Roy Keane says that all of Ireland's available players will get the chance to make their case for inclusion in the squad for next summer's European Championships but the team's former skipper says that it may prove hard to dislodge the old guard.
“There are places up for grabs,” he said after what he admitted had been a long night of celebration for the squad at their north Dublin hotel. “We have some friendlies coming up so we can give some guys a go. There were players in the background but they’ll get their chance.
“But don’t be writing these (older) boys off. They have contributed over the campaign and I don’t want to be writing them off because I don’t think they will be giving up their places easily; they will be feeling that they can still get in the team for France.”
Keane said he felt the players had all “done the country proud. It was all the lads. You felt sorry for some of the lads who weren’t involve so much but all credit foes back to the players. We made a lot of changes, things that might have seemed minor to the media but the training ground changed, the hotel and the routines and they all coped with it well.”
Asked how the actual team’s performances had been improved, the assistant manager smiled and said he didn’t know. “Practice” he offered eventually.
On the sort of impact that Ireland might be capable of making at the finals, Keane said that he preferred to enjoy the moment and leave the rest at least until after the draw on December 12th in Paris. “Let’s play it by ear,” he said. “Let’s see how the draw goes first.” Pressed on some of the tougher potential group line-ups he joked: “Germany, Italy... wouldn’t be a problem. We’ll take care of them; Spain and all the rest of them.
“Whatever you say about seedings and rankings, you can’t get too hung up on that. Bosnia are decent but we had the will and the desire to get the right result. You can be greedy, of course, always looking for more quality from the lads but there’s plenty of fight in this group, that’s for sure.”
The group, he says, have plenty of other qualities and Martin O’Neill, he said, had done brilliantly to coax their very best of them, particularly over the course of the campaign’s second half as some were suggesting that qualification was in danger of becoming a lost cause. “I think he had been written off to a certain extent after the Scotland game but he’s ended up proving what a brilliant manager he is.”
Keane emerges from the story with an enhanced reputation too but he said he wasn’t sure whether the team’s success might be seen as having put him “back in the shop window.”
I don’t know about that but I’m going to meet Martin in the next few weeks and have a look at things. The contract situation was the last thing on my mind. Martin knows I have that ambition, to get back in the ring. But I want to stay on for the Euros so we’ll play it by ear. I’ll be meeting the manager in the next few weeks to have a chat.”
