Roddy Collins has come out in defence of Ireland Women's manager Vera Pauw over her alleged misconduct during her time as manager of the Houston Dash.
An article published by The Athletic last week features anonymised quotes from four former Houston Dash players and three training staff who were critical of Pauw's management style during her time in charge of the club five years ago.
In the article, which was a follow up to a 2022 report on alleged misconduct in the National Women's Soccer League in America, allegations were made that Pauw tried to control players weights.
Pauw denies all allegations.
In his column for the Irish Daily Star, legendary League of Ireland manager Roddy Collins gives his take on the situation, expresses his sympathy for Pauw and articulates his fear that the controversy will impact Ireland's World Cup preparation.
**********************************************************************************************
By Roddy Collins.
Careless whispers. It isn’t just a George Michael song. It’s one of the worst things that goes on in football.
I should know.
One of the worst forms of hurt you can experience is when people are whispering about you.
You put a mask on, you try to develop a shell to protect yourself. But in truth you develop a complex. It is soul destroying when you put your CV in for managerial jobs, one that shows you winning titles with Bohs and Monaghan and Athlone, and you don’t get work.
You wonder why.
Then you find out about such and such a person saying you should not be touched with a barge pole.
It affects you. It affects your wife, your children. You feel defenceless.
So when an article was published in The Athletic last week, with anonymous sources quoted to criticise Vera Pauw’s managerial style, I was raging.
All I could think of was, this woman is 60 years old. She is being criticised by people who are not putting their names to the quotes and she is being left defenceless.
My sympathy is with her, one hundred per cent.
The accusation that Vera, who has done a superb job as Ireland’s women’s manager, attempted to control her players’ weight when she was in charge of Houston Dash, is deeply unfair in my view.
Firstly, because it is by an anonymous source. If you have something negative to say about a person, get out there and say it without the cloak of anonymity. Be brave.
Vera is.
Think about what this woman has done for Irish football, becoming just the third manager, after Jack Charlton and Mick McCarthy, to get an Irish team to the World Cup, the first time our women’s team have got that far.
She is brilliant at her job.
But people are not talking about her tactics but her character. That is shameful.
What is happening to that woman is horrendous. She has a husband, a family.
She is on the brink of something special in her career and her life and she has to read about this now – on the eve of a World Cup.
The allegations are from five years ago but it is now we hear about them.
It is no coincidence that the timing of that article coincided with Ireland reaching the World Cup. The profile of the team has never been higher.
Now the manager has to defend herself in public against anonymous criticism.
I remember going through something similar when I was a manager. It affects you.
You can’t turn left and can’t right when you leave your front door. You look for support but people look at the ground when you speak to them.
Please God Vera will get the opportunity to wipe the slate clean and come out and put the record straight.
She was accused of criticising a player about their weight when she was at Houston.
Now, I’ve been in management a long time. We have all done that as managers. I have done it in public.
As a pundit I once said: “That player would be a super player if he lost a bit of fat off his ass.”
This is elite sport we are talking about. You have to be physically perfect. Vera is getting stick about this particular issue because she is female. And that is wrong.
This will impact Ireland’s preparations for the World Cup.
Everything she is doing now, when it should be natural, will be over-thought. She will wonder how she puts her message across.
Possibly the Ireland squad will scrutinise everything she has done since she came in.
That is detrimental to her. When stuff like that is said, you can put up a front, but inside it can rip you apart, especially when it is not true.
I was not in Houston to hear the things supposedly said.
So here, I will deal with the facts as I see them.
As a manager, you are never going to be universally popular. You shouldn’t have to be. Players have to fear you, in terms of knowing that if they don’t perform, that you will be ruthless in your decision making.
Now, listen, the best managers know they have to be empathetic and compassionate.
Vera Pauw is a brilliant manager. She simplifies her message, she gets her point across very easily but is also really tactically astute.
She instils a belief in teams and in people, convincing them they can achieve what other people expect of them.
The shift in mentality in this Irish team has been phenomenal. That’s down to Vera.
A good manager cannot be soft. The first thing as a manager that you have to instil is fear, then affection, then compassion. You cannot have sentiment as a manager.
Players must possess a fear of being dropped, fear of someone who can make strong decisions, not a physical fear, obviously.
As a manager, you are never going to be universally popular. You shouldn’t have to be.
Be ruthless and then be nice.
Vera is both.
That is why I am doubly desperate for brilliant results in this World Cup, for Ireland but for Vera, too.
There is this saying I was told once, when I was going through a hard time.
Nolite te bastardes carborundorum. Don’t let the bastards get you down, Vera.
Get the latest sports headlines straight to your inbox by signing up for free email alerts
