GOOD VIBES
Case for Gleeson staying on as Ireland boss is becoming irresistible...
EILEEN GLEESON gives little away. Take last Thursday afternoon in Tallaght Stadium. Invited to confirm that Diane Caldwell would indeed win her 100th cap against Albania the following evening, the interim manager said that she was keeping her cards close to her chest when it came to the team.
Not only did the veteran defender start, becoming the seventh female Irish international to join the century club, she was made captain for the night to mark the occasion.
The Balbriggan native was even accompanied by her niece and nephew as she led the team out. All of which needed a bit of forward planning and would have been known the day before.
But it is Gleeson’s way to reveal only as much as she needs to. For those of us covering the women’s team, it has taken a bit of adjustment, given her predecessor never heard a question that she wouldn’t answer.
So, it wasn’t a surprise when the Dubliner kicked for touch on Friday night when she was asked if her third straight win had changed her mind in
If I did have ambitions to manage a team, this is the team I would want
wanting the job on a full-time basis.
‘Next question, please,’ Gleeson replied with a good-natured smile.
But with each passing game, the perMcCabe ception grows that the FAI mightn’t have to stray too far from home to find Vera Pauw’s permanent successor. As ever, the answer may be staring them in the face and the next person may just be the person in there already, keeping the seat warm.
Gleeson admitted on Thursday that she was in a bind. Her main work as the FAI’s head of women’s and girls’ football is probably an even more important role than the senior team, emphasised by a couple of recent disappointing underage results. But being Ireland manager also tugs at her heartstrings.
‘If I had ambitions to manage any team, this is the team I’d want to manage. But I have to focus on the head of women’s and girls football role, so it is a super-difficult decision and I need to ensure that these girls continue to move forward and future generations continue to move forward. But if I wanted to manage any team, it’s this team,’ Gleeson maintained on Thursday, leaving the door slightly ajar.
Certain things have fallen in Gleeson’s favour. As we saw against
Albania, Katie is at the peak of her worldclass powers, which is why she had an invite to the 67th Ballon d’Or ceremony in the plush Theatre de Chatelet in Paris tomorrow night, the first shortlisted Irish player since Roy Keane 23 years ago. Instead, she will be in Northern Albania with her Ireland teammates.
And Ireland are playing inferior opposition in Nations League B. But you can’t argue with results and Gleeson’s record in charge of her country makes for impressive reading. Three games played, three comfortable victories. Most notable is that a team who had previously found it notoriously difficult to score — Ireland had scored in two of the eight games they played in 2023 under the previous regime — have scored 12 goals and created plenty more chances.
Albania were sticky opponents on Friday, especially in the firsthalf. Megi Doci, who nicked that lovely equaliser which stunned Tallaght into silence, was arguably the best player Ireland have faced in this Nations League and there were a few technically-proficient players on the visiting side, Qendresa Krasniqi also caught the eye in midfield. In essence, they were just the sort of side that Ireland had found it tough to break down in the past. Think Slovakia in the last campaign. Or Greece in the campaign before that.
‘You have to beat what is in front of you and if you look back at our results, we’ve normally struggled against the so-called lesser teams when the onus is on us to build and possess, to break teams down,’ Diane Caldwell pointed out on Friday night.
‘To be honest, I think looking at these last three performances, we’ve grown a lot. Because normally these were the games that we slipped up on before. Or maybe we weren’t so comfortable or dominating as we should have been. I think it shows a real big step in the team,’ she added.
It was compelling to see how much the Ireland players were enjoying themselves in the secondhalf. The introduction of Sinead Farrelly and the way she linked with McCabe and Denise O’Sullivan was encouraging and the fact that the players didn’t seem concerned about messing up, which will occasionally happen if you play with adventure. They were enjoying having the freedom to make mistakes.
The good vibes emanating from the squad have been difficult to miss over the past two camps and are in stark contrast to the final days of the World Cup campaign. Of course, it helps when you are winning. But freshness helps, too. And maybe a fresh direction was simply needed.
‘It’s really enjoyable,’ Louise Quinn said of the last two camps. ‘There are a few changes and things we have to adapt to. Obviously, it’s a big shift of change from the games we played at the World Cup to lower-ranked opponents and we still have much we have to work on. But Eilo coming in, we know her so well, the staff have so much experience, they are constantly looking out for us, trying to do their best for us and the buzz has been really, really nice in camp.’
Even though three games is a fairly small sample size, it appears that it is a much more collaborative effort from the management team. Colin Healy was regularly communicating
instructions to players in Budapest, especially Kyra Carusa. In Tallaght on Friday, it was Richie Fitzgibbon, the goalkeeping coach, who was having words with Tyler Toland — whose seamless reintegration into the squad after an exile of four years is another very positive aspect of Gleeson’s short time in charge.
There have been some good soundings about Brazilian performance coach Ivi Casagrande, whom Gleeson explained on Thursday, was consistently linking in with clubs to monitor the progress and form of the Ireland players. The interim staff stretches out to 21 and they feel like they have a say. It is just the sort of approach that the FAI said they wanted in their statement after Pauw’s departure.
Apparently, FAI director of football Marc Canham is working off a long-list of a dozen names which, with the help of a recruitment agency, will be whittled down to three candidates. If Ireland record a fourth successive win in Albania, and results go their way, they could confirm promotion to League A on Tuesday, which would guarantee at least a play-off for Euro 2025. It’s a pretty attractive job.
The obvious question to ask is would the support staff, who have found such favour with the players, remain in place for the next boss?
Gleeson, as is her way, said she couldn’t answer that. But maybe, we will never find out that answer because the next manager may be the one who’s there already.
We know Eilo so well, the buzz has been really nice in camp
— LOUISE QUINN