Martin O’Neill said he and Roy Keane would be “bad cop, worse cop” when the pair became the Republic of Ireland management team in November 2013.
They’ve certainly lived up to that description this week. Following Ireland’s loss to Belarus at Turner’s Cross last week, Keane said he “wanted to kill” some of the players, and singled out some players, particularly Aiden McGeady, for criticism.
When asked about the Ireland assistant manager’s comments on Monday afternoon, O’Neill said:
“Any pieces of criticism either from myself or from Roy or any other direction, they take it on board. They’ll feel it’s appropriate, if it is appropriate, or dismiss it accordingly.”
“The other players involved with it are absolutely fine.”
The Ireland manager also said that McGeady and Keane have spoke about the comments in person.
O’Neill said the players have reacted well to Keane’s criticism, and seemed generally relaxed about last Tuesday’s poor showing in Cork.
“The reaction of the players, I have to say, has been very strong. If the Belarus game was a bit of blip with some of the players being a bit rusty, then that’s absolutely fine.
“It was a godsend to have that game because some of the players hadn’t played much football and needed it. We expected decent opposition, which we got. ”
