Contract talks with manager will be backdrop to friendlies
FOUR months since Ireland qualified for Euro 2016, Martin O’Neill has confirmed that talks on a new deal with the FAI will take place in the week of the Easter international double-header.
‘I think there is something afoot,’ O’Neill said. ‘There are talks planned about that time (the internationals) and I think that we are going to sit down and hopefully get things resolved.
‘Resolved is actually too strong a word,’ he added quickly.
The Ireland manager is adamant he hasn’t got ‘a major problem’ with his contract situation, even though he keeps getting grilled about it.
The 64-year-old’s default reaction when asked about weighty matters, such as his contract, is usually to make light of things.
‘Signing contracts as a player or as a manager has never concerned me,’ he insisted.
‘Under (Brian) Clough, I signed five consecutive oneyear contracts, always thinking life was going to be better. It never was.
‘I never thought “Oh, you know what. I’m 29 now I better go in for a five-year deal now”.
‘It is the same with management. If my health stays up, I’ll do something. It’s not a problem. I’ll exist,’ he quipped.
Barring a late hitch, the new deal should be rolled out, to the fanfare of FAI trumpets, on Easter Week.
While O’Neill has repeatedly swerved the subject of a contract extension, he is clearly laying down the groundwork for the 2018 World Cup campaign, which begins in Serbia in September.
O’Neill’s forward thinking is evident by the number of uncapped players he named on Friday in a 40-strong squad for the games against Switzerland and Slovakia.
In addition, the promising Under 21s pair of Jack Byrne and Alan Browne have been invited to train with the senior squad.
For the present, however, O’Neill is paring his squad down to the 23 he will submit to UEFA after the Holland game in Dublin on May 27.
He is adamant he won’t take any chances with a player’s fitness, aware of how he missed the 1979 European Cup final with Nottingham Forest when he hadn’t trained for three weeks.
Just as Gary Waddock was cast aside at the 11th hour in 1990 and Kevin Foley four years ago, O’Neill is aware his final selection may not be straightforward.
‘It will be difficult to leave players out here at international level because they want to play for their country and they’re playing here for next to nothing,’ he said.
‘I’d love to be able to turn around and say there’s an absolutely perfect way and I’m going to follow it.’
‘The tournament is a bit different, it’s not like qualifiers, it’s three games in a short space of time.
‘Could you think someone could come in and do something off the cuff? Those are things I would have to consider.’