Positives outweigh any concerns for Keane-O’Neill dream team

It was while walking into the glitzy celebration dinner in honour of Brian O'Driscoll at the Convention Centre in Dublin last Friday night that I was told that the Martin O'Neill-Roy Keane partnership was a runner. My instant reaction – "Really?" – was probably akin to yours, and I immediately thought of John Delaney's past with Roy Keane, and my own.

But as the speeches began and the room buzzed with admiration for Brian, I began to get what was in Martin O'Neill's thoughts. I know he's always had a soft spot for Roy, they both have that element of Brian Clough to them, a shared experience.

The idea of the two of them together, that fills you with imagination, excitement. I started to think of the Jack Charlton era 25 years ago and what it meant to a generation of Irish teenagers.

This could mean the same to this generation. And they need stimulating, because to soccer’s detriment, as the audience for Brian O’Driscoll proved, rugby has a massive presence in Irish sport now, utterly different to what it was when I left the country in 1983.

But your head races, because I then asked myself the same questions as everyone else: Will it work? Can it work?

We cannot gloss over either man’s last posting. It didn’t truly work out for Martin at Sunderland and it certainly didn’t work out for Roy at Ipswich and they both left dissatisfied.

In their new roles, we cannot gloss over the playing resources available to them. We saw the squad's difficulties under Giovanni Trapattoni and if this dual appointment sounds like a short-term injection of spirit, well, we need it.

Real talents
We need lots of things. We have real talents such as Séamus Coleman at Everton but there was an Ireland under-21 game a couple of weeks ago and we had no player, not one, playing in the Premier League.

There is a focus on the national team’s first XI understandably but there is a lot of work to be done elsewhere. I know from being a chairman that once the rush of an appointment slows, this kind of reality can bite. It can all look different. I worry about what is, and what isn’t, coming through.

Also, there is not much money around in Irish football. There is a contrast with the GAA, who invest and re-invest in young players, whereas in soccer, the money always seems to leave. That’s the culture.

But I do not want to sound negative. I'm not. How could I be after watching Sunday's enthralling FAI Cup final between Sligo Rovers and Drogheda? For me, the positives significantly outweigh any concerns.

What Martin brings is vast experience, his intelligence and the sheer zip when he is fired up. It might have ended limply at Sunderland but that does not erase what he achieved before at Aston Villa, Celtic, Leicester City and all the way back to Wycombe Wanderers. It should also not be forgotten what Martin did at Sunderland with a team he inherited. They were marooned in relegation trouble. His initial spell at the club was electric.

With Roy it was the same. John Delaney’s position struck me instantly last Friday night as it was comparable to mine when Drumaville and myself were in the process of taking over Sunderland in 2006 and searching for a manager for a club close to bottom of the Championship.

I’d played with Roy and fallen out with him. There were hard words. Now I was asking him to work with me. We both had to bury memories and we did it. Sunderland won the Championship and promotion. I wouldn’t change those experiences.

Later Roy and I would fall out again. But that does not mean I can’t appreciate who he is or what he brings. Some are already wondering how Roy will take to being a number two but that ignores Martin’s abilities and understanding.

Unlike Trapattoni and his staff, Roy will love going to matches, he will watch as many Irish players as possible regardless of their status. Imagine what that should do to players. It should give them a huge lift and hopefully there will be a ripple effect across the country.

Better equation
There is one other thing about the reality of the situation and it is this: there will be 53 teams trying to join hosts France at the European Championships in 2016 and there are 23 places available. That's 23 from 53, which is a better equation than the 14 from 51 places available to accompany Poland and Ukraine in the 2012 tournament. And we made that.

So it’s not just natural optimism that makes me think there can be an Ireland team in France. The expanded finals give us a chance and if we take it, then it is the effect of that which most excites me.

Qualification would surely mean a swelling of the FAI coffers, and if that is used properly then Irish soccer can start to claw back some of the ground lost to rugby and GAA.

Some still have questions about the FAI in this appointment. But right now I'm not so worried that two of Ireland's most prominent businessmen, Denis O'Brien and Dermot Desmond, seem to have financed and brokered the deal for the Dream Team. It's another reality, the FAI's finances.

I'd be more worried about the alternative. The alternative would be low-budget, no frills, whereas we will all go to the match against Latvia on Friday week with a spring in the step. It will be nervous excitement but that is better than no excitement. Our game has gone flat, we need to rediscover the spice in Irish soccer and the two most interesting men in it have just been appointed as the management team.

At worst it will be fascinating. At best it could be sensational.