Martin O'Neill... The training ground myth.

O’NEILL: “It’s an absolute myth and I’d love to dispel it.”

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“HE HAS the ability to make you feel ten feet tall. He could turn an ordinary player into a very good player – not by coaching because we never saw him coach on the training ground – but by word.”
Former Nottingham Forest player Brian Laws made the comment above about his old boss Brian Clough, but in the last few weeks, the same has been frequently said of Ireland boss Martin O’Neill.
But it’s time to put this ‘myth’ to an end, O’Neill argued, as he finally grew weary of the claim that he’s a football manager incapable of coaching, or unwilling to dirty his hands on the training ground.
O’Neill was asked, in the aftermath of his second game in charge of Ireland, whether he’d have to change his habits now he’s in charge of an international team, with the implication that he may now be ‘forced’ take some training sessions.
But the former Celtic and Aston Villa boss hit out at this apparent character assassination, and argued that people had him wildly wrong.
“You see, myths grow up about this and it’s simply not true, do you know?” O’Neill said.
“Even the manager (Paolo Di Canio) who was at Sunderland after me [said it], but it’s an absolute myth.
“Sometimes you have a coach there who might do the coaching.
“I would interrupt but if I’m interrupting every single minute of every single day, you know? But it’s a myth that’s grown up here.
“I’ve been in this game twenty years. I managed and coached Wycombe before I had a coach. You know, let’s be fair.
“I managed Leicester City and then I had a coach, Stevie Walford followed me there. Stevie was not my coach at Wycombe Wanderers, I was the coach – a guy called Paul Franklin did some work with me.
“But it’s an absolute myth and I’d love at some stage or other dispel it.”

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O’Neill’s managerial style has long been compared with the eccentric Clough, who, according to most of his players, was not a regular visitor to the training ground.
So, does O’Neill feel he is being ‘tarred’ with the same brush as his former boss?
“Exactly, exactly, this is the whole thing. I’ll tell you something, I could count on the fingers of one hand in twenty years the number of days I haven’t been at training. I’ll tell you, absolutely,” he insisted.
“It might be the Clough thing, but it’s an absolute myth that I just go in, and you know, rub your face or something. I wish, I wish.”
While on the subject, O’Neill was also keen to point out some of the injustice surrounding Clough’s coaching ability.
“I’ll tell you something,” he offered, “you talk about Brian Clough. People say he didn’t coach, but one thing I’ll tell you about Brian Clough is that he taught things to players that have stood the test of time, that some coaches would have missed, points they would have missed.
“Points that I’d never heard about, I hadn’t heard about until Clough arrived at Nottingham Forest to tell me-closing players down, closing people down.
“Basically, Brian Clough was a really, really top quality coach, he just wasn’t out on the field every single day.
“In fact, he wasn’t but when he did take training, you listened.
“What I’m saying to you is, too bad, listen if people want to believe it, I’ll get on with it but I can tell you the number of days I’ve missed in twenty years.”
While O’Neill was keen to put an end to one perception of him as a manager, he was happy to let another prevail; the insular manager who keeps himself to himself.

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The Derry native doesn’t spend his days arranging golf outings with fellow bosses, and insisted he won’t change much now that he will be dealing with players that belong to other managers.
“No, no, I don’t think I have to change my character just because I’ve stepped into this. No, that’s me,” he argued.
“And let’s be fair, the other managers might actually be quite delighted I don’t phone them. So, I don’t see that changing.
“I think there’s nothing wrong with being polite to someone, nothing wrong with having some form of communication with managers now about the players and, you know, for instance, get in touch with Billy Davies really to apologise for the injury that Andy Reid sustained during my time here.
“But I’m not constantly on the phone to other managers, never have been as a league manager.
“I don’t see the reason for doing that. Of course, if I’m looking to find some player who might belong to another team, of course, and there’s one or two managers that I would have more than one conversation in the course of two or three months but overall, yeah, I’m not in a coterie of little friends. That has never bothered me.”

http://www.ciarano.me/post/67944096871/oneill-its-an-absolute-myth-and-id-love-to-dispel