O’Neill was protected by RTÉ ffs sake. Another Norn Iron with a chip on his shoulder about the Republic of Ireland. He took our cheques though.
I’ll never forget the words of a senior executive in RTE Sport to us on the eve of that tournament. ‘Go easy on Martin,’ was his message. Martin being Martin O’Neill, of course," Dunphy wrote in his column in The Irish Daily Star.
“That was the brave new world of RTE Sport, even though there was nothing brave about it.”
I dont think dunohy can be considered a relaible source
Agreed.
Dunphy is a ham
Read a bit of the great man’s autobiography in Eason’s today. Some absolutely lovely digs in this one page. Settled numerous scores in it. He doesn’t refer to TOD by name.
Yaaaaaawwwwn would be my response to that page.
I thought he was after getting the Leicester job 
O’Neill is a weirdo.
Very poorly-written. Why the fuck is it written in that tense?
Accidental Partridge
A friend of mine can’t stand MON. But at the same time though he’s a former Scottish Treble winner, took Celtic to a European final, toppled Barca, Liverpool and Juve in Europe, took Villa to 3 consecutive top 6 finishes and won 2 league cups with Leicester. Add in taking Ireland to within 90 minutes of the FIFA World Cup and reaching the knockout stages of the Euros and he has an excellent CV. His policy of naming the team less than an hour before kick-off was bizarre alright.
You’ve just quoted one of the most successful Managers in recent history and question his methods???
Bizarre
Was he not talking about Martin O’Neill?
Henrik Larsson said the best and most influential team talk he ever heard was M O’N v Liverpool.
People question his behaviour/tactics/methods and call them bizarre.
One of the most successful Managers in recent history and folk say his method was bizarre??
Trap got us to a euro finals and a handball away from nearly qualifying and he was a demonised.
Thank God we’re playing football now though. Might not win a game, might not qualify for any finals but at least we’re playing football. It’s sunshine since Kenny took over, just ask Tony O’Donoghue
That isn’t good enough for the man in the street. Our great days were in the 1988-1994 era when we made 3 finals playing catch and kick football.
Paddy really isn’t into the mechanics of it, he needs to be in far-flung places, shoeless and potless, festooned in green and rubbing shoulders with randy young South American hotties….
The style of football that gets him there doesn’t matter a flying fuck.
It’s about being there, at the top table, shaking our fists at the Argies and the Frogs.
This current groundball game isn’t for us, we’re never going to get the hang of it.
Not one of the most successful managers in recent history
Possibly, but all I was saying was that page of turgid prose suggests the book is boring.
I was defending Martin O’ Neill there and listing his achievements. Naming the team less than an hour before kick-off was unusual but I suppose it worked for him to be fair. He was a success everywhere bar Forest. We’ve gone from having a manager at the helm who once toppled Ronaldinho’s Barcelona and knocked out Liverpool at Anfield to Stephen Kenny. I’m firmly in the O’ Neill was better camp.
Martin O’Neill was a good manager, but he is well past it.
He had run his course with Ireland, and should probably have been moved on after the 5-1.
The first leg of that play off was as horrific of a match as I have seen.
We made no attempt to play. Got our just desserts in the second match.
