There Is Something Wrong In The Camp Of Ireland

What a strange fortnight it’s been. First up was the Queen’s visit, followed by the death of Garret FitzGerald, Barack Obama’s stopover and – finally – the controversy over defections from the Ireland football squad on the way to the victory
of Giovanni Trapattoni’s side in the Carling Nations Cup.

According to the commentators, in various ways, all of these events invite serious questions about our sense of Irishness.
My real interest here, of course, is in the football. But, in fairness, I should start by saying that everything about the Queen’s visit was far more impressive than I had imagined in advance. I have no interest, as I said in the last issue of Hot Press, in royalty. But Elizabeth came here as Head of State in the UK, and it was right to treat her accordingly, with courtesy, as a visiting neighbour.
For plenty of Irish people, the Queen is taken to represent hundreds of years of British oppression. That, in part at least, explains why she had never visited this part of Ireland – or the 26 counties if you prefer – before. Well, a lot of thought went into what she would do while she was here and how she would do it. The decision to visit the Garden of Remembrance early on was a masterstroke on the part of the British Embassy, the Foreign Office and whoever else was involved in planning the trip. In going there and paying her respects to those who fought for Irish freedom, against the forces of the crown, she effectively bowed her head to the superior moral force of Irish republicanism as against British imperialism, in this immediate neighbourhood at least.
And the visit continued in the same vein. Irish people were addressed as friends, equals, neighbours, with a huge extent of shared history with the English, the Scottish and the Welsh – and a whole lot more in common than separates us. The current status of Northern Ireland represents a grey area between the two islands, and everyone knows that. It has been specifically acknowledged as such in the Good Friday agreement. In time, the status of the six counties, or of Northern Ireland, may change. But however that pans out, it is better that we should be firm friends, when so many of our people are over there and so many Britih citizens are here. I don’t have any more time for ‘royalty’ than I did before she came – but as a representative of the British people, what the Queen said and did, and how she comported her 85 year old self in what was uncharted territory, was genuinely impressive – and to imply otherwise would be hopelessly churlish and ungracious.
And what of Garret FitzGerald? A former leader of Fine Gael and twice Taoiseach (from 1981 to February ‘82 and again from December ‘82 to ‘87), he was fundamentally a good and honourable man, who devoted most of his life to serving the people in the best way that he knew how. I disagreed with his political ideas in certain key respects, and especially with his essential adherence to the Roman Catholic view of the world, but his decency and integrity were never in question. At the end of his tenure in the Dáil, the former Fianna Fáil leader Charlie Haughey quoted from Shakespeare’s Othello: “I have done the State some service, and they know it.” Well, this could accurately have been said of Garret: he was, genuinely, a patriot. There were times when he got lost in statistics and put mathematical calculations before the interests of ordinary citizens – most famously when he put VAT on children’s shoes so that women could not buy and wear them to avoid tax – but he cared deeply about Ireland and its people. There aren’t many of whom this can be said with such complete conviction.
As for Barack Obama, the visit looked like a bit of craic for the people of Moneygall. His speech in Dublin struck a few chords. He spoke eloquently of the historical and cultural ties between Ireland and the United States of America. But the mere reassurance that Ireland’s best days are in the future, and that we will rise again from the economic devastation that has been inflicted on us by a system of which he is the most powerful political leader, rang somewhat hollow, knowing what we know. It is all very well for him to say so – and doubtless he meant well – but he doesn’t have to live with the reality of the horrendous damage the bank bailout has wrought on ordinary people. His dalliance here may well provide a boost to the Irish economy by generating a few extra tourist dollars. But he went from Ireland to the UK, and on to France and to Poland. Ireland was just one more stopover. There was no harm in it. But there was an absence of history in the making too.
Where the Queen’s visit, and Garret FitzGerald’s death had inspired a re-examination of what it means to be Irish, President Obama’s was like a day at a barbecue.

And then came the football – or rather the pantomime which preceded the Carling Cup games against Northern Ireland and Scotland. As the players arrived in Dublin, almost all from from the UK incidentally, what was most notable was the list of absentees. In quick succession the highly-rated young Scottish born centre midfielder James McCarthy (of Wigan), the Northern Ireland born Marc Wilson, the English born John Walters (both of Stoke City) and the Dublin born Celtic striker Anthony Stokes all pulled out.
What was going on? What ensued was undignified in the extreme with Giovanni Trapattoni very publicly moaning about the attitudes of young players and their inability to communicate. The controversy developed momentum with by both Wigan and Stoke insisting that messages had been delivered to the FAI that the players in question
were injured.
Is it that these players have little or no pride in playing for their country? Were they fit enough to come to Dublin, but too lazy to bother? Well, it it was one player or two, that might seem to be a reasonable conclusion. But the management also mentioned that Leon Best and Caleb Folan don’t respond to text messages.
So that makes six of the current squad who couldn’t give a monkey’s. There was the usual speculation that it was the blow-ins, the guys who had declared for Ireland under the Granny rule who were most capricious. But there was never the slightest reason to believe that Mick McCarthy, John Aldridge, Ray Houghton, Kevin Sheedy or Tony Cascarino were ever less than 100% committed to the Irish cause. So the idea that it has to do with degrees of separation doesn’t make sense.
Which leads, inexorably, back to the elephant in the room. The players cannot be exonerated completely; part of the fault may lie with them. But it has to be a reflection on the current management team and their attitude to the players and their inability to communicate effectively with them, that there is currently so much unrest in the camp.
Clearly, the problem is a serious one. For a start, the players all know that, with occasional exceptions, Giovanni Trapattoni does not travel to England to watch players playing for their clubs. Thus the players have good reason to conclude that he himself is lazy and lacking in commitment, that he is not prepared to do the hard work required to justify a salary of almost €2 million a year. So why should they respect him?
Then there is the apparent belief among the Irish management that texting people is the best means of communication. Sometimes you have to wonder are these great modern inventions making it harder to communicate, rather than easier! What is wrong with a manager, or one of his most trusted assistants, getting on the phone and talking to each and every relevant player who is called up – or even who is omitted from a particular squad. Not long ago, Ireland’s most capped footballer, Keviin Kilbane, having played 109 times for his country, found out that he had been omitted from a squad from journalists who called him to ask him how he felt about it.
It was a diagraceful insult to Kilbane. He was owed, at the very least, a courtesy call from Trapattoni or from his assistant Marco Tardelli, to explain – as they said once the news was out that Kilbane had been left in the dark – that he would be called up for the next competitive games. Kilbane is a smart guy. He’d have understood and been happy to express his support for the decision. But the management team – who incidentally are not exactly going at full tilt 40 hours a week every week – were too arrogant or thoughtless to pay him that simple courtesy.
In that light, talk of texting Caleb Folan in the States and getting no response rings hollow. Texting across continental divides and different mobile platforms can be messy. Besides, people are bombarded with texts and emails and facebook messages and all sorts of other electronic detritus. Stuff gets accidentally deleted. Mobiles get lost. People send the messages to incorrect numbers. The bottom line, if you are in management, is that you have to work at communication with your players. You have to work at winning their loyalty and at developing both a team spirit and a bond. You have to establish a rapport.
And it helps, by the way, if you don’t talk condescendingly about ‘young people’ in the way that Giovanni Trapattoni constantly seems to. Telling Daron Gibson that he should leave Manchester United. Criticising players immediately after games. Belittling them to the media. On Monday, Gibson became the latest defection, texting in on the countdown to the vital Euro qualifying game against Macedonia, that he was injured – and Trapattoni’s immediate reaction was to publicly question the truth of Gibson’s claim. Did no one phone him back? And if not, why not? Ireland’s footballing future is in Giovanni Trapattoni’s, and Marco Tardelli’s, hands. They cannot afford to allow their pride to inflict damage on that.
The issue is not, therefore, about these players feeling or not feeling Irish. It is about the management not successfully creating a sense of involvement. And it is about them not either educating themselves sufficiently about potential sensitivities – or bringing someone into the management team who might be sufficiently clued in, in that regard.
Here’s an example that has been raised on the Hot Press Message Boards. In the context of the sectarian abuse and intimidation endured by the Celtic manager and former Northern Ireland player Neil Lennon at the hands of bigoted Rangers, Hearts and Northern Ireland supporters in recent months, games against Northern Ireland and Scotland might just present particular concerns for some of the Irish squad – like, for example, Marc Wilson (born in Northern Ireland), James McCarthy (born in Scotland) and Anthony Stokes (a Celtic player from a well known Republican family). Did this thought occur to anyone on the management team? Was there any attempt to reach out and provide a modicum or reassurance or to sound the players out about how they felt?
I’d put my house on it that no one had the slightest inkling that this might have been an issue for any of these players. And maybe it wasn’t. But there seems to be a complete absence in the current Irish set-up of the sort of attention to detail that marks out great management. And there also seems to be a complete lack of awareness of how to create a unity of purpose and sense of mission among the squad.
If you treat footballers like eejits, they are likely to respond accordingly. John Aldridge felt Irish. So did Kevin Kilbane. So will James McCarthy, Marc Wilson and Jon Walters, if they are treated with respect and are made to feel part of the grand plan. And if Giovanni Trapattoni is incapable of making them feel involved, he needs to appoint someone – John Aldridge might be a good candidate – to get the players excited about the project of playing for their country and getting to the finals of major tournaments.
There was something touching about the victory dance that Marco Tardelli and Giovanni Trapattoni did together after the Irish beat the Scots 1-0 to win the Carling Nations Cup tournament. But what we need to see is the players doing that dance with the management, in the way that the Barcelona players do with Pep Guardiola. The manager should be a hero to the players. And you don’t become a hero if you don’t put in the work, if you don’t communicate effectively, if you talk the players down when it suits you and if you condescend to the younger ones in particular.
There is something wrong in the Irish camp and it needs to be addressed. And if Giovanni Trapattoni doesn’t have it in him to make the leap, then the FAI have to do it for him...