This is a surprise.
Jack Charlton resigned as Republic of Ireland manager back in December 1995, following the team’s loss to the Netherlands in a Euro 1996 play-off at Anfield. Or at least that’s what we thought was the case.
The English World Cup winning defender was, and remains, the most successful in the country’s history, after guiding Ireland to three international tournaments and the quarter-finals of the 1990 World Cup.
Charlton’s exit from the role was always viewed as his own decision, and the 80 year old even said in his autobiography that he decided to walk away.
“In my heart of hearts, I knew I’d wrung as much as I could out of the squad I’d got – that some of my older players had given me all they had to give.”
However, in an interview with the Sunday Independent, the 80 year old claims he was, in fact, sacked as Ireland manager.
Charlton with with his successor Mick McCarthy“I didn’t retire, I got sacked, really. I went to a meeting and was told that they didn’t want me anymore,” Charlton said.
“I thought they might give me more time to make up my mind. ‘I just went to a meeting as a manager and came out of it and I wasn’t the manager.”
”They voted me out and I wasn’t happy about that. I thought it was all a bit tough, when you think about what we’d achieved.”
Charlton’s claims are echoed somewhat by quotes from the day he left the Ireland job on December 21st 1995. According to Charlton’s son John: “The indications are that he has been pushed from certain quarters. I don’t know if that’s true but if it is they have made a big mistake.”
