Some people who know Martin O’Neill like to joke that, with the Ireland manager, there is “always a row round the next corner”. O’Neill, it could be said, knows how to find his way round that corner, even if he would feel he is simply defending himself when he gets there.
He does so vigorously. In his time with Ireland, he has taken issue with reporters who have written things he doesn’t agree with it and met with one editor to discuss a column he objected to during the Jack Grealish saga.
These meeting usually result in what could be called a “frank exchange of views”. O’Neill is argumentative but he is intelligent and prepared to see the other side of an argument too, although it may take some time before he acknowledges Ronald Koeman’s point of view.
It was no shock that O’Neill didn’t miss the opportunity to reply to Koeman when he named his latest Ireland squad on Wednesday, but it may have taken some by surprise how determined Ireland’s manager was to defend his position.
Koeman, O’Neill said, was talking nonsense, the kind of nonsense he would be “excruciatingly embarrassed” to be associated with as a manager.
O’Neill’s view is a simple one. James McCarthy had trained with Ireland ahead of the Georgia and Moldova games and declared himself fit. He hadn’t done a lot in preparation, as O’Neill conceded, but he had no concerns about the groin injury which had limited him to one full game for Everton in the opening weeks of the season.
After he played, he returned to his club, trained, came on and played half and hour against Manchester City . “He did brilliantly to recover like Lazarus,” O’Neill said, mocking Koeman’s line that Ireland had “killed” the player.
After that McCarthy picked up a separate injury. He has played almost as much football for Ireland as he has for Everton this season, but O’Neill doesn’t see how that is Ireland’s fault. He probably has a point, even if Ronald Koeman has a point too.
Before McCarthy left to join up with Ireland for those two internationals, Koeman gave a warning to Ireland’s management.
“James is close,” Koeman said. “Normally he’d start training with the team next week but international breaks are coming up and they called him up after six weeks of not playing. We have to accept that as a FIFA rule and he likes to go. I hope that they will protect him. They have to realise he hasn’t trained in five or six weeks. The same happened with Seamus Coleman and it went well luckily but it’s always a risk. He had an operation four or five weeks ago but we will see how it goes.”
McCarthy played what O’Neill called “one and three-fifths” of the two games, or 90 minutes against Georgia and 81 minutes against Moldova. “I thought he was starting to labour in the second game which was no surprise to me and we took him off,” O’Neill said on Wednesday.
McCarthy left the Ireland camp “pain-free” and, as importantly, he had declared himself fit before the two matches, according to O’Neill which made Koeman’s subsequent words something he had to respond to.
“I do not play players, never have done, who are not fit,” he said. In fact, I have actually been so cautious about that, because I’ve been a club manager myself.”
Everton are believed to be reasonably relaxed about the situation between their manager and O’Neill. Koeman laid out his position after the last international break when he talked about McCarthy being “massively overloaded” during his time away with Ireland. The club felt no need to clarify or add to the manager’s words, even if Koeman himself might do so when he meets the press again on Thursday.
Koeman has started well at Everton and it does a manager no harm with his supporters to express frustration about the treatment of their players when they are away with their countries.
At the heart of this story is the intractable problem of the demands of a club versus the needs of a country with both sides feeling aggrieved and both sides having valid reasons to feel wronged.
For O’Neill, as for every national manager, there is the sense of powerlessness that is part of the role between international matches. A player might be withdrawn by his club before an international and then return for the next club fixture. Of course, the rest helps, but it also adds to the frustration.
For club managers, there is a different powerlessness when players disappear for a couple of weeks, especially as they recover from injury. If anything happens then, they often respond as if no player has ever been injured on club time, but it may be the powerlessness they are reacting to as well.
McCarthy now has a hamstring injury which could keep him out of the game against Austria anyway so O’Neill is correct when he says it is a different injury to the one he was suffering before the Ireland games.
But fatigue, especially when returning from injury, can lead to further problems for any player. If the issue is a timeless one between club and country, in this case there would seem to be some dispute between the medical teams, given that they are the most frequently used line of communication.
“I think our medical team were pretty disappointed with the comments that were emanating because obviously the manager would be getting something from their physiotherapists,” O’Neill said on Wednesday.
“You hope something like this would be solved by the understanding of the doctor of the Ireland team or the manager of the Ireland team,” Koeman said after the Moldova game.
“They asked him if he was ready to play. It is very difficult for a player to say no because he is in Ireland. I like to have a lot of international players because it is a very good experience for every player. But sometimes, in several cases in fact, you like to have a little bit more understanding for a player who has been out injured for five to six weeks. Play him for 45 minutes, 60 minutes, but not 95 minutes after five to six weeks out, the second time 80 minutes. You are killing the player.”
These words enraged O’Neill. He pointed out that McCarthy had trained the day Koeman spoke, the “very day he was bleating”. O’Neill added, “I spoke to James and he said ‘I trained today’. So James is in a difficult situation because Everton pay their wages, that’s true. He’s first and foremost an Everton player, but when he comes on international duty, if he’s fit for selection then he’s got a chance to play. I was surprised about it. This idea that we killed him, well he did brilliantly to recover like Lazarus.”
When it was put to O’Neill that Koeman’s language was extraordinary, he became even more animated.
“Yes it was, that we killed him. And he trained. And he played on the Saturday,” he said, before his voice rose again and he repeated, “He played on the Saturday.”
For O’Neill this seemed to be case closed.
“If I was a manager I would be excruciatingly embarrassed by it. To turn round and blame somebody for playing. By the way, Seamus Coleman played for us out in Serbia and that game did him the world of good before he played for Everton the following week. I didn’t hear them saying you played him in the game.”
Giovanni Trapattoni had difficulties with Everton and this is not the first time O’Neill and Roy Keane have had an issue with the club. Two years ago, Keane wondered about Everton’s attitude when the players went on international breaks.
“You always get the impression from Everton that Seamus and James are both barely able to walk, that type of thing. So when they actually turn up and they are walking through the reception, ‘Praise the Lord, it’s a miracle’.”
Ultimately, however, injuries are going to occur and, in the aftermath, as anyone who follows Raymond Verheijen on Twitter would know, there is always somebody to blame.
Although maybe there’s not. McCarthy was not bothered by the groin injury when he played for Ireland and had said he was fit. When Martinez dismissed Keane’s comments two years ago, he pointed out that things were straightforward these days, even if he was explaining why a club might withdraw a player before an international and making the club’s case.
“We are in an age in football when injuries are black and white. Players get a scan for everything and it’s not a subjective opinion where you think someone is carrying a problem; that’s gone out of the game.”
Some would dispute this analysis of injuries, but when he turned out for Ireland, McCarthy was fit to play. But even if that was objective opinion it’s unlikely to lead two stubborn managers to find common ground.
Colm O’Rourke and Pauric Mahony join Colm Parkinson on a packed GAA Hour that includes Dick Clerkin appreciation and Sean Cavanagh envy. Subscribe here on iTunes.
