He’s coming home, he’s coming home...

THERE was something familiar to me about the news that Mick McCarthy would be the next manager of Ireland.

It reminded me of some previous story of that nature, but for a while I couldn’t quite place it, this feeling of vague disappointment — it couldn’t be related to the recruitment of any other Ireland manager, because for a few minutes at least, they had tended to give everyone a bit of a lift. And for all of those managers, it was their first shot at it.

Indeed the appointment of Brian Kerr was a joyous thing — everyone was really happy for him. The arrival of Trapattoni carried with it a kind of awe that we would be receiving such an aristocrat of the game, albeit one who would naturally regard us as being very bad at football indeed.

And I was present in the Gibson Hotel for the first press conference with Martin O’Neill, itself an impressive occasion with Mr Rob Dorsett from Sky Sports doing his business to camera, and the hall being cleared of people by security types in dark suits before the entrance of Martin to the room filled with reporters.

In truth, I couldn’t quite accept the validity of the hall being cleared, as if Martin was Rihanna on her way to pick up a Grammy, and not the sensible man I had believed him to be, on his way to a “friendly” with the gentlefolk of the press.

But you go along with these things, there’s a bit of adrenaline in it.

There was no adrenaline in the idea of Mick McCarthy having another crack at it, we know him too well.

Some of us were quoting the Greek pundit Heraclitus, who argued that “you cannot step into the same river twice”, and then we tried to figure out what he meant by that — I mean, you obviously can step into the same river twice, or even three times, so taking the positives from this, the lad Heraclitus may have meant that you need to approach a problem in a different frame of mind if you find yourself revisiting it.

But again I knew it wasn’t Ancient Greece that was nagging at me here, indeed I was starting to realise that it was more like modern England — yes, as it became clearer that Mick was coming home, I thought eventually of one Gareth Southgate.

I remember when Southgate was given the job, and I remember imagining how dreary it must have all seemed to the England supporters, how it must have looked like an appointment made for corporate convenience, by jaded executives — and yes, that would be Gareth Southgate who only brought England to the semifinal of the World Cup; Gareth Southgate who is now one of the most esteemed figures in football management or any other kind of management; the beloved Gareth Southgate.

So my subdued response to the word about McCarthy was qualified by this realisation that with most new managers there is a buzz for a little while, and then it stops.

Maybe by skipping the buzz, as the English did with Southgate, the FAI has stumbled across the progressive alternative.

I also liked the mention of Carlos Queiroz as a contender, mainly because it carried the promise of the Behanesque headline: “It’s the Queir Fellow!”

But if you had asked me, I’d have given it to Stephen Kenny. Everybody needs a break, and he’d earned it.