O’Toole: I can do better than this
Watford drew with Doncaster, and Rodgers would win only two of his first 10 league games as boss – a run that convinced O’Toole that the Antrim man, so impressive on the coaching paddock, should go back to the tracksuit and leave the managerial stuff to someone else.
Fast forward five-and-a-half years and Rodgers is still in with a chance of, incredibly, leading Liverpool to a first top-flight title in 25 years.
Today, O’Toole’s Bristol Rovers face a battle with Mansfield to avoid the Pirates’ relegation to the Conference – days after he was named in the League Two team of the year.
The 25-year-old can’t help feeling something’s wrong in the universe.
“It’s not easy to tell a manager is going to be great, as you can with players, but I think we all knew he could be a coach,” he says, “I suppose he just learned how to become the manager he is now as he went along.
“He changed a few things very quickly – he made sure we were all suited and booted; for the away trips he wanted us to look smart – it was a bit of a pain in the ass.
“Since then he’s gone on to do a lot of good things, but he obviously learned a lot along the way.”
The Harrow-born star, with Mayo blood, began the slide in the other direction when Rodgers allowed him to leave to join Sheffield United on loan in 2009, after snapping up two Chelsea players to play in his position, a move that affected his usually sky-high confidence. Though United outperformed Watford, and made it to the playoffs final that season, which O’Toole missed through injury, he soon returned to Watford, where he didn’t stay long before joining Colchester, and three seasons later a loan move to Bristol Rovers was made permanent.
Rovers manager John Ward, who’d worked with O’Toole at Colchester, knew what he was getting – and when he signed on permanently last summer, the player thought he knew too, only to slowly discover that the dream move was to become a nightmare. With 13 league goals to his name in a team battling relegation, O’Toole was named in the PFA League Two team of the Year last weekend – one of only three Irishmen to make it on the peer-selected XIs alongside Andy Reid and Seamus Coleman — but still, relegation beckons.
“I scored 15 times in a struggling team, but if I had maybe a better team around me, I could have scored many more, but you never know,” he says, utterly honest about his disillusionment with his current status.
“I just want to play at a higher level and play with better players – because that brings out the best in me.
“And I want to play in nicer stadiums... Torquay or Accrington away on a Tuesday is not really what you look forward to.
“The manger signed me because I worked with him before and he knows I don’t want to play at this level. I don’t want to be at this level any longer than I need to be. I wouldn’t have signed if I didn’t think we were capable of being promoted. But every time we looked like we’d get going, we’d get setbacks and losses. I want to play higher, but right now it’s about getting this club safe – nobody wants this on. So I have to concentrate on that.”
It’s hard to concentrate when you feel you don’t belong. 15 goals, team of the year, and still you lot are letting me down. It’s easy to imagine the thoughts running through his mind.
Yet still, despite the trapdoor open, O’Toole is keeping the faith.
Former Bristol Rovers striker Rickie Lambert and Stoke’s Jon Walters, two players to have played in each of the four football leagues – they’re the blueprints to follow.
“It’s nice to hear stories like that. I have ambitions, I want to play higher and do as well in my as I possibly can.
“There’s no point thinking about (Ireland) too much, it has been a while since I played for U21, and the next step is a lot harder, to become a full international. But if I could get to a higher level, I can show what I can do. That’s another reason for me to get out of this league I suppose...”
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