The idea that a sportsperson is talking to the fans when they speak to journalists is a line often peddled by the media, but it doesn’t have much validity.
For one thing social media has told us that fans don’t really appreciate many of the questions journalists ask when they are talking to sportspeople, supposedly on behalf of the fans.
But what may be true is that the media is where the public forms an impression of sportspeople, particularly a manager. So when Martin O’Neill speaks to RTE, this is where many supporters – as well as those who don’t follow football too closely – develop their opinion of him.
After the latest interview with Tony O’Donoghue on Wednesday, the less engaged observers might be puzzled to learn that Martin O’Neill was “delighted” on Wednesday to commit to Ireland for another two years.
They might have watched the interview with Tony O”Donoghue and formed the wrong impression that this man would rather be anywhere else than here, anywhere, of course, except at another press conference where he’d be pretty surly too.
They might have wondered why a man who seems so tetchy engaging in a routine part of his job didn’t take up one of the other opportunities that had come his way.
But O’Neill’s commitment can’t be questioned. As he pointed out, “I don’t disappear after a week” which is an admirable quality and he is very much still Ireland manager, even if it feels at this stage as if a change would have been better for everyone.
O’Neill would undoubtedly say that media duties are only a small part of his job and a hostile relationship with the press is a defining characteristic for some of football’s greatest managers.
The problem is that for Ireland things don’t really seem so great right now, and the interviews don’t seem to be a counterpoint to an overall sense of wellbeing, but a pretty accurate reflection of where Irish football is at this moment.
O’Neill would dispute that. He would point to the European Championships, Ireland finishing second in the World Cup group despite being fourth seeds and results against Germany and Italy.
He would have a point, but he appears to have lost the battle for hearts and minds.
Maybe these interviews partly explain why the reports that he might be about to leave the Ireland job were met with a collective shrug. On top of the result against Denmark, the bad football and the general despair, there was an ever present weariness at the surly, chippy air O’Neill had in many of his interviews with O’Donoghue.
There have been times when O’Donoghue has, in my view, been needlessly combative but if O’Neill is the accomplished manager he insists he is then this should be a straightforward enough part of the role. Martin O’Neill was once interviewed for the England job. What did he think that was going to be like? I can remember one English journalist booing a weeping David Seaman as he walked through the mixed zone following the defeat to Brazil at the 2002 World Cup, so that might give him some idea.
On Wednesday in Lausanne, the ongoing and tiresome tussle continued. Any sense that the Ireland manager who signed a new contract on Tuesday would bring a different approach to these encounters quickly disappeared as he seemed determined to make a point to O’Donoghue about his ‘hard luck’ comment before their post-match interview following the Denmark game.
Martin O'Neill gives his reaction to the Republic of Ireland's Nations League draw and addresses recent speculation about his future #RTEsoccer pic.twitter.com/cLC1SiDARB
— RTÉ Soccer (@RTEsoccer) January 24, 2018
O’Neill is known for his long memory and he has always been happy to let journalists know what he thinks if any of their work has displeased him. So this is nothing new, but unlike, say, at Leicester or Celtic, O’Neill does not have massive public support.
If he did, those supporters would look at his interview with Tony O’Donoghue and wonder why this journalist was pissing him off. Instead many will wonder why O’Neill is bringing up obscure details from an interview after a game he would be better off hoping everyone forgot about.
In that post-match interview, O’Donoghue talked about the match becoming a ‘shambles’ and a ‘humiliation’. It may have been brutal and impolite, while O’Neill might have considered it a ‘verbal attack’, but many would have agreed with it.
On Wednesday, O’Neill wondered if O’Donoghue was being disingenuous with his ‘hard luck’ comment, when maybe he should have just reflected that it’s simply something people say.
“Well, you saw your interview afterwards immediately after the game, didn’t you?” he asked O’Donoghue, who responded that indeed he had. “When you did say hard luck to me and it went, it was just a real verbal attack, wasn’t it?”
O’Neill seemed to think he was on to something and it might be just as well he didn’t pursue a career in law if he thinks ‘hard luck’ is the smoking gun he appeared to feel it was.
“I’ll tell you what might be interesting – that the perception of the job I was doing for the Republic of Ireland…the perception elsewhere is actually very, very, very positive unlike yourself,” he told O’Donoghue.
Others in Ireland also hold that negative opinion, but maybe not in England where O’Neill may feel his work is better understood.
“Your reaction is totally different – hence people asking me about jobs,” O’Neill said, explaining why others seemed to value the job he’d done more than his Irish critics.
If that is how he feels, we can only admire Martin O’Neill’s ongoing commitment to a job he loves. But maybe he would have been better off among those with a greater appreciation of all he has achieved.
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