International Friendly Republic of Ireland v Sweden: Emmet Malone suggests the time is right for Steve Staunton to start the rebuilding of the senior team in earnest
Almost exactly a decade after Mick McCarthy took charge of an Ireland team in decline with a stern warning that things might get worse before they started to get better, Steve Staunton is likely to use the build-up to next Wednesday's friendly against Sweden to get much the same message across.
When he names his side to face the Swedes we will get our first real insight into the approach that will define Staunton the manager but in his many interviews to date he has been at pains to portray his task as one that will take the fullness of his four-year contract to complete. What the experience of his predecessors has taught us, though, is that a willingness to act decisively now could pay handsome dividends over the course of the next two qualification campaigns.
After losing his own first game in charge 2-0 to Russia, McCarthy insisted the changes he was aiming to make in terms of both personnel and results took priority over results. He would, he suggested after that first game, accept five straight defeats if the proper foundations were laid for long-term progress.
As it turned out his worst-case scenario wasn't far from being realised. Part way into June the team's record under their new manager consisted of two draws and five losses in seven outings. The pressure was steadily building but McCarthy, with little option but to press on, held his nerve and a win over Bolivia in New Jersey marked the breakthrough he had been waiting for.
It was a rough start for McCarthy but even before the trip to America he had gone a long way to addressing one of the greatest problems he had inherited from Jack Charlton - the team's ageing defence.
Against Russia the then 19-year-old Shay Given made his international debut while a month later in Prague Kenny Cunningham was handed his first senior cap. On June 2nd Croatia came to Dublin for a 2-2 draw notable, in hindsight, mainly for the fact that Gary Breen and Ian Harte had featured for the first time.
In the decade since, Given and Cunningham may have proven particularly impressive performers for the Republic but all four fell out of favour at one time or another. Yet an indication of their collective contribution is that between them they had earned some 267 international caps by the end of last year.
The opening months of Brian Kerr's reign could not have presented a more stark contrast. The Dubliner started with a comfortable win over Scotland in Glasgow in February 2003. The results continued to look good until late in the year when the team failed to beat Russia at home and then lost tamely to Switzerland in Basle, their first defeat under the new manager.
What surprised many about Kerr's first year in charge, however, was his reluctance to rock the boat he had assumed command of. Having taken over part way through the Euro 2004 qualification campaign he persisted, despite or perhaps because of his hugely detailed knowledge of the options available to him, with what was effectively the same team selected by McCarthy for the opening qualifiers.
John O'Shea displaced Harte but everything else remained much as it had been before. Not a single new player was capped in the six competitive games played that year and it would be the 3-0 win over Canada in November when Andy Reid and the recalled Graham Kavanagh both started, before players in line to make a significant contribution to the World Cup campaign would finally get a run out.
Now, under Staunton the pace of change looks set to accelerate again. The new manager faces challenges in almost every area of the pitch, most obviously in the key areas of central defence and midfield, where there has been a virtual clear-out of the regulars since the World Cup in 2002 and he has not been helped by Kerr's decision to pass on Kevin Nolan and Zat Knight when both were toying with the idea of declaring for the Republic but with insufficient conviction for the liking of the then manager.
Nolan would have been a particularly valuable recruit but Knight would have proven a useful addition at the back where Cunningham has followed Staunton himself into retirement, leaving, of the first three in line for two places in Japan, just Breen to soldier on. The former West Ham defender has endured a difficult season at Sunderland and has been overtaken in the international pecking order by Richard Dunne and Andy O'Brien but his loyalty is admirable while the scarcity of serious options after that makes it clear why Staunton has been keen to keep him on board for the moment.
In central midfield, meanwhile, the departures of Roy Keane, Mark Kinsella and, most recently, Matt Holland, have left an even greater void to be filled.
Kavanagh has done well at Wigan this season and, at 32, finally looks set to get a run in the team while Kevin Kilbane's future role looks uncertain in the absence of Keane who tended to help the converted winger rise to the challenge of life at the very centre of the action.
Staunton does at least have an orderly queue of players aiming to persuade him that they represent the long-term future in this department with Liam Miller and Jonathan Douglas, who have formed an impressive partnership at Leeds, and Stephen Ireland among a promising field of contenders.
Up front there is a need to develop serious alternatives to the Robbie Keane/Clinton Morrison partnership on which the team has become so reliant in recent years but a great deal here, as in many other areas of the pitch, will depend on the tactical approach adopted by the Louthman.
To date he has been vague regarding his preferences, stating only that he intends to be flexible. But just how flexible the pool of talent available will allow him to be remains to be seen.
In any case, both of his immediate predecessors started out with grand ambitions to change the way the Irish team played (McCarthy's 3-5-2 experiment) or instil greater adaptability of the sort expected at leading English Premiership clubs (Kerr's occasional adoption of 4-3-3) but each eventually settled for the tried and trusted 4-4-2.
The fact that the new manager has so little match time to weigh up his options before the serious business of competitive football kicks off in Stuttgart in early September suggests he too might, to coin a phrase, go with the flow. At present just two games, Wednesday's and one in August against the Netherlands, are scheduled and while Staunton is keen to get at least one more, he may yet have to settle for a training camp in late May.
The issue is an urgent one for if players like Joey O'Brien, Stephen Kelly and Kevin Doyle are really going to serve as serious cover, never mind play significant roles, during the campaign to come then they need to get international games under their belts, something that makes Staunton's decision to humour club managers by passing up the chance to play a friendly immediately after the Germany game in September looks a little curious.
Off the field, his actions so far suggest that Staunton wants to recapture the spirit of the Irish camp during the late eighties and early nineties when discipline was relaxed (asked recently if he would be disappointed if players were out drinking five nights before a big game, the manager replied only partially, it seemed, in jest, that he would be disappointed if they were not) and relations with the media were a good deal happier.
The fact that the preparations for Wednesday's game will not start in earnest until Monday will, for instance, go down well with senior squad members while Bobby Robson's barrage of media interviews on Thursday, largely for the Sunday papers, was part of the new regime's attempt to win back a press corps severely alienated by Kerr.
It is by the team's performances on the pitch, however, that he will be judged and Staunton could do with a decent first campaign in charge if he is not to find himself under immense pressure second time around. Germany and the Czech Republic appear to hold their destinies in their own hands but considerable progress could be made without the team qualifying.
Even if Ireland were to lose all four games against the group's top two seeds, for instance, 24 points could be earned over the course of the campaign and that would be comfortably good enough to start moving the Republic back up the seedings ladder.
Most of all, though, there will have to be evidence both of the motivational powers his new employers are so firmly convinced he possesses and the sense of vision he will need to oversee the transformation and rejuvenation of this Ireland squad if the voices of the sceptics aren't to get a good deal louder during the next few years.
Since getting the job Staunton, a naturally reticent character in his dealings with the press, has said little in public to really win over the non-believers. There has never, though, been the even the slightest suggestion of self-doubt on his part and those close to him remain convinced he can excel in the role.
Next week's game will be his first opportunity to doing his talking in the way it matters most, through his team on the pitch. Such is the task he faces, however, it just might take him a while to find his full voice.
