O’Neill’s passionate and feisty.. but that doesn’t make him the best pick
MARTIN O’NEILL rescued my career when he took me to Leicester.
He helped breathe new life into me after my experiences with John Gregory and Aston Villa, and gave me back an enjoyment of football that still runs deep in me today.
So I owe him a lot. And, knowing how he managed back then – he was passionate, feisty, it was about giving your all and working as one as a team – if he can be even 80 per cent of the Martin O’Neill he was in those days at the old Filbert Street, then he will be very good value for Nottingham Forest.
But while I’m happy he is taking the job Aitor Karanka left last week, I have to be honest and say that, if I were making the decision at the City Ground, I’m not sure he’s the route I’d have taken.
I’d have asked myself, ‘What does this club need, what kind of players do we have and what is the budget?’
And the answers, I’m fairly certain, would have led me to Slavisa Jokanovic.
We’re talking the finest of margins, of course, because Martin, even at that 80 per cent mark, will still be a better manager than most. But Jokanovic (right) plays the game the way Forest fans want – on the deck, fast and aggressive.
He would have had a budget, he has currency in the game as a young, exciting manager, whereas Martin has a little bit of persuading to do.
The feedback I’ve been getting from Forest fans has largely been along the lines of, ‘Of course we will welcome him back as a club legend, that goes without saying.
‘But he has to convince us because of what he did with Ireland and Sunderland, and with the way he walked away from Villa’.
What will be crucial to Martin’s stay is the backroom staff he brings in. He no longer has John Robertson by his side but if Steve Walford or Steve Guppy are with him, or both, he will have very trusted lieutenants. Waller will put an arm round people and tell them how good they are during specific sessions.
Robbo used to do the same, although he was always more of a psychologist than a coach, checking how you were and making you feel good.
Then the gaffer would come out and you would feel his presence, making sure you didn’t step off the gas towards the end of the session.
If Roy Keane joins him then he can’t be the Roy Keane who tells everyone how bad they are after a couple of games as that’s not going to work.
What is good for Forest is both O’Neill and Keane will want to present the best and most politically correct side of themselves.
And they will walk down that tunnel and through the city, and feel a great pride and responsibility about the jobs they have been given. They will both be ultramotivated and if they get it right then it might just mean Forest squeezing into the play-offs after starting to drift a little under Karanka.