No-one really gives a toss about how Ireland played in 1990.
This might sound stupid but sport isn’t really about winning and losing, it’s far bigger than that. It’s about moments that transcend all that, moments that can last forever.
It doesn’t matter that Ireland lost to Poland in Warsaw a few days after beating Germany. It doesn’t matter that they lost to Belgium, lost to France and then failed to qualify for the next tournament. Beating the world champions in Dublin will stand the test of time and no matter how many competitions we don’t make, no matter how we’ll never even come close to winning one in our lifetimes, you can capture little moments and immortalise them.
It might’ve been hard for Martin O’Neill to walk away from the Ireland job after taking a chinning against Denmark and taking a lot of the blame for ripping the midfield out of the team to chase two second half goals. You might argue that it shouldn’t be up to him to decide to walk away or not – especially when the decision seems to be based around whether or not you can get a better contract offer at a club – but that’s the way it is and the FAI would want you to believe that we should just feel so thankful that O’Neill has chosen to hang around for another while.
The funny thing is though that, had he just decided to call it a day after coming up 60 minutes short of the World Cup, history would’ve remembered him kindly. Relatively, he would’ve been one of Ireland’s few success stories – even after just two campaigns.
If talking to Tony O'Donoghue makes Martin O'Neill so unhappy, maybe he would have been better off at Stoke – https://t.co/Fc6vNocd8w via @sportsjoedotie
— Dion Fanning (@dionfanning) January 25, 2018
But familiarity breeds contempt, particularly when the contempt is coming from the manager.
O’Neill looks fed up with the criticism, he’s hung up on the wording of questions and his demeanour seems like he’s read too many negative articles and heard too many people calling for his head. Maybe he wants to prove them wrong, maybe he just rations that they’re all idiots, such is the belief in his own convictions, but maybe those backlashes are only going to grow more severe the longer he stays and the less football Ireland plays.
He doesn’t seem like a manager who has great faith in what he has at his disposal – he’s more or less said that on numerous occasions – but, still, he has had an effect.
And, no matter what the critics say today, the record books will show that in black and white.
Georgia 1-2 Ireland (w)
Ireland 7-0 Gibraltar (w)
Germany 1-1 Ireland (d)
Scotland 1-0 Ireland (l)
Ireland 1-1 Poland (d)
Ireland 1-1 Scotland (d)
Gibraltar 0-4 Ireland (w)
Ireland 1-0 Georgia (w)
Ireland 1-0 Germany (w)
Poland 2-1 Ireland (l)
Bosnia 1-1 Ireland (d)
Ireland 2-0 Bosnia (w)
Ireland 1-1 Sweden (d)
Belgium 3-0 Ireland (l)
Ireland 1-0 Italy (w)
France 2-1 Ireland (l)
Serbia 2-2 Ireland (d)
Ireland 1-0 Georgia (w)
Moldova 1-3 Ireland (w)
Austria 0-1 Ireland (w)
Ireland 0-0 Wales (d)
Ireland 1-1 Austria (d)
Georgia 1-1 Ireland (d)
Ireland 0-1 Serbia (l)
Ireland 2-0 Moldova (w)
Wales 0-1 Ireland (w)
Denmark 0-0 Ireland (d)
Ireland 1-5 Denmark (l)
Played: 28 competitive games
Won: 12
Drawn: 10
Lost: 6
You don’t need to be Tim Sherwood to work out that win percentage.
If O’Neill had left it at that though, it would’ve been so easy to spin. The first manager to qualify for the knockout stages of the European Championships, beat Germany and Italy and delivered clutch performances against Bosnia and Wales. An hour from the World Cup – what would’ve been the country’s fourth ever.
It would’ve been so easy to let the record do the arguing – screw what you think of the football or what you think O’Neill thinks of the players and who gives a shit about how he is with the media, look at what he did and we were very lucky to have him. That sort of thing.
He left Villa at a time when he was being vilified by the fans. At one stage, they got booed out of Villa Park for drawing at home in a game in March when a win would’ve put them top of the Premier League. Now look at Villa. Now how they miss those days.
He can rest easy though and let his record at Villa speak for itself and it will last longer than the memories of UEFA Cup struggles or inflated players’ wages. By staying on with Ireland though, he is risking leaving at the wrong time.
But, even with the football and whatever else, he has an ability to deliver. He’s backing himself to go once more into the breach and do that again by whatever means necessary. But, this time, he’s putting his legacy on the line.
