Let’s not rake over the coals. Throughout 2024 the international football calendar will provide a constant reminder of where Irish football exists in the European ecosystem.
The March play-offs and the Euros in Germany will happen without the Republic of Ireland. Come the Nations League in September, a new gaffer — sorry, “head coach” — will have had eight months to build a team around Evan Ferguson.
The way I see it, Ireland failed to create enough chances for Ferguson in 2023. He was left isolated in Amsterdam and Athens. And still, he has three goals in eight international appearances.
That’s job number one for the coach the FAI are about to appoint; direct balls into Ferguson’s feet with others running beyond him into space. It’s about playing to his strengths.
Possession football is not a style, especially when it goes nowhere, but being lethal in transition most certainly is. Job number two and three are related: transform the Aviva Stadium into a fortress and make ourselves a nightmare to play away from Dublin.
There is plenty to take from the Stephen Kenny era. The performance against France last March. The spread of young talent. Next man up will need to make effective in-game decisions. No more nights when Ronald Koeman and Gus Poyet are made to look like chess grandmasters.
It is no secret that I believe Lee Carsley can transform Irish football. I know him as a man and a coach as we played together for years at Everton and Ireland, scrapping away in midfield when Steve Staunton tried to qualify for Euro 2008.
Chris Hughton is a non-runner due to the Ghana role but that could change after the African Nations Cup. I’d have no problem with a manager of his calibre getting the job, even at 65. Lord knows, Hughton has earned it. He had a similar career path to Carsley in that he spent 14 years as assistant coach at Tottenham and a few more seasons at Newcastle before moving into management.
The modern game quickly exposes an aspiring coach who has not done the work.
Ideally, the FAI appoints an Irish man. That might sound restrictive, especially these days, but it’s always been my belief. For one, they are less likely to leave when another opportunity arises.
Neil Lennon also fits the frame. Two stints managing Celtic should prepare anyone for the pressures of international football. The irrational expectation, of so many, is similar. Lennon knows how to eke out wins over lesser teams. We need that. He knows how to win trophies. We could do with that too.
I never played with Lennon but we worked together as pundits on Virgin Media and for the BBC. Chatting to him off-screen you understand what makes him such a good manager. There are moments in a game when he sees an opportunity quicker than most. Again, Ireland will need that in the next few years. In a television studio he Neil is astute tactically, especially when it comes to understanding how to use players. An honest and likeable guy, I imagine that transfers to the changing room.
Sam Allardyce and Steve Bruce have been mentioned and both have thrown their hats into the ring. Not to sound ageist but what does it say about the FAI if they are recruiting an English man in his 60s with no international experience? It goes against all the noise we have heard up to now.
I would understand either appointment back in 2013. Needs must. They would make Ireland hard to beat but nowhere near the collective approach Marc Canham is trying to embed in Irish football from under-15s up to the senior side.
Kenny tried to develop a progressive style of play. An old school manager would only revert to type, and the game has moved beyond such simplistic notions. But a happy medium can be struck. What such as Allardyce or Bruce bring to the table cannot be entirely dismissed. The Ireland senior men’s team lost part of its identity in 2023. They forgot how to scrap for results. How to win; how not to lose.
You only have to look at Katie McCabe’s lot to understand what is missing.
I’ve worked with Allardyce and Bruce. The former was my youth team coach at Preston and gave me my first professional contract at 16. I owe him plenty. Back in the early 1990s he was a fabulous coach for me. He could have kept coaching at the coal face but Sam Allardyce, the manager, was what was required to make a career for himself. Bruce is not a training ground coach either. He left that to Eric Black while knowing the value of keeping players outside the first team fresh and motivated. That’s half the battle. He was very approachable at Wigan.
Ironically, the new coach will need some of that old-school manager’s mentality to survive in this job until Euro 2028. It requires more than expert coaching, as we learned under Kenny, as managing the squad, the media and the FAI are only second to results.
If the FAI seek a four-year arrangement, someone to run a long-term project, all roads lead back to Carsley. Hopefully, a deal can be struck.
