Cathal Dervan : Reality Check for Caretaker

Irish Voice Sport

Cathal Dervan : Reality Check for Caretaker

November 7, 2007

By Cathal Dervan

DON Givens laughed at the very notion as he sat in the hot seat once again in the Fitzmaurice Suite at Dublin Airport’s Clarion Hotel late on Tuesday afternoon, in town to announce the Ireland squad for next week’s European Championship qualifier in Wales.

“So Don, does this make you the Red Adair of Irish football, a green Adair maybe?” I asked as the regular under-21 boss became caretaker manager of our senior international side for the second time in five years.

Last time out Don took charge for a meaningless friendly against Greece in Athens just a month after Mick McCarthy fell on a Swiss sword at Lansdowne Road. This time around Don is in charge because Stephen Staunton fell on a Cypriot sword at Croke Park.

He laughed at the Red Adair comparison. “They keep bringing me in to put out the fires alright,” laughed a man who not so long was his country’s leading scorer with 19 international strikes in an illustrious career.

Then came the reality check. “Look, I’m not going to get the job, never was and never will be. I am realistic enough to know that I am only here today because we didn’t beat Cyprus last month. My job is to pick the team for Wales, try to restore some pride to the players and to the nation and pass it on to the next manager.

“That won’t be me, but I do plan to produce a team and a performance in Cardiff on Saturday week that will give that next man something to work on going forward.”

Then came the sting in the Givens tale. “Look, one of the problems we have here is that expectation is off the wall and that cost Stan, no doubt about it,” added the Don of Irish football.

“We are a small country with three and a half million people, yet everyone expects us to qualify for European Championships and World Cups like we did in the past. That puts huge pressure on players and in international football you have peaks and troughs.

“People have to accept that we are in a transition period at the moment, but that is not easy to accept.”

Then came a word of warning for Manchester City star Stephen Ireland, instigator of the infamous Grannygate affair in Prague last month and in the wars again when he dropped his shorts after scoring against Sunderland on Monday night.

“I haven’t included Stephen because I feel he needs to make the effort now,” said Givens. “Stephen Staunton and the FAI made all the effort the last time and now he needs to reciprocate that and let us know if he wants to play for his country.

“It is a difficult one to understand and I am not qualified to know what is going on in his head, but he has to make the effort now if he wants to play for his country again. It is up to him.”

Such honesty from any manager, especially one in a caretaker role, was a joy to hear on Tuesday afternoon in that Dublin Airport hotel room.

Irish football is burdened by expectations way beyond our means right now. Stephen Ireland is an accident waiting to happen on a day to day basis.

The players and the public have to accept that what went wrong in the European Championship group so far was not all Stephen Staunton’s fault.

And we can only hope that Don is true to his word when Ireland go to Cardiff on Saturday, November 17. We need him to deliver a team that is proud to play for their country and hungry enough to die for the cause in the Millennium Stadium.

If his team can play the game as well as Don Givens can talk the talk then maybe, just maybe, we will have something to cheer about in the Welsh capital next week.

In the meantime my money, literally, is on Terry Venables to take over from Don sometime after Christmas.

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