter’s] shoes, with the assistant manager coming to me and apologising, then I would certainly be looking to move forward,’ said Andrews.
‘He [Arter] is playing well at Cardiff and the style he’s playing at Cardiff makes him more suited to play for us.’
So what does O’Neill do with Keane?
‘I think he sticks by him and it’s fairly simple that he’s going to do that. I don’t think anything is going to change in the coming weeks. I can’t see anything changing between now and October — it’s all about those two games and how we approach them and deal with them.
‘They’re going to be very difficult because both those nations are playing really well. It’s very, very testing times.’
Working for Sky Sports, Andrews was on call in Cardiff.
‘It was probably the most difficult game I’ve had to do, commentary-wise. It was really, really tough to watch as you’re trying to work out where the team are going, the lack of ideas.
‘Seven days on, the lack of aggression is the thing that probably stood out to me.’
‘I take no joy in covering games like that and looking at players and having to criticise performances and the management team.’
He feels it will be the end of the line for O’Neill, and Keane too, if Ireland play like they did against Denmark in the World Cup play-off, and Wales last week in next round of Nations League games.
‘It depends on the manner of the defeats. If we see anything like Denmark in the Aviva and Wales in Cardiff, then I think that’s the end of the era, there’s no doubt about it.’
Andrews does not buy the line, however, that O’Neill is working with poor tools
‘We had six Premier League players playing against Wales, Northern Ireland had three against Bosnia on Saturday and look at what they produced. That’s because they were organised, they had cohesion, they had a plan of what to do. At the moment it doesn’t look like we have that,’ said Andrews.
While the Denmark performance was undoubtedly a lowwater mark under O’Neill, Andrews felt ‘what happened in January with Stoke hasn’t sat well with media, the fans most importantly, and players certainly.
‘I said at the time that I wouldn’t be happy if I was a player and my manager was flirting to go here or a club or whatever, especially with the circumstances at the time when we were all hurting after Denmark.’