O’NEILL HAS TALKED THE TALK...
Now it’s time to walk the walk, but he’s running out of time
CONVERSATION somehow steered in the direction of former Leicester City and Northern Ireland defender Gerry Taggart at the start of the week.
Martin O’Neill, naturally, was the one digging into his pit of nostalgia. The Leicester City manager of the day, he recalled how Taggart was struggling badly at centre half in a side that wasn’t getting results.
O’Neill, himself, was under pressure, something needed to change, so he let Taggart know that his performances weren’t up to scratch and was being dropped. The defender pleaded for a chance to prove his worth.
‘Just two games,’ O’Neill remembers Taggart asking for.
‘I’m not sure I can give you them,’ the manager replied.
Eventually he relented, and Tagbad gart was given a shot at salvation.
‘He ended the season as player of the year,’ O’Neill recalled, the tale told as an example of how different players react to adversity given how much has been said and written about the fallout between Roy Keane and Harry Arter.
There’s another one from the time when O’Neill was the King of Filbert Street, having just landed the League Cup in 1997. Simon Grayson, another centre half, had a blinder of a campaign and was named player of the year by supporters.
The club offered him a new contract but he subsequently claimed that a couple of attempts to meet with O’Neill fell through so when Aston Villa swooped, he moved there instead. ‘Martin wasn’t impressed and told Brian Little [Villa boss] where to go,’ recalled Grayson in an interview with Sportsmail.
O’Neill may attempt to adapt his approach depending on the circumstances, but they don’t always yield the desired result.
The only one that will help him against Denmark tomorrow night, though, is a win. He must hope that his players react to recent setbacks in a way which illustrates they are still onside.
‘Always belief. You can’t always go in hoping. You need belief,’ Shane Duffy says.‘We’ve had a few results, people losing that belief outside. But inside we have good leaders who will tell you the right things, who have the belief. They tell you the right things you have to listen and believe you can win.’
O’Neill needs it. The 4-1 defeat to Wales on the opening night of the Nations League may have come almost a year after the 5-1 hammering to Denmark in the World Cup play-off last year but, such was the nature of the performance in Cardiff, the agony felt fresh.
That is why the outcome tomorrow night will say so much about O’Neill and the group of players he is working with. Denmark, even without Christian Eriksen, would appear formidable opponents for this Ireland team but another loss really is not an option.
The utterings of assistant Roy Keane this week discussing his possible future footballing life after add just another layer of uncertainty and confusion into the mix. ‘I just focus on the job in hand and that’s a big one with Ireland,’ he told Notts TV.
‘I’d like to become a manager again but we’ll see what happens. It’s just getting that offer and challenge that will rock my boat. I’d be realistic, it’s hardly going to be a Premier League offer, realistically in the Championship but there are a lot of brilliant clubs in the Championship. There’s no doubt in my mind that I could go in there and get a club promoted with the right support. It would depend on the club and the people involved.’ Keane has been up front about such ambitions in the past and O’Neill, too, has never had an issue. But, in the current climate, such musings are largely unhelpful.
On the pitch, O’Neill also has plenty on his plate. Shane Long is an injury doubt, meaning that of the four forwards remaining — all of whom play in the Championship — only Preston’s Callum Robinson has been a regular at club level. His clubmate, Sean Maguire, is back in the mix after recovering from another bad hamstring injury while Millwall’s Aiden O’Brien and Aston Villa’s Scott Hogan are in the reckoning. Even Wolves right full-back Matt Doherty, named Premier League player of the month for September, could become a crucial figure in O’Neill’s plans to break down Denmark. What those plans are, though, or whether or not he prepares his teams in as meticulous a fashion as many of his contemporaries, is another matter. The players, however, will only find out an hour and a half before kickoff when they arrive at Aviva Stadium and are told the starting XI.
From the perspective of many modern-day players, it’s less than ideal. What always separated him from the mediocre managerial merry-go-round in Britain was his man-management skills, the personal touch and an ability to inspire and motivate, to turn average players into something more and tease just an extra ounce of brilliance from the very best.
One of the great sights during his days with Leicester, Celtic, Aston Villa and even Sunderland, was that leap of joy in celebration of a goal. We’ve seen less and less of that excitable Derryman in the past 12 months. .
He may be older now but perhaps not quite as up-to-date in modern methods as some of his rivals. What he must prove is that the most recent disappointments have not dulled his powers of persuasion and influence or, worse still, that they simply no longer work.
He has time to rescue the situation, but not a whole lot of it.