I’m proud that both sides of the North always feature in my teams
SAYS MICHAEL O’NEILL
FOR the first, and only time, Michael O’Neill was flummoxed. ‘He was a midfielder, a big lad. Ach, what’s his name?’ he said in self-admonishment.
The missing player was on the Northern Ireland Under-21s which lost 1-0 to Macedonia in a low-profile Euro qualifier in May 2012.
O’Neill, who travelled to the Balkans outpost, was able to reel off 10 of the Irish XI. As he struggled for the 11th, it got me thinking: how many Republic of Ireland managers attended away U21 qualifiers over the years, let alone could recite the team?
As for the ‘big lad’, it was Seanan Clucas, then of Burton, now of Dungannon Swifts.
O’Neill has always been sharp on detail, which was evident as we chatted while snow swirled around Windsor Park.
The new-look stadium is now home to the Irish FA and is dotted with meeting places named after famous players, and administrators too, of Northern football.
While the Harry Cavan boardroom was out of bounds, he checked on the Peter Doherty, Gerry Armstrong and David Healy rooms which were all occupied.
We headed instead for a quiet nook with a cup of tea — his mug carried a motif of Healy with the word ‘Talisman’.
O’Neill is 48 and has just signed a six-year contract extension as manager, which will take him up 2024 and make him second to Billy Bingham as the North’s longestserving manager.
Under O’Neill, Northern Ireland hit 20th in the world rankings last September — they are currently 26th — and have finished first and second in the last two qualifying groups for Euro 2016 and World Cup 2018.
For a squad with just five Premier League players to pick from, three of them at bottom club West Brom, and only 14 in the Championship, the rise has been staggering.
But it hasn’t come as a shock to those who know of O’Neill’s meticulous preparation, desire to succeed and knack for assembling a slick football machine from a lot of spare parts.
‘We’ve gone strong on identity of Northern Ireland and what we represent, on better analysis, good work on pitch, better training facilities, on better hotels.
‘We video a lot of training, show it back to players. It’s all about tiny fractions. You’ve only got four days to prepare your team, you can’t waste a training session. You have to nail it, it has to be right,’ he said.
Before the Euro finals, O’Neill invited Rory McIlroy to meet the squad at Carton House, while Joe Schmidt gave him time with the Irish rugby team where he noticed players, such as Paul O’Connell, took far more responsibility in training drills than footballers ever would.
‘Rory’s an inspirational young man. He’s very Northern Ireland-focused. At the Ryder Cup, you saw him with the Northern Ireland flag, I think that’s a good thing.
‘We’ve had Carl Frampton in, other sports people too. It was good for the players. I think they were surprised at the impact that a good Northern Ireland team has on the country.’
‘I remember that as a kid, watching the teams of ’82 and ’86 in the World Cup, the impact was huge at a time when Northern Ireland was at its worst.’
THE North were one of Europe’s puff bags when O’Neill was appointed in January 2012, on the back of his work at Shamrock Rovers, where he won two Leagues and cracked the code for the group stages of the Europa League
‘When I took over, a lot of people said to me “why take that job?” I think they’d won two of their previous 22 games, so I knew it would it be tough. It was a massive challenge and I had one objective, to make it better.’
And make it better he has, despite a drift of players to the FAI ranks, many of whom have had manpower and finance invested in them by the IFA.
O’Neill knows he must abide by the FIFA eligibility ruling but it doesn’t mean he has to like it.
While it hurts to see five Northern Ireland-born players in the Republic squad, O’Neill is more piqued by the loss of younger players to the FAI.
He says he can name ten off the top of his head who’ve signed international clearance forms and are now lost to the North.
As a plus, Sean Scannell, who figured in Giovanni Trapattoni’s
squad 10 years ago, is ‘coming to us’ not that O’Neill sees the move as a strike against the head.
‘See Sean Scannell? His bloodline is from the North,’ emphasised O’Neill. ‘If we speak to him, or Niall Keown, or Patrick McEleney, their bloodline is from the North, so we’re not taking them off the Republic.’
For O’Neill, who won 33 caps as a stylish midfielder, Northern Ireland identity is important in the team. ‘I always look at the team before a game and typically eight to nine of the XI are Northern Ireland born.
‘It’s something I’m quite proud of, that identity and also that both sides of the community are represented.’
O’NEILL doesn’t see his job as that of a manager who deals the hand given to him; he’s actively seeking better cards to flourish.
‘When I came in here, there was no U17 manager, no U19 manager. The U21 manager Steve Beaglehole worked at the Leicester academy. I had to find people to do those jobs.’
Finding players was important too and looking out for them even more so, according to O’Neill.
‘We’re exporting players at 16 years of age to England, and the failure rate is very high, over 80 per cent. We’ve got to keep our young players in the game, they are very vulnerable at that age.
‘I’ve lost count of the amount of times I’ve rung a manager and said, “look, there’s a lad who’s been released, I think he’s worth a look”. We can’t save them all, they have to want to go and fight for their career as well. The other thing I’d like to shape is a development route for players.
‘I read Niall Quinn’s comments with interest about Republic of Ireland players which were very true, that boys staying at home longer in the League of Ireland, like Kevin Doyle, were better equipped to prosper.’
‘What I want to see is the age profile of the Irish League to change, to give more boys a structured route from 16, not to go to England, but to come through the Irish League, to have 50 or 60 professional games played before they go away.’
‘Can I leave something in place in Northern Ireland where we would produce better players and more players? If I can, that would give me every bit as much pleasure and satisfaction as qualifying for a major tournament,’ he said.
In his laptop, he carries comprehensive data on all his players. Not just the senior squad, but on every player aged under 21 in the Irish League, the numbers at each club, and how many minutes they have played this season.
Among them, there may be a rough diamond worth shaping. If there is, O’Neill will unearth it.