O’Neill’s sacking is no surprise but FAI gamble with best way forward

Inside Track with John McIntyre

FOLLOWING that thumping 5-1 loss to Denmark in the World Cup play-off at the Aviva last year; just one win in their last 11 matches; and failing to find the net in the team’s last four outings; there really was only one place Republic of Ireland boss Martin O’Neill was heading . . . the exit door.

Even the highest profile managers across the sporting codes are vulnerable when results go against them on a continuous basis, and O’Neill has been walking on thin ice for the past few months. It was bad enough Ireland were on a terrible run, but their style of football was proving a real turn off for the fans as well. Yet, the Derry native still wasn’t prepared to face reality in the wake of their boring nil all draw against the Danes in the new Nations League last week.

Ireland didn’t have a single shot on target and with public unrest growing, the FAI knew they had to bit the bullet. Though the spin was that O’Neill and his assistant Roy Keane departed by ‘mutual agreement’, the bottom line is that the Irish management were told to go. Of course, there is a talent deficit in the Republic’s ranks at present, but that shouldn’t stop a team having ambition and playing creatively. O’Neill had his squad in a tactical straitjacket and it was past time to rip it open.

After the departure of the former Northern Ireland midfielder, the assumption was that it would take at least a couple of weeks to sort out O’Neill’s successor. Instead, that process only took a few days with Mick McCarthy returning to the managerial hot-seat over 16 years after he left it. He was publicly unveiled last Sunday, but there was an unexpected twist . . . he’s only going to be in the job until 2020.

In something of a bizarre arrangement, McCarthy will be stepping aside after the European Championships in two years-time, with Stephen Kenny taking over. From the inside, it might all look very neat and tidy, but basically McCarthy is to all intents and purposes an interim manager and you wonder how that will impact on the attitude of players who know he’s not going to be around for the long haul.

Kenny, meanwhile, will be serving his time on the wings as the new U21 manager. The Dublin native had been touted for the senior job itself after an impressive CV in the League of Ireland where he has enjoyed phenomenal success with Dundalk. Kenny impressed in his media briefings last week about the prospects of succeeding O’Neill and clearly has a vision about how he would like the Republic of Ireland to play.

For more,  read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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