SOCCER: Tom Humphries talks to Brian Kerr about World Cup elimination, relations with the media, and what the future holds.
He took calls from those who mattered to him. He avoided the papers. He met with Fintan Drury and talked and talked.
He felt raw and disappointed and he thought again and again about it all. Played entire games in slow motion in his head. He did the Late Late rather than vanish entirely. He escaped the house and bolted for a bit of solitude.
When he sits down in short sleeves and jeans with a tape machine whirring in front of him, he looks drawn and tired but the tightness which has lined his face for the past fortnight is receding. Life goes on.
It's the middle of Sunday morning. The sun is shining. Normally he'd have the papers devoured along with his breakfast. Not today. Still raw.
Tough week, you say.
"It's funny, but in the run-in to a game, being in that cocoon or bubble we live in, you know everything is going on out there but the reality is that you don't know that much about it. You spend no time looking at it. I didn't see the television at all from the time we came in on the Tuesday before Cyprus until I got home late on Thursday morning. It's just stuff that's out there in the atmosphere.
"It was a tough week because we didn't win the match at the end. It's frustrating and annoying. I deal with it by knowing I gave it absolutely everything. Since the draw was made I've thought of nothing but about how to achieve getting to Germany. That's what we've done, we've given it everything. It's been difficult to deal with that. It's been a tough week in that sense. I knew the consequences if we won, if we lost or drew. You have to prepare though just for the match itself.
"I knew we had Roy (Keane) suspended but then he got the broken bone in his foot. You say what a blow that is but you get on with it. Then Duffer (Damien Duff) went. Another blow. When Shay (Given) got hurt (on Monday) there was a time in that evening when I wrote off any chance of him playing. I spoke to Packie (Bonner) about Paddy Kenny playing, that was it.
"There was a cloud around but it didn't affect the professionalism of the staff. We felt good going into the match. The Cyprus thing was awful in many ways, the performance wasn't up to scratch at all. I was able to rationalise it compared to the Swiss match. We got the result and got the win. If we'd beaten Switzerland, Cyprus was just another statistic. It was tough, but tough for everyone."
Do you carry regrets about the way you've done things, both with the team and the media?
"No. The knowledge I would have about the team and the selections and who was right to play in a match and what their current form is, in many ways would be almost unique to me. Nobody else sees the players play as often.
"It's an unusual situation in Ireland that some of the loudest voices never see the players playing other than what they see on television, which is not a great way to judge players. I would never be satisfied with that. You only see them when the ball is near them. I'm the one who goes and sees them, looks at them closely, talks to the clubs and coaches, watches them in training. Nobody here takes the interest in the opposition that we take. We're dismissive if we don't recognise players' names from the Champions League. That's why you have the job. You do the work. You'll do that, spend the time doing it. Maybe there's changes that didn't go as well as you would have hoped and you say afterwards perhaps the other option might have worked, but no regrets.
"Two years ago we lost in Switzerland in the last game of the group. The big one back then was why didn't I play Liam Miller. Everybody suddenly knew that Liam Miller was going to save the world. Most people wouldn't have known Liam Miller if he had come up and given them a kick in the head. They still wouldn't because he is a lovely quiet lad. Everyone had this opinion but I haven't seen anyone since asking why he didn't play the other night.
"Or Stephen Elliot in the Israel match. I didn't bring him on after Robbie (Keane) hurt his shoulder. He had so little experience. They hadn't seen him play. How many people go to the see the under-21 matches away from home? I've seen Stephen since he was 14 or 15. I took him a year early into the under-17s. He was injured nearly all that year with his back.
"Anyway I'd go and see him at (Manchester) City where he was in the 19s with a gang of Irish lads. He was the young fella among them. In the week prior to the Israel match, two weeks before it, he wasn't in the Sunderland team. I spoke extensively with people at Sunderland who said he was struggling, he'd picked up a virus in the summer and hadn't come out of it strong.
"In training, when he came with us we were waiting for him to show us something. Robbie hadn't been playing much. We needed him but there was nothing there. It wasn't Stephen. So on the day we put Graham (Kavanagh) on and Duffer up front. They got a hold and you know the rest.
"In the Faroes we had a couple of sessions and something clicked with Stephen and we had virtually no choice though but to play him. It's fine-line stuff."
What about the media though? You're general handling of it?
