Georgia coach is all charm

Back in Tbilisi it had been hot and sunny but as Georgia's Croatian manager Ivo Shushak glanced out the window of his squad's Dublin hotel yesterday, he flashed a winning smile and described the rather grim, overcast scene outside as "perfect football weather".

In an instant it became easy to imagine how he has earned the affection of an economically hard-pressed nation. Shushak's popularity in Georgia stems mainly from the fact that in his first game as national coach he guided the team to victory over hated neighbours Russia.

When asked yesterday at his first press conference since arriving in Ireland how much the result had meant to the country's population he hadn't quite had an opportunity to respond when the Georgian Football Federation's press officer exclaimed, with the look of a man who simply couldn't remain silent on hearing mention of the result, "I'll tell you all afterwards".

Shushak, the Dinamo Tbilisi coach by day, was in charge for the game only on a stand-in basis following the resignation of Alexander Chivadze and though he said yesterday he believes he should probably concentrate on one job or the other, it is fairly hard to imagine anybody asking him to step down from the international side in the foreseeable future.

The victory also put him in a commanding position with the team's star players - at least one of whom, Rangers striker Shota Arveladze - reportedly reacted badly to being omitted from the starting line-up on the night.

"No," he says, as he turns on the charm again. "I don't have problems with players, although sometimes they have a problem with me. But I don't know what happened apart from the fact that he did not make it to the final team meeting before the game."

Perhaps realising that the Croatian may be around for some time, Arveladze has returned to the fold for the trip to Ireland and Shushak says that the striker will start tomorrow night at Lansdowne Road.

His options in almost every department, though, have been restricted by injury or suspension, with six players having failed to make the journey to Ireland, four of them members of the starting line-up on April 30th against the Russians. He insists he still has a strong group of 18 players to choose from. And having seen the Irish three times at last year's World Cup where he was working for Croatian television, he has a good idea what his men will be up against.

"I am a great admirer of the Irish but I would not come here if I didn't believe in my own team. I would say that a win would be a good result for us," he adds with a grin, "but that would be to put too much pressure on my players."