John Fallon: Ireland must move to secure Hallgrímsson’s future
For getting Ireland to the World Cup play-offs, Heimir Hallgrímsson deserves a contract extension. Pic: Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile
A week like no other for the Irish football team has sparked cautionary tales of savouring the moment but that shouldn’t neglect futureproofing.
The FAI were rightly lambasted for failing to invest the fruits of three major tournaments between 1988-1994 into domestic care and it's incumbent on this leadership to start planning regardless of what transpires from the World Cup playoffs in March.
That begins by consolidating their assets, specifically the manager.
An excoriatingly long search to fill the vacancy was always bound to underwhelm, leading to many asking 'Heimir who?' when unveiled 16 months ago.
That is not the case for Mr Hallgrímsson. Three competitive wins in a row, the final pair against Portugal and Hungary, have bestowed immortality on the man whose strides with his native Iceland were hardly noticed by a global audience.
Hallgrímsson won’t be indulging the plaudits.
As jubilation erupted around him following Troy Parrott’s stoppage-time winner in Budapest, the extent of the manager’s reaction was a smile. He was swift to offer advice for his players to avoid their celebrations being short-lived.
Again, in the Puskás Arena media room, he was restrained rather than rambunctious.
That’s what we’ve come to expect over his 16-game reign, the wins and losses contextualised to inject perspective.
Humility constitutes his calling card.
It is known he took personal responsibility for the shambles that was the 2-1 defeat in Armenia only 10 weeks ago, wondering aloud in a meeting with FAI powerbrokers whether this reign was working out.
Later that day, FAI employees were surprised to see the blonde, blue-eyed boss enter their offices at Abbotstown to apologise for the shocker less than 24 hours earlier.
There were no doubts from the other side of the table, albeit a failure to register their first win of the campaign at the fourth attempt against Armenia would have tested their patience.
Hallgrímsson, in the course of Sunday’s victory speech, insisted he was oblivious to media criticism, both mainstream and social, yet it's understood he was miffed at some of the commentary around the 1-0 home win.
While he talked up a defensive record of 0.5 goals per match from the window as qualification form, sceptics questioned why there weren’t more at the other end. A reversion to the central-defensive trio formation for the meeting of a team outside the top 100 in the world was widely bemoaned as negative.
There were shades of Giovanni Trapattoni’s reign to his approach, a pragmatic reliance on a rearguard structure.
From being within minutes of working in Lisbon, it recurred for the opening stages of the rematch. Parrott profited from a gameplan based on counterattacking, maximising the inferior portion of possession they’d have.
“We can all agree that Ireland doesn’t have a match-winner at this stage,” he had said two months into his reign, a second successive 2-0 loss to Greece.
“We don’t have a Zlatan, Messi or Ronaldo or the high-profile players of the past such as Roy Keane, playing at the highest level.”
As grating as that inconvenient truth was to punters, the solace came through the emergence of Caoimhín Kelleher, Nathan Collins and Evan Ferguson towards peak periods of their careers.
He just needed that trio on the pitch, plus flesh out the team with willing and competent operators.
His desire to settle on a favoured XI was scuppered not just by injury and suspension but a degree of trial and error.
Eight of the starters in Sunday’s heroics were involved in the 5-0 humbling by England exactly 12 months ago this week.
Séamus Coleman and Chiedozie Ogbene would both probably have started at Wembley were they not injured. The other newcomer, Jake O’Brien, was then an unused sub. His elevation proved the manager wasn’t inflexible when it came to his selection.
Irrespective of personnel, messaging remained consistent. Whereas Trapattoni’s takes were often received as disparaging, Hallgrímsson's were perceived as acceptable foundations to flourish from.
“If you are an underdog like us in this group – and we are ranked No 3 – there’s a need to be better than others in some areas,” outlined the Icelander about his priorities.
“It's always better to be best in three, four, five, six areas out of 10 rather than to be semi good in 10 out of 10.
“So we are focusing on certain areas we want to be good at and that's these principles in defence and attack.”
His sweet music, belatedly, induced a tune from his players. The chemistry is there for all to admire, international rookies like Liam Scales, Ryan Manning and Jack Taylor excelling when it came to crunch. Troy Parrott’s rejuvenation is worthy of a book in its own right.
Hallgrímsson's contract will roll into the playoffs having struck the target set for him to make Ireland a competitive force again.
For that achievement alone, a contract extension is worthy.
Nothing that unfolds over one or two playoff matches will detract from what he masterminded. He was probably the only one who truly believed his six-point prediction.
Now, it’s time to believe in him and tie the manager down on a deal up until the Euro 2028 finals.
An afterglow from the heroics of the men’s and women’s team are sweeping through the game but the realities of the FAI’s finances will be discussed today at the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC).
The FAI agreed to attend the conciliation meeting in Dublin arising from a request lodged by Siptu.
They are still furious at the association’s handling of their redundancy programme from their 252-strong workforce, adamant the cutbacks are disproportionately impacting those working at the coalface.
It’s believed the initial target in the voluntary phase of 30 staff was exceeded by 12, helped by the added incentive of a €5,000 bonus each, but another 18 will be axed from 100 reapplying for their jobs, or new versions of them.
Siptu have made it clear from the outset their opposition to compulsory job cuts. Modernisation has been trumpeted as justification, whereas any reasonable observer could see their wage bill is unsustainable for an organisation still burdened by €42m of debt.
What has, however, altered the complexion of that argument since the parties agreed to attend is the heightened chance of Ireland striking the jackpot from World Cup qualification.
Around €9.5m is estimated to be the guaranteed prize money for each of the 48 finalists, with plenty of scope to swell the bounty by progression. Given how long Siptu waited for the FAI to meaningfully engage, this could be the first of many showdowns.
Tim Sherwood was on Sky Sports this week willing Troy Parrott to haunt Tottenham Hotspur for selling him but Manchester United may have regrets too.
As our exclusive picture shows, Ireland’s hero of the last week once donned the famous Red Devils jersey.
He was U13 at the time when United’s Irish scouts, led by the late Joe Corocoran and Larry Dunne, invited a collection of Irish youngsters into a showcase match at Gannon Park, the Malahide ground which at that time was where the Irish team trained.
United’s selection of Irish youngsters, which also included Parrott’s current Ireland teammate Festy Ebosele, took on the Waterford squad building up preparations for their Kennedy Cup season.
United soon turned into admirers of the Belvedere striker but were outmanoeuvred by Tottenham Hotspur. They had already pitched their credentials to the precocious playmaker and his family, monitoring his progress throughout and arranging regular trips to their Enfield training ground.
They banked €8m and a sell-on clause from selling Parrott to AZ Alkmaar last year but United will rue the cost of failing to convince Ireland’s future spearhead that his lay at Old Trafford.
