McCARTHY AND KEANE FOR IRISH?
That’s Robbie, not Roy, as O’Neill pays the price for miserable year
THE prospect of a return for former manager Mick McCarthy — as well as Robbie Keane in a coaching role — could be too much for Republic of Ireland chiefs to resist as they look to rebuild enthusiasm in the wake of Martin O’Neill’s sacking.
The apathy which had set in among supporters towards the former Celtic manager and his team was said to be the motivating factor in removing him and assistant Roy Keane yesterday.
FAI chief executive John Delaney would also have been mindful of the abuse that was directed towards him from the terraces during Monday’s goalless draw in Denmark, and a change of boss is the quickest way to quell such an uprising.
To that end, the next appointment will need to capture the imagination. And McCarthy, with record goalscorer Robbie Keane as part of his backroom team, would tick the box far more than another likely candidate in Stephen Kenny, the former Dunfermline boss currently in charge of Dundalk.
Hibernian manager Neil Lennon would also be popular among fans after his impressive work at Easter Road.
But McCarthy, 59, wants the vacancy and is available after quitting Ipswich last season.
He remains the last manager to lead the Republic to a World Cup, back in 2002, and would not demand the reported £1.7million per annum which O’Neill was earning.
The departure of O’Neil will not be mourned in Ireland, despite the 66-year-old’s success in taking the team to the second round of Euro 2016 and to within one game of this summer’s World Cup in Russia.
He had hoped — and expected — to be given a shot at qualifying for Euro 2020 and that seemed likely until the events of the past week.
It was last month when, following a 1-0 defeat by Wales, O’Neill came out fighting, putting on a performance far more courageous and convincing than anything his team had produced in 2018.
‘We can turn the corner,’ he told his critics, who immediately questioned his confidence.
‘Because I’ll win. I’ll win,’ O’Neill fired back. ‘I’ll be ready and we’ll go through. Simple as that.’
Ireland will qualify for Euro 2020, really?
‘Yes,’ he replied. ‘Absolutely.’ And why? ‘Because I’m good.’
After the recent international break brought a pair of goalless and soulless draws against Northern Ireland and Denmark, his bravado had waned.
‘Are you still enjoying it? You seem really flat?’ Sportsmail asked O’Neill last week. He protested otherwise, but this time he was kidding no one.
Ireland have been relegated to the third tier of the Nations League, a competition in which they scored only once and had just 22 shots on goal, fewer than every other team, including San Marino. It is six-and-a-half hours since their last goal.
O’Neill, it seems, was embarrassed by his players’ response to his fighting talk. The FAI, too, had noted the indifference of a half-full stadium against Northern Ireland last week.
In Denmark, O’Neill was tetchy, picking fights with reporters unnecessarily and refusing to allow captain Seamus Coleman to answer a simple question about players taking responsibility.
O’Neill intervened, insisting the responsibility was all his. As he discovered in a London hotel on Tuesday night, his employers agreed and he was gone.
He had already started to wear the look of a man no longer happy in a role in which he had performed so well for his first four years in charge.
But since the 5-1 World Cup play-off defeat by Denmark one year ago, it has been a fairly miserable existence around the Ireland camp.
Yes, the players are limited, but O’Neill’s strength as a manager has always been in turning water into wine.
Keane at his motivational best was also an inspiration but he has looked bored of late and clashed with Harry Arter in an expletiveladen rant which was said to be so severe that several players immediately headed for the midfielder’s hotel room to offer comfort.
The management duo retained the support of the likes of Coleman, but whispers of discontent have long since been leaking out.
One player told Sportsmail that the team wanted more from O’Neill on the training ground when it came to tactics and preparing for the opposition.
He said he felt distanced from the manager and says they had barely spoken.
But it should not be forgotten, either, how well O’Neill has done. Ireland’s talent pool being shallow is not a new thing and, in taking the team so far at the Euros, he exceeded realistic expectation.
That, now, will be the challenge for his successor.