THE IRISH CONNECTION RUNS DEEP IN SCOTLAND

FROM ROBINSON TO RODGERS — OUR SHINING ARRAY OF NORTHERN (IRISH) LIGHTS

GAUGING the influence of Northern Irish managers on Scottish football needs just two things. A car and a satnav system.

Thursday is one of the busier days for the nation’s sports desks. And yesterday their football writers were spoiled for choice.

The day could begin in Motherwell where Stephen Robinson, a former coach of the Northern Ireland national team, began the running commentary on the SFA’s approach for Michael O’Neill.

The choice thereafter was Celtic’s training ground at Lennoxtown where Brendan Rodgers — born and raised on the Giant’s Causeway coastal route — was holding court.

Or heading east to speak to Neil Lennon as he prepared his Hibs team to face a St Johnstone side skilfully assembled by his compatriot and fellow former Northern Ireland captain Tommy Wright.

Four of the 11 permanent managers in the SPFL Premiership currently hail from a country just 12 miles across the sea from Campbeltown to the North Antrim coast. Should O’Neill accept an offer to succeed Gordon Strachan as manager of Scotland’s national team, the influx will be complete.

‘It is funny that ,’ pondered Neil Lennon, a high-profile figure in the Scottish game since leaving Leicester City for Celtic 17 years ago.

‘I have never known it before in my time. We’re all sort of teaching you how to play the game here...’

The Hibs manager was joking. But he’s not wrong.

When Sir Alex Ferguson bestraddled the English game like a Clydeside crane, Scottish managers monopolised the Premier League. Right now it’s a struggle to get a gig in their own top flight. Seven Scots still outnumber four Northern Irishman, but the arrival of O’Neill — already a council-tax payer in Edinburgh — would raise an inevitable question.

What is it that makes managers from Northern Ireland such a good fit for the Scottish game?

‘There are a lot of similarities between Northern Irish and Scottish men,’ added Lennon, ‘we know that.

‘There is a hunger and a desire to do well. We don’t have a professional league in our own country, so there is that sort of extra incentive to try and do well.’

Arthur Montford has a lot to answer for.

Visit Carnlough, home village of Brendan Rodgers, and a familiar story emerges.

Pre- satellite TV, football on television was a basic affair in the 1970s and 80s.

On the east coast of Ireland, it was easier to get a decent aerial reception f or Scotsport on a Sunday than it was to get The Big

Match on Ulster TV. It’s not the case now; but when an aspiring footballer from Northern Ireland set his cap at stardom he was as likely to plump for the ferry from Belfast to Cairnryan as he was from Belfast to Liverpool.

‘Growing up in our era, we did not get to see a lot of football and it means a lot to us,’ recalled Lennon yesterday.

‘I think all the guys who are working here are hungry.

‘It is not just a hunger that makes you a good manager. There is also a level of football intelligence and game management and man-management as well.

‘ It i s unprecedented but I wouldn’t read too much into it.’

The subject of an SFA approach to the Irish FA, Michael O’Neill has pressing family matters to attend to now. When the dust settles, the expectation is that he will become the next manager of Scotland.

The i mmediate i mpact of that could be a swift reduction in the numbers of Northern Irish managers in the SPFL.

After leading his Motherwell side to the Betfred Cup final, 42-year- old Robinson admits it would be a ‘ great honour’ to be considered to lead his country into the Euro 2020 qualifiers.

The timing might be better still for St Johnstone counterpart Wright. At 54, with 31 caps assembled during a ten- year international career, the former Northern Ireland goalkeeper is a clear frontrunner.

‘It wouldn’t surprise me for what Tommy has done,’ said Lennon ahead of the Perth side’s visit to Easter Road tomorrow.

‘ Tommy had a great career playing for Northern Ireland and he’s worked with Northern Ireland before as part of the coaching staff. He would be, I’d imagine, a prime candidate for it.’

Jim Magilton, Irish FA technical director and Under-21 boss, might also come into the reckoning. However, Lennon who at 46 is younger than Wright or O’Neill, has no interest in international management. Yet.

‘I enjoy what I do and I like the day-to-day thing — I’d miss that too much,’ he insisted.

‘ I don’t think I’m ready for international management.

‘I don’t like the feast-or-famine aspect to it either. You win a couple of games and you’re the best thing since sliced bread, you lose a game and the whole world falls around you. It’s just disproportionate from a public perception.

‘I like working with the players on a day-to-day basis as well. In international management, you get the players once every couple

of months and you have to get it right over a specific period of time. I think it’s a very difficult thing to do.’

The former Celtic boss, like many, sees the logic in the SFA’s approach to O’Neill. A former Dundee United and Hibernian winger, the 48-year-old also played under Strachan at Coventry City and, when he was unveiled as manager of Shamrock Rovers after a spell at Brechin City, he cited the man he could replace as his biggest managerial influence.

‘Michael has performed miracles,’ added Lennon.

‘To get to the last 16 of the Euros and then to make the play-offs in a group containing Germany and the Czech Republic was unheard of when I played.

‘It is fantastic and the players have been magnificent for him as he has got the best out of them.

‘Tactically, he is very strong and, defensively, they are well set up and they became really hard to beat.

‘I think Michael has built the team on a strong defence: (Gareth) McAuley, (Jonny) Evans, (Chris) Brunt, and then Steven Davis, who has been fantastic. He has got the best out of (Kyle) Lafferty at times as well. ‘Individually Scotland are better, they certainly have more flair. They’ve got (Leigh) Griffiths, (Kieran) Tierney, (Scott) Brown — they’re all top-class players.

‘So I think whoever gets the Scotland job is going in at a good time.

‘Maybe there is transitional change with Northern Ireland, whereas Scotland are a young, vibrant international team who have potential.’