Dion Fanning: There is no circle of trust for the manager and the media

The reality, confirmed a thousand times, is that the needs of the media and the dressing room