"The media? I handled it in a way which they haven't accepted. They have failed to understand what it is like to do the job in the way that I do it. When Jack (Charlton) or Mick (McCarthy) was doing the job how many times a year were they around? How many times a day was there access? How long were they at press conferences or that sort of stuff? With the youths or Pat's there were very few people interested. I used to hustle to get a few lines. Now ever since Mick or Jack had the national job the number of media people has just exploded. Websites, local radio, more interest from England. I get asked to do anything going. Independent producers. Reality shows. Panel shows. Everything. For what? Will it help me make a decision about picking the team? I'll either look foolish or it will improve my profile? I don't need that. I don't think journalism respects that. I do the job, informed on top of it, planned, decided about where we are going and who we'll see.
"The FAI have had various people in the role of media officer. It's tough. I don't see Sven (Goran Eriksson) on the telly every day of the week. I don't see daily press conferences. I don't see people getting upset that he doesn't do sideline interviews before matches. In the week of Cyprus and Switzerland I spent five hours doing media. I logged it. Then there's the calls, ferrying messages from the physio to the PR man, having to make sure with the precise phraseology about injuries, et cetera.
"At one stage Pat (Costello, the FAI's PR guy) needed an update on Shay. I said, 'Pat it happened three hours ago. We've done a lot of things since. I can't tell you if he'll be better.' Add that into an hour to announce the squad. That is a half day for me on the week before the team come in. Get ready, make sure that every player knows his position in advance, get ready, get washed, get out to the venue. It never works out, there's an extension of it somewhere.
"It's all just putting quotes from me out there. Surely that job is to analyse and to look at things and to work out the permutations. It appears to me to be lazy. We'll fill stuff with quotes from me.
"What am I going to say about why I left a player out? I'm going through the motions of doing it. I try to give them a little bit every day to get a story. Tell them an incident that made a difference in my thinking.
"I've no regrets about how I prioritised. The job deserves the time I give it and the approach to it. If I do an hour of media a day that would increase to two hours within a few months. Some of the calls I used to get were ridiculous. Club call services, local stations."
The English aren't the only model though.
"Yeah. There are different systems in different countries. It could be organised differently.It needs consistency of approach and consistency of people. I've had five different CEO's or general secretaries since I have been in the FAI.
"Take the number of personnel under that who would have a role around the match there's a fair bit of change too. There needs to be an agreement made and we can all go with that. Because we have inherited a different culture and a different way of doing things than the European model. There is a different style of press.
"Some players won't co-operate because there has been sneaky, hatchet jobs done on them. Even the most open players, I have seen change in them because of the various things which have happened. Players will lump the media together because of particular stories or newspapers. I can understand their reticence."
Do you regret being so frank in answering a recent question about your contract situation?
"Is the problem that I answered the question honestly or was the answer not what people wanted? I wouldn't turn around and say no, I should have told a lie. Or should I say nothing? That was the accurate situation. I had a back-to-the-wall situation in the Faroes a while back, a very disorganised press conference at the end of an intense couple of weeks and I was asked about my contract. I said I hope I'm not kept dangling to the last game. It was reasonable and said in a fairly jocular manner. I don't regret that. Surely though, the analysis before the game should have been about team, preparation, possibilities. Should it not?"
You say the media should have been about this or that. You know it doesn't work like that. People see you with no contract write that you are in a weakened position. You know that.
"They can't blame me. That's fair enough to write that. Whatever I said, though, somebody would have got some angle or some information on it. If that's what caused all the negativity in the media, that's a bit sad. People have told me there was mad stuff going on. I won't look at it, I'd only end up going to the press conferences looking to ask fellas if they'd like to go up to the National Stadium and sort it out.
"Fellas have a job to do. They are under pressure in relation to sales. My credentials for my job are very clear and they are there. My qualifications for my job are there. My record is there as a manager. I love music but I wouldn't attempt to try and write about music. I go to a lot of gigs and listen to a fair bit of music but I wouldn't attempt to write about it because I really don't know that much. If I wanted to I'd go off and learn, I'd get some qualifications on it. I'd talk to people who really understood it and were experts. It appears to me that you don't have to have any qualification to write about and analyse the games.
"Myself and Noel (O'Reilly) about a year and a half ago, gave a little information night for media. Six turned up. We wanted to bring people through some stuff. That bugged Noel. He went to a lot of trouble. No apology from the individuals who didn't show up. So how well informed is it? How many people see the Irish players play other than when they play for Ireland?
"Does anyone go and just watch the Irish players? Have they done the work that qualifies them to say things and analyse?
"It's their opinion. It changes with results. Deadlines. We're winning 1-0. We concede a goal. The whole view of the game changes. That's the way. Manchester United versus Bayern. Alex Ferguson changed from being a loser who finished the match in desparation to being the genius who sent the goalie up to the other box for corner kicks. That's the line. I'm not personally hurt by it. Babs Keating said to me one night the difference between a pat on the back and a kick in the arse is a foot and a half. I don't carry criticism around as a particular burden though. If it's well thought out, game ball. I don't like the sense of people wanting to have a go through any angle."
How would you describe your current relationship with the FAI?
"The way it is now, it's reasonable for them to reassess the situation and my performance. I presume it will be done by people who are qualified and informed and who know the game very well. That's the way it should be. That's fair and reasonable.
"Maybe it is different. I haven't analysed it. I've had nine years working with the FAI. They've offered me a new contract every time whatever job I was doing. It's a little different for me now. I think things could have been done differently that would have helped keep the focus on the matches but that's water under the bridge. If they wanted to wait to see all the results, that's their entitlement. They want to judge my own performance over two, two and a half years, that's their right. It might not be what I wanted but that's the thing about being an employee, you don't always get what you want, you don't get treated the way you want to be treated. They have their reasons. That's fair enough."
Is there too much familiarity there? Seeing you every day does make things more fraught.
"When I got the job I said I'd do it differently to anyone else. I have done that. I took an interest in things that no other manager did. I have spent time doing things which were agreed at the time with the FAI concerning myself with the development of players and structures for the future. We could be in trouble because of the changes in the game in England, the changes in development structures. We have some work done, more has to be done but the formula, strategy and plan is there. I have involved myself there. It takes a little bit of time.
"The FAI understand that. I think living here, there is probably an expectation about the number of events I am expected to turn up at. It's hard sometimes to combine that with the amount of time you have to be in England. I think within the FAI I have been strong enough to get what is needed and it makes it easier often that I have daily contact and meet people face to face. They know how I work, the logic of what I am saying.
Has anyone from the FAI been in touch since last Wednesday?
"No. I have nothing. People shook hands with me and commiserated. Not sure whether it was a final handshake. It was the disappointment that they felt. We all felt it. I wouldn't expect people to be in touch. The next expectation I would have is to discuss who we should play in the November friendly. Eight months ago I started wondering about that. Play-offs. Qualified automatically. What was the best side to get.
"Of course there should be some sort of manager by then."
What do you expect this FAI review committee to do?
"Ask me should I not have played up front meself (laughs). I don't know what their approach will be. I'm sure they have a brief. There are certain parameters we have to evaluate. Could we have done better? We know that. Three quarters of the countries in Europe will be disappointed this week. We've ended up in that category. We have an expectation level because of our history and where we've gone and how we've done early on in this group. I don't know what the brief will be and whether they want to ask me questions, but they are quite entitled to ask questions."
In your gut what do you think the outcome will be?
"I don't know. I really don't. I don't know what is going on in the background or what the real thinking is. The official statements are a bit bland and that's form for the course. It gives people time to think and so on. I don't really know.
"It's the same as any contract worker who is waiting to find out.
"Nearly a fifth of my life has been spent working for the FAI. When I started we had two people in the technical department doing coaching stuff in Ireland. Packie is up at roughly 35 to 40 staff now, good people working feverishly.
"I'm not responsible for all that but I was in on the instrumental thinking that led to it and various CEOs and other people have got us there. That sort of stuff is good.
"The media have been waiting since Saipan for every little hint of a fault in terms of the team preparation and arrangements. We have gone to extreme lengths. You'll get a few things wrong but in general they are waiting. We have done it to the best of our ability and our preparation has been meticulous . . . There are factors as regards why the team hasn't performed as well as it could on occasion but I take comfort that the preparation was as good as it could be, we as a backroom team did everything. There are many factors in why a team doesn't play. If there is another manager instead of me I hope they add to that. We have to keep raising it. That's as it should be. We do things well now."
If the axe falls would you see your future in Ireland or England?
"I don't know what the future would hold. I have no idea of the perception of my work outside Ireland. I wouldn't rule out managing a club in the League of Ireland in the short term. I don't know after that. It could happen. I really have no idea.
"I haven't thought down the road. Maybe I'll become one of the media people criticising others. Till the last second on Wednesday night I thought we'd get the goal. Shay had the ball in his hands, I stood there and said if there's any justice in our work we'll get a goal now and it will be the best time to ever have got a goal. I thought that way right to the very end.
"That's the harsh reality of football."
