It’s difficult to overstate what a reticent individual Staunton is. After Saipan, he kept his mouth shut, while others published books all around him. Ireland’s most capped player emerging from the most turbulent episode in Irish sporting history as leader of the team before riding into the sun was a great story, but he wasn’t going to tell it, no matter the size of the cheque waved in front of him. Captain Fantastic? Go speak to somebody else. In his new job he realises he has to address an audience outside his immediate circle, and he is trying.
”I was nervous,” he admitted on Friday, as he discussed his inauguration at the Mansion House four days earlier. “It was the first occasion. Some people take to the media like a duck to water and hopefully I will do. I feel I can handle myself and I know I’m going to have to be up there doing a lot more talking, but that’s part of the job. Of course, I was a bit nervous but after a little while I felt that disappear and I knew this is how it’s going to be.”
He’s in the firing line, and he can expect the bullets to come from all angles. Friday’s copy of The Times contained some withering quotes from Stuart Pearce about a “novice” going into international management, in this case England. “Absolutely embarrassing, absolutely pathetic” was how Pearce described it. What did Staunton make of those sentiments? “What’s that got to do with us?” he asks.
“Deep down it’s always been an ambition of mine,” he says about managing Ireland. “It’s come a bit earlier than even I thought.I was looking at management in the lower leagues and to maybe work my way up and get a (bigger) job, but you don’t know. I’ve also seen ex-players who’ve been offered (an international manager’s job), not this early, but fairly early, stayed at the ir club, and it’s (the offer) never came back.”
Though it never emerged at the time, Brian Kerr approached him on getting the job in 2003 and asked him to come on board in a coaching capacity, but Staunton turned down the offer. “It was just after the World Cup and I said to Brian at the end of it, if I was going to continue with the international set-up I would still be playing. I wanted to just go, concentrate and enjoy whatever time I had playing football.”
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Had he taken the role it’s highly unlikely he would find himself in the position he’s in today. So what can we expect from Staunton’s tenure? Asked to provide specifics on how he would approach games in terms of tactics and strategy, he firmly turned down the request.
“I’ll tell the players first. We know what we want, we know what we want to achieve. It’s going to take time. I’ve got a four-year deal, which is great. We’ll certainly be giving our all to qualify for Euro 2008, but we’ve got a rebuilding situation with a lot of young players coming through. It’s going to take time, so we’ll be gearing ourselves really for the next World Cup. Don’t get me wrong. I want to win every game under the sun. That’s where my passion is. I want to see players flying in, tackling. I want to see crosses coming in. I want my lads to excite me. If they excite me, I know they’ll be doing a good job and they’ll be exciting the thousands of fans that we’ve got.”
For all the talk about passion, it’s clear that much of his management will be rooted in practicality. Take his approach to friendly matches. His predecessor Brian Kerr put great stock in friendlies and his record in that department was the envy of every international manager who thought them important, but Staunton is intent on a different path, flexibility being the buzz word when it comes to the vexed question of the “stars” turning up for matches.
“I wouldn’t be too bothered if one or two of our better players turn around and say ‘not really bothered’, because they’re playing big games every week. I don’t have to see them play. Or I will be seeing them play, but I don’t have to see them playing in a green shirt.
“I’m going to be wanting to blood young fellas. The friendlies are there for that reason. You don’t kill the spirit of a young fella by throwing him in at the deep end. And between us we have enough experience to say ‘maybe just not yet’ or ‘maybe he is ready’.”
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Staunton will also clearly be much more of an FAI man than his predecessor. Whereas Kerr and the FAI chief executive, John Delaney, were at daggers drawn, Staunton has put himself in the hands of Delaney’s media adviser Declan Conroy and is trusting the association’s judgment, even given the mysterious circumstances in which news of his appointment emerged last week.
“You look at the FAI now. It’s so professionally run (compared to) when I first came on board as a young player. The strides they’ve taken are fantastic. You don’t see too many leaks coming out now. They’ve cleaned up their act.”
Two areas of tension under the last regime were Kerr’s insistence on being involved at all levels of Irish football — Delaney saw that as his job — and Kerr’s relationship with the under-21 coach, Don Givens, which was particularly bad given what Givens saw as undue interference in his job. Staunton comes forewarned on this score. “I was asked this question by the FAI,” he says.
“I said this job is big enough without handling other people’s work. I am manager of the Republic of Ireland senior squad. There’s people in place in other jobs. If they weren’t doing their job, they wouldn’t be in it. I’m happy with everybody who’s in place. We’ve got very good under-17 and under-19 squads under Sean McCaffrey and Don has got some talented boys with the under-21s. And basically, I ’ll be getting their advice.”
Some further clues are provided about what the future may hold when the discussion turns to the managers he has played under. Some say he has modelled himself on his first manager in England, Kenny Dalglish, and he demurs only slightly at the comparison.
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“I haven’t modelled myself on anybody. People see the comparisons with Kenny, probably because I’m straight-faced and there’s two different sides to us; one with the media and one without. And the people who know us know what type of people we are. But I’m learning all the time.”
His 102 caps were earned over 14 years in roughly equal measure under the tutelage of Jack Charlton and Mick McCarthy. He has learnt from both and pragmatism rules the day.
“You play to what you think the players’ strengths are. Jack had the right idea. He played a certain way that got us success. We had Niall Quinn and Tony Cascarino up front. Nobody in world football could handle us at that time. The only thing that probably stopped us on a few occasions was the heat.”
That it might now be a case of “give it a lash, Stan” draws a nice line in sarcasm from the new Ireland manager. “Yeah, I’ll be getting our defenders to whack the ball up to Robbie Keane six foot up in the air. You play to your strengths. We know we have some talented boys, options. That’s what you want as a manager, options. Because it’s not always going to go right for you.
“I’ve been away for a few years and a lot of them (the players) are still my mates, but I won’t have any hang-ups about chopping and changing if it’s the right thing to do for my country. Even when it is going right, you might want to tinker, to try to get something better.” Such as Kevin Doyle of Reading, whom Staunton watched last week? “In six months he’s taken England by storm. Wallop. He’ s aggressive, he’s hungry, he’s quick, he’s neat and tidy. Obviously we’ve got to have a few more looks at him. He’s got a lot to learn. Nobody’s kidding anyone, but sometimes it’s nice to have that raw naivety.”
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Mention of Robbie Keane raises an interesting point. Keane was hounded by the tabloids for his nightclubbing escapades only a few days before the World Cup qualifier against France in September.
Staunton often enjoyed a drink on the famous bonding sessions that Charlton, and McCarthy to a lesser extent, gave their blessing to, but he realises that the climate has changed. “Our lads are as professional as anyone and, as I said there, I’ll be keeping them as happy as I can because the happier they are, the better they’ll perform. It might be a case of a game of cards, or having a drink, but it will be done at the right time. The lads know that they can’t come in like they used to come in and that whatever goes on, goes on.
“There’s people out there wanting to stitch them up, which is sad to see. As an Irishman I find it sad because if the football goes right we can all enjoy it.
“I’ve been very fortunate. I came in at the end of the old, old era and I’ve seen how things have evolved and changed in football throughout club and international level. It’s all changed. Look at how the media’s changed.
“When we first came in you’d have a little pocket of lads, one fellow on the radio, maybe Tony O’Donoghue with RTE. Now there’s channels everywhere, there’s news boys all over the place. It’s all changed.”
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With them come extra demands and a growing inquisitiveness, but there are some subjects on which he will not be drawn. On Saipan for instance, all he will say is, “I’ve nothing to say about it. It was four years ago. Everybody has moved on.”
Stray from the more pressing queries about the job and you see a more unguarded Staunton emerge. When it’s put to him that he’s the first Ireland-born manager to be appointed from outside Dublin, he wonders, lightheartedly, whether Dundalk is still really outside Dublin given the growth in satellite towns.
His passion for soccer is matched, if not exceeded, by Gaelic football, his other favoured sport as a boy.
“It’s in our blood. My dad played it, we’ve all played it. I’m very passionate about my Gaelic. I’ve been over, seen All-Irelands. It’s a pity, but Mayo haven’t given us great success, they’ve been the nearly men of the All-Ireland. I’m a Louth man, but Mayo as well through my father. In all honesty, if Gaelic had been a professional sport I wouldn’t have crossed the water.”
He could talk Gaelic football for hours, but that is for another day. On association football, he appears the most cautious manager we have had in his public utterances since John Giles. We always sensed that Giles was keeping a lot back. We hope Staunton is as well.