Enough of this pantomime, Martin, it’s time to sign deal
BESIDES the improvements wrought on the pitch, Martin O’Neill’s best work for the Ireland team has been putting an end to its time as a global punchline. Success on the field, most obviously at Euro 2016, has helped to quieten the sniggering off it.
The controversy over a payment from FIFA to stop protests about defeat to France in 2009, and the one about the chief executive singing songs about an IRA man in a Dublin pub, were at the very least humiliating, but O’Neill’s expertise has helped to make Irish soccer a sporting story rather than the setting for repeated embarrassments.
That has been obvious even this week. Imagine how much greater the controversy would be around allegations of an FAI employee stopping some Irish supporters as they tried to enter the stadium in Belgrade for the match against Serbia had Ireland lost the game.
Unease at the claim that this official was trying to prevent fans expressing public unhappiness with John Delaney should not be contingent upon the result, but it does make for a pleasant change when off-pitch messes compete with better news on the field of play.
Despite the feebleness of parts of the Ireland performance, the result this week did qualify as good news. O’Neill was happy with the outcome, to the point that his occasional tetchiness in interviews found a high pitch afterwards.
He is not always comfortable submitting to interview and has been cranky before in the immediate aftermath of a game. His satisfaction with winning a point away to the Serbs was understandable, as was his argument that other countries will struggle to wrench as much out of Belgrade.
It should be said too, however, that Ireland could regret merely drawing against a team which was defensively very weak and without two of its best players, Nemanja Matic and Aleksandar Kolarov.
Still, O’Neill was entitled to be content and supporters could be happy, too. That Ireland have improved under his management is obvious, and that there is the potential for the team to get better is apparent as well. Shane Duffy and Harry Arter will improve the side as qualification continues, and the cruder charms of James McClean are becoming more important in a team that can lack energy and a desire to break forward when he is not playing.
There is plenty, then, for which Ireland fans can be thankful to Martin O’Neill. Now is the time, though, for O’Neill to repay that support. He should have the contract that was reportedly agreed at the start of June signed by the time Georgia come to Dublin for Ireland’s second World Cup qualifier on October 6.
The chances that he might abandone Ireland for a club job in Britain are probably not high. He and his support staff appear committed to the responsibilities they have taken on, and the challenge of trying to qualify for the 2018 World Cup out of a group where the teams are so evenly matched should hold enormous appeal for an ambitious coach. But as long as the contract remains unsigned, there is the possibility, however small, of losing him. That is presumably concerning the FAI and it is certainly exercising supporters. It should prompt O’Neill to make signing the contract his priority between now and the end of the month. He owes Irish supporters that certainty, just as they owe him their support and their gratitude for the repair work he has done not merely to the team but to the name of Irish soccer. Roy Keane made an odd reference to this issue before the Serbian match. ‘Do I know the ins and outs of it? I’ve got an idea but I’m not going to say too much,’ said O’Neill’s assistant, whose own contract is awaiting a signature.
That comment from Keane prompted some to wonder if there was a complication in confirming the arrangement, but Keane did later say, ‘We’ve committed to the job. I don’t think you can say any more than that’.
But he and O’Neill can do more than that: they can put their names to the contracts.
The manager was never publicly stirred by the speculation about Keane’s future that occasionally bubbled during the qualification process for Euro 2016.
Rumours, the lingua franca of professional soccer, do not appear to panic him and his easy attitude to speculation would indicate that Ireland fans need not be unduly stressed about reports that Hull City would like O’Neill to manage their likely relegation from the Premier League this season.
Yet a few simple scribbles with a pen can take all the uncertainty away. O’Neill may see it as a simple formality but it would be more than that. It would be public confirmation for supporters that he is with them, that the joy he brought them in France is a feeling he is determined to recapture.
Fans of the Irish team have known some mortifying days, but O’Neill made them sing again. He can keep the joy coming, and he should confirm that is what he intends to do.