Did alright for them last time. Hard job that, they don’t have many good players these days. They’ve always had a few quality players the past 25 years or longer, but who do they have now?! Coleman?!
18 month caretaker appointment from the sounds of it. He hasn’t got much to work with as the Irish teams have a lack of talent coming through in comparison to England, Wales, and Scotland. If he manages to qualify with them, that would be an impressive achievement, but I think they’ll maybe get knocked out in the play offs.
Luck of d'Irish - require a decent group you'd say. That said, 24 teams now qualify for the ruddy Euros. Was such a damn good tournament with 16............
And all the group winners from the Nations League get a second chance too. And if I understand correctly, if a Nations League winner qualifies via the next qualification stage, their place in the Nations League stage of qualification will be taken up by the next best team who finished second in the Six Nations band (A, B, C etc). So, conceivably, if several Nations League countries in Ireland’s band qualify via the next stage, Mick’s Ireland side get another bite of the cherry! I think the Nations League has been great ramping up the excitement levels of international football during the domestic season. However, the multitude of rules and relationship with the next stage of the EUROs seem unnecessarily complex.
When you put in into the stark context of Mick not being able to get himself a job in the 2nd tier of English football... To then be handed the top job in Ireland having left that role 16 Years ago shows the state of football in Ireland.. It's not too dissimilar to England appointing Kevin Keegan again.
His plan must be to keep himself busy whilst continuing to tout himself for every single job going... And hope that a couple of results will help see his stock rise. I still can't get over his comments about how he should be favorite for the Villa job.. Following that up with disparaging remarks about how Thierry Henry (favourite at the time) couldn't hold a candle to him.. Smacked of desperation to be thought of as highly as he would like to be.
I think it's the ideal job for him - low expectations. Roll into training each day and do the same old drills. Everyone calls you big man. If you don't qualify for the Euros it's the players and if you do you're an absolute hero. I don't think he will go into club management again, after this it's time for him to retire into a consultancy / DoF job somewhere. For Eire and the FAI. Not much they can do, it's Wales' turn for a golden generation at the moment.
I reckon he'll have one last job in the league - probably Barnsley if the timings are right (or someone like Rotherham). I don't think any of the top 40 or so clubs would appoint him, unless they were absolutely desperate and only on a short term deal.
According to newspaper talk he turned down 2 approaches from Championship Clubs apparently, so I think we can reduce that he was given a heads up that ONeill and Desperate Dan were on borrowed time, good luck to him.
