Tony O’Donoghue is some trooper.
It’s not an easy job the RTE reporter has. He’s the one tasked with pestering players and managers during their rawest moments on live television for millions of people at home who are probably even more frustrated.
So O’Donoghue has to put the tough questions to them at tough times and he can’t win because, if he asks them, the squad are unhappy. If he doesn’t ask them, the public are up in arms.
One-word player ratings to describe a terrible Ireland performance https://t.co/d9mCzCVc92
— SportsJOE (@SportsJOEdotie) September 2, 2017
He’s had too many nights like Saturday under this regime. Sure, there have been cracking highs and thrilling results but, too often, the only thing left to do at the end of the evening is to pick the bones off the display and question some decisions.
Why didn’t we play ball?
Why did we get completely dominated by Georgia?
Why on earth did Wes Hoolahan not even feature for one single minute?
You ask that to any manager after a poor enough result and worse performance and you’re going to get an inevitably cutting reply but O’Neill has dealt with these questions a lot and he’s dealt with them from O’Donoghue specifically a lot.
The culmination of that is a tetchy interview after Ireland slipped two points off the top in Georgia.
"I don't think there is a quick fix" – Martin O'Neill tells @CorkTOD how Ireland will focus on Serbia #RTEsoccer #GEOIRL pic.twitter.com/utsNa5LQ9D
— RTÉ Soccer (@RTEsoccer) September 2, 2017
