OH IRELAND
It may have slipped your minds amid the FA Cup’s floodlit thrills and the prospect of a three-team title race, but another international break is coming soon to disrupt a domestic season in danger of gathering steam. For the Republic of Ireland, their March fixtures at home to Belgium and Switzerland are particularly significant – marking the start of a new era after former manager Stephen Kenny signed off with a typically underwhelming 1-1 draw against New Zealand in November. The former Under-21 coach stepped in to replace Mick McCarthy in 2020, taking on the kind of rebuilding job usually reserved for especially fraught episodes of Grand Designs. After a little north of three years in charge, Kenny went on his merry way with an eye-watering win percentage of 20.7% in competitive games – including that home defeat to Luxembourg – but did deliver on bedding in a talented crop of young players.
As the FAI said in its statement directing Kenny to the big green door marked Do One: “Stephen has overseen an important period of transition … and has given debuts to a significant number of new and younger players; this will serve as a solid platform for whoever now takes this group of players forward.” The same suits also confirmed in that November missive that “the recruitment process for a new head coach is under way”. Three months of radio silence later, the FAI’s succession plan has unexpectedly lurched into life with the appointment of [Football Daily checks press release] … John O’Shea on an interim basis [Football Daily double-checks press release] … for the next two games?! Lads, what have you been doing since November?
If press speculation is to be believed, the FAI’s big cheeses have been trying and failing to convince Lee Carsley, currently coach of England’s U21s, to take the gig – with Bayern Munich assistant Anthony Barry and “what about” Chris Coleman also on its shortlist. Instead, Ireland are breaking new ground by appointing a caretaker to a vacant position. We don’t mean to dig out big John here – even if recent stints under Michael O’Neill at Stoke and, er, Wayne Rooney at Birmingham don’t exactly bode well. We don’t really need to, when the FAI’s statement makes it crystal clear that O’Shea and perennial assistant Paddy McCarthy are not the men for the (permanent) job.
“We are pleased to confirm that the process for the appointment of a new men’s head coach is near completion and we are looking forward to announcing that appointment in April,” cheered the FAI. “John knows this group of players extremely well and with the support and expertise of Paddy, we believe this team are the right choice for the interim period.” Which must be a bit like hearing you are “the right choice of spouse for the honeymoon”. Anyway, by the time O’Shea takes charge of his first match, it will have been more than a year since Ireland beat an international team other than Gibraltar. Football Daily predicts that, should he deliver a hard-fought draw or two, the FAI’s grand plans will be quietly shelved and the interim manager will be confirmed as the guy it wanted all along, despite what it may have said. It could be worse – the bookies’ longlist certainly makes for sobering reading. Steve Bruce! Roy Keane! Paul Clement! Neil Lennon! Chris Hughton! And perhaps best of all, Mick McCarthy to bring in the JCB, tear it all down and start again.
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QUOTE OF THE DAY
“We just won’t accept one of their players celebrating in front of our supporters. Celebrate with your own fans, no issue with that. Don’t celebrate with ours, and you certainly shouldn’t be celebrating when you’re mid-table. That’s what I think. It’s a good result for them, fair enough, we’ll take our medicine but we’re still fighting to get promoted out of this division” – a tremendously sniffy Ian Evatt after his Bolton team lost 1-0 at Wigan, spurning the chance to move second in League One. The result prompted a post-match brouhaha, in which Evatt found himself partaking in some full and frank conversations.
FOOTBALL DAILY LETTERS
Re: the decent quiz question in yesterday’s Football Daily. Can I be one of the 1,057 to point out that it’s probably a better question if it’s not in a piece headlined ‘The 25th anniversary of the last all-English Premier League XI’?” – Rob McPheely (and 1,056 others).
I’ve been enjoying all the commentary about the relative ages and values of the two teams in the Milk Cup final. Then, when I read David Squires’ mention of the Liverpool teens’ ‘wacky squad numbers’, this struck me as a great metric. If we accept the hilariously inaccurate premise that lower squad numbers equate to a club’s best squad, how did they compare? Liverpool started the game with a squad total of 276, noticeably more than Chelsea’s 202. By the end of the game, Chelsea’s total actually dropped to 189, while Liverpool’s ballooned to 367. Pointless, I know, but it still seems telling” – Tim Scanlan.
To clap or not to clap. That was the debate I had with my son as Erling Haaland strolled off the pitch on Tuesday night. I have only applauded two opposing players off in my years of watching Luton – Paul Gascoigne at White Hart Lane on 22 December 1990, when he took us on, and apart, single-handedly after Spurs had two men sent off in the first half-hour (they won 2-1); and Tahith Chong, who was a wizard in orchestrating a 5-0 Birmingham win at Kenilworth Road on 21 August 2021. It’s probably why he now plays for us. On Tuesday I put my hands together once more. Haaland looked from a different planet and it was quite something to witness. But my 16-year-old told me it was embarrassing to clap the bounder (not the precise word my terrace-hardened son used) who had stuffed us. Who is right, oh big Football Daily brain?” – Neil Rose.
Send letters to the.boss@theguardian.com. Today’s winner of our letter o’ the day is … Neil Rose, who lands a copy of Pat Nevin: football and how to survive it, published by Octopus Books.
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