TURN OVER FOR KEVIN KILBANE AND SHANE McGRATH
Ireland teams have always been built on a good team spirit and bond but that appears missing as results slide
IF THERE is one thing we do quite well as a nation, sadly, it is a spat between the management of the senior team and one of the players. And I had the misfortune to be in the hotels in Saipan and Wiesbaden to witness the infamous fallout between Mick McCarthy and Roy Keane on the eve of the 2002 World Cup and when Giovanni Trapattoni took exception to Andy Reid, and his guitar, a few years later.
In both cases neither player played for the manager again. Keane and Reid returned to play under different Ireland managers further down the line, but the repercussions of their rows were serious enough to halt their selection for a number of years.
There were plenty of other little scrapes and arguments which boiled over, although I didn’t see anything that escalated to the level of the player being excluded from the squad, or a player pulling out. And I never saw any of the assistant managers and a player having a big falling-out.
I have seen a manager who was so unhappy with a particular individual that he is prepared to let him leave a club, but you can afford to do that in club football. You only have one international career and few chances to represent your country.
So whatever happened between Harry Arter and the current assistant manager in the summer, which would appear to have curtailed the midfielder’s inclusion in the present squad, cannot be dismissed lightly.
It looks irreparable and we need to hear from Arter. Why was he not in Cardiff on Thursday night and why does he no longer want to play for his country? What happened?
Until he speaks, we are guessing, or relying on the rumours surrounding the bust-ups involving Keane, Arter and Jon Walters, which thus far, O’Neill has not denied.
I do know that if I felt it necessary to pull out of an international game, it would have to be very, very serious. From the outside looking in, and from previous experience, if I was Arter, I would have to say something or at least pick up the phone and sort it.
Because all the information thus far has come from O’Neill, and we are in the dark about Arter’s motives. Is he just being a prima donna? Has he spat his dummy out? Or are the management team being overly harsh? If it was just a little argument, then this looks petty from both sides.
We have been light in midfield for a while and have failed to perform to the levels of the Euro 2014 campaign with ball retention being a major issue. Arter is as guilty as anyone and is not a regular starter for Ireland. He lost his place at Bournemouth before getting his loan move to Cardiff where he should play regularly.
We don’t have an abundance of players doing that in the Premier League and we need all hands on deck. Can we really afford to disregard a player who we have fought so hard to keep out of England’s hands in the first place?
That is what disappoints me most about recent events. We have always been built on a good team spirit and bond. I may not be part of this squad, and in the mind of the modern-day footballer, but I am still really surprised that any player is prepared to pull out of an Ireland match. Players are making themselves unavailable and we don’t know why.
So if Declan Rice decides he does want to play for Ireland, and he is to be welcomed back, we need an explanation from him too.
If there is no other issue with the management, then why did he have a decision to make? And if his head was turned by England, I wouldn’t pick him.
The scrutiny on O’Neill and his staff is bound to intensify because of the result and the manner of the performance in the first Nations League game in Cardiff on Thursday night.
The performance in the 4-1 defeat was as bad as I have seen from an Ireland team since I retired and started covering games and it could have been much worse. Wales took their foot off the gas in the second half and our goal came from their mistake.
We have rarely looked wide open under O’Neill away from home and have always been solid and difficult to break down. But that was certainly not the case in Cardiff.
Wales were very good but we made it far too easy for them. For all their sharp movement and passing, we didn’t put any pressure on the ball, no one laid a glove on Wales throughout and we allowed a 17-year-old, Ethan Ampadu, run the show.
Wales looked assured and confident on the ball. They can select experienced players like Gareth Bale, Joe Allen, Aaron Ramsey and Ashley Williams, but they also had four making their competitive debuts and eight under the age of our youngest player, Callum O’Dowda (23).
Ireland’s players looked afraid of being hurt by the pace of the Welsh side. It was just one of those awful games for Ireland and the tone was set in the first 10 seconds when Bale closed down Shane Duffy to reach the ball and ignited the crowd even more. Wales had the desire, intensity and aggression and we had nothing.
I felt sorry for Jon Walters after about three minutes. It was obvious then that he was going to be in for a long night and, sure enough, when the ball was played up to him, it was either lumped in his general direction or booted into areas where he had an impossible chase. It was grim. Wales managed nearly 600 completed passes, to Ireland’s 223. It felt like two or three.
Seamus Coleman said afterwards that the team was lacking individually but as a team we struggled to get any cohesion and pass the ball.
Apart from Shaun Williams’ goal, there was nothing positive to take from the game. And it was a lovely finish from the Millwall man and a nice personal moment for a player who is late to the international scene and deserved his opportunity.
Obviously in the decade I played for Ireland, I was part of teams who had similar nights. And afterwards, you scratch your head, question where that performance came from and how to put it right.
Invariably we got a response and a result but it will take something special for this team to get something from the game in Poland on Tuesday, which has become very important for O’Neill.
Winning this game is paramount but it is the performance which is now the most important aspect in order to get the team back on track and prepared for two tough home games against Wales and Denmark next month.
O’Neill is under pressure now. He may try to brush it off but the only way to ease it is with a good performance and result in Wraclow. Otherwise questions will continue to be asked.
He has to send out a positive message ahead of next month’s games. Aanother heavy defeat is unthinkable.
Whatever happens, it won’t take away the fact that Ireland were dreadful this week and they now have their work cut out convincing people they can compete with the likes of Wales and Denmark in this competition and, more importantly, our opponents in the Euro 2020 qualifiers when they start next year.