DURING his lone full campaign, the former Republic of Ireland manager Brian Kerr once hired a private jet to get to a game involving one of Ireland’s rivals and then on the last day of the qualifying campaign sent a small army of scouts to distant corners of Europe to spy on potential playoff opponents. From Belarus to Albania to Finland the scouts were sent out in October 2005, but alas none of them had to write up a report, as Ireland fell short in the final game towards making the playoffs. On Friday, Martin O’Neill was asked whether he adopted a similar no-stone-unturned approach with Ireland’s place in the playoffs guaranteed going into the last match.
“No. In this day and age, I don’t see that being a problem. We have access to all games and having not seen somebody live doesn’t present a problem. Once the draw is made, we will have sufficient information on the side we’re drawn against.”
O’Neill will be at the Uefa headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland, for the draw this morning and will spring into action quickly after learning which seeded country out of Hungary, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Ukraine and Sweden is drawn against Ireland for next month’s playoffs. Perhaps Denis O’Brien, the FAI’s billionaire benefactor, could have his private jet ready to fly O’Neill from Switzerland to Newcastle for today’s 4pm kick-off against Norwich City. Ireland’s fourth-choice goalkeeper, Rob Elliot, is being drafted in to the Newcastle United side, with the club facing goalkeeping difficulties which are more acute than those facing O’Neill’s Ireland. Darren Randolph did well standing in for the injured Shay Given in Poland but faces a return to the bench with West Ham, while Elliot can get a prolonged spell of competitive action.
Such a dramatic elevation for Elliot at international level would smack of desperation, but O’Neill knows the situation is far from healthy as things stand, even though Ireland finished Group D with the fewest number of goals conceded.
Norwich will hopefully line up with Robbie Brady in an advanced position, where he can provide further evidence to O’Neill that he is being wasted at left-back for Ireland, a position where he is error-prone.
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O’Neill’s decision to change his midfield against Poland seven days ago from the one which helped defeat Germany was a mistake, and his decision to return Brady to the back four in Warsaw was arguably the biggest gaffe of them all. Marc Wilson should have been restored to the Ireland line- up in that left-back position, leaving the feel and formation of the team pretty much the same.
Brady’s conversion to left- back for some of Norwich’s opening Premier League games has been deemed a success but that judgment is premature in the extreme. “It’s a tough one,” the Norwich manager, Alex Neil, said. “He is a great tool for us because I can play him anywhere up and down that left-hand side. You want your players to be flexible and the more positions they can play the better. Robbie is one of those players.”
Neil had just reported that Wes Hoolahan had taken a full part in training on the first day back in Norfolk for the club’s 11 international players, adding to the sense of disquiet about the little magician’s failure to make the starting line-up in Warsaw, where his creativeness and ball-retention skills were missed from the start.
O’Neill’s post-match explanation for Hoolahan’s absence — that the player had complained of a sore heel and asked not to start the match — has drawn criticism from the likes of John Giles, who said O’Neill “got caught between two stools and that was reflected in the team that he picked”.
The Norwich manager was oblivious to the fuss in Dublin but declared some sympathy for O’Neill’s position. “I didn’t even know that he had asked Martin not to start the game,” Neil said. “Wes is somebody who knows his own body really well. Certainly here I pinpoint and pick games for him where I think he is going to have maximum effect. Wes is comfortable with that because he knows how important he is to the squad, but there are certain games which Wes is maybe not suited for and he understands that.”
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O’Neill refused to get drawn further into that debate on Friday when questions were put to him concerning Brady and Hoolahan. O’Neill did say that he had spoken to Shane Long, who sustained an ankle ligament injury against Poland that will keep him out for two to four weeks, and the player had told him he was “very optimistic” about the prospect of being fit for the first leg, which could be as early as November 12 depending on the draw.