It didn’t seem like a teamsheet that Martin O’Neill had handed in, more a letter of resignation. This was June, 2016. Lille. Ireland against Italy.
A few days earlier, Belgium had beaten his side by three goals in Bordeaux. Yet despite the fact that Ireland’s place in the finals, possibly even manager’s job, was on the line, O’Neill decided to risk it all.
So out went John O’Shea, Glenn Whelan, Wes Hoolahan and Ciaran Clark, and in their place came Shane Duffy, who had just three caps to his name compared with O’Shea’s 113 international appearances, Daryl Murphy, who at that stage had yet to score an international goal, Richard Keogh and James McClean. Seamus Coleman became the country’s new captain, Robbie Brady, liberated from the flanks to play in a central position, its new hero.
It proved the right call. Then again, so many of O’Neill’s calls have been.
He isn’t afraid of change or of reputations. He trusts his eyes and when he saw that Robbie Keane and Shay Given moved that little bit slower than they used to, he wasn’t trapped by sentiment. Both men were dropped, an experience every player, bar Coleman and James McCarthy, shared during Ireland’s European Championship campaign.
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With this in mind, it shouldn’t come as a surprise to hear that O’Neill is considering ripping up his plans again in the aftermath of Sunday’s impressive 3-1 victory over Uruguay, when Keiren Westwood and Harry Arter did so much to play themselves in, while Darren Randolph and Jeff Hendrick possibly played themselves out.
Equally as vulnerable is Whelan. The veteran midfielder actually played well against the Uruguayans, certainly better than Hendrick, yet it’s the Burnley player who remains an O’Neill favourite, unofficially the teacher’s pet.
The Ireland manager, like his predecessor Giovanni Trapattoni, gets a little panicky when there are too many small men in his side. Knowing the importance of set plays in the modern game, he often values size and speed over technique. Which is why six-footer Hendrick may be offered a reprieve, and why Arter’s arrival into the side is likelier to be at Hoolahan’s expense. Although if Hendrick or Whelan felt safe about their positions on Sunday evening, then by yesterday morning, they were probably feeling a lot nervier once they heard what O’Neill had to say about the dangers of complacency.
“I have been thinking about Sunday’s starting team seriously since the end of the Uruguayan game,” O’Neill said. “I am looking at positions and saying, ‘Can I slot someone in there, can they do a job?’ I’m hoping there are players in there who are thinking, ‘OK, I was a regular enough starter during the European Championship but maybe my position is in jeopardy now. Jeopardy might be too strong a word, but I might not start this game’. ”
Randolph was one of those Euros regulars. Likewise, Hendrick, whereas Whelan was binned after the opening two games, spending the remainder of the tournament sitting beside O’Neill on the Ireland bench. Hoolahan, meanwhile, has spent as much time out of the Ireland team as he has in it, O’Neill preferring to have him in reserve, part of his end-game strategy.
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McClean used to fulfil that role too, until he became indispensable in this campaign, scoring twice against Moldova and once against Austria. He got another one on Sunday, the arrival of a contender to his left wing position acting as an additional motivator.
A year ago, when O’Neill was handing in that “resignation letter” and Brady was scoring that winning goal against Italy, Jonny Hayes was sitting in a hotel room in St Andrews, watching the game on television, ordering “a club sambo and a coke” from room service, at the start of his pre-season.
Three hundred and twelve days later, his season with Aberdeen ended. Celtic have been impressed and are contemplating a summer move. “Whatever happens over the summer will happen,” Hayes said. “My plan is to enjoy being here for the next week or so. Then I’ll go straight to Disneyland with my family and then we’ll take it from there.”
In many ways, he’s already in a kind of fantasy place. The Dubliner thought that his international chance had passed him by. Now he is a contender to be sprung from the bench, part of O’Neill’s bigger plan to win games by playing at a relentless intensity for each of the 90 minutes.
“We’re not going to destroy teams,” the Ireland manager said. “That’s no great secret. We’re going to have to fight for every inch. Sunday’s win over Uruguay was important in that it helped our fitness, and our confidence.”
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“That is the thing about this management team,” Hayes said. “They have installed more belief and confidence into the players than was there two or three years ago. You can see that building up game by game. The lads go into any game without fear now. We played one of the best teams in the world on Sunday and won. So there is nothing to fear next week.”
In actuality, there’s plenty. Randolph, Whelan, Hendrick or anyone else who assumed their place was secured, now know it isn’t. And yet there’s something significant about the Ireland manager going public with his warning too. In the past, O’Neill didn’t let off the safety before firing. One minute a player was there, the next he was gone.
By making a little noise now, he’s hoping for a reaction in training — and more significantly on Sunday.