RIGHT DECISION
Coaches correct to go if they were unhappy - Quinn
NIALL QUINN believes Damien Duff and Alan Kelly were right to walk away from the Ireland coaching set-up if they were unhappy but admits he was surprised by their exits.
Former Republic of Ireland striker Quinn, who played alongside both men at international level, was serving as interim deputy CEO of the FAI when Stephen Kenny was appointed national team manager last April with Duff named as one of his assistants and Kelly kept on as goalkeeping coach.
He says he hasn’t talked to his former team-mate since his decision to exit the set-up and believes the difficult start to Kenny’s reign has been negatively influenced by the pandemic crisis, with goalkeeping coach Alan Kelly also leaving.
‘I haven’t spoken to Damien, and I haven’t spoken to Alan Kelly but yes, I’m surprised,’ Quinn told Paddy Power’s ‘From The Horse’s Mouth’ podcast.
‘But my first thought on that, and I don’t know how right or wrong this is, but if you’re not happy in what you’re doing, where you’re going, you’re
right to walk away. Everybody wants Irish football to do well, and there is real problems underneath the tin. They’re boiling up all the time, and hopefully in some shape or form a window of opportunity from government to go further.
‘Okay, the rescue package is most welcome, and that settles the thing down, but I would hope as the next election comes around that football will be on the potential TD’s list of things to say, okay, can we kick on?
‘Because it is an important sport. It is important. The numbers playing each week - we’re all looking for something to aspire to,’ added Quinn.
‘We want everything to be better, and personally, until we have our own five-star academy, up in Abbottstown with all of the best players being treated the way all the players their ages are in the countries like Spain, Italy, England, et cetera, we’re always going to have problems at the elite level, and right the way down to the grassroots.’
In a wide-ranging interview, Quinn also addressed the Sapian incident prior to the 2002 World Cup, when star midfielder Roy Keane left the Ireland camp after a disagreement with manager Mick McCarthy, admitting it was a ‘disastrous’ situation at the time.
‘Saipan went up, jumped out of all proportions in terms of what the media were thinking,’ recalled Quinn.
‘We were asleep when people in Ireland were awake. There were two narratives going on. It was a really tough time.
‘All of us wanted it to be relived and thought it’d be great if he came back, but can we do something about it? I was the oldest player, so I had to do that kind of stuff on behalf of the players.
‘You try and do your thing, and you look back and you think, jeez, it was all mad.
‘Of course, people are set firm in their beliefs. They believe things that happened that maybe didn’t happen at all. But ultimately, it was a disastrous situation that all of us need to shoulder some responsibility for, and I mean everybody.
‘Had we known it was going to be so serious in that team meeting, we should have just abandoned the meeting. The team meeting brought it to a level I hate even looking back on,’ admitted Quinn.
‘But having said that, yeah, we kind of restored some bit of pride, and at least we gave more to the narrative that the tournament will be remembered for how we played as well,’ stressed Quinn, who regrets not taking a penalty when Ireland exited the tournament in the knock-out stages.
‘When we got to a point where we started to really perform, we just didn’t have the conviction to go over the line and take that game, and it wasn’t for fear or lack of ability. I don’t think that was there.
‘The young lads jumped, “I want to a penalty, let’s go”. We were on a kind of surge that went, right, we’re going to go to the next round of this, we’re going to go to the quarter-finals, we’re going to emulate the guys in ’90, but sadly the penalty shootout didn’t go our way.
‘I was taking the sixth penalty had things gone okay. But when it didn’t happen, that was the end of my career.
‘I never kicked a ball again, and I always said to myself, Jesus, one more kick. I should have took one more kick, and I should have took a penalty. That stayed with me for some time, you know?
‘It was a really difficult time for us, and it doesn’t get any easier. I appreciate that it was 1000 times more difficult for Roy Keane.’
Quinn was part of the Ireland team that stunned the football world by making the quarterfinals of the 1990 World Cup under the late Jack Charlton and likens the former Ireland manager to Liverpool boss, Jurgen Klopp.
‘It was primitive (under Charlton), but I think it was primitive when we had the ball because we were very much a long ball team,’ said Quinn.
‘But off the ball we were doing everything that Klopp is asking his Liverpool players to do now in terms of making a wall when you haven’t got the ball.
‘I remember John Aldridge one time saying, publicly, anybody who plays up front for Ireland is going to turn their legs into tree stumps running that much.
‘That was Jack’s way. He was so adamant that it was going to be his way or the highway, and the way he changed how Ireland played our football.’
‘I should have taken a penalty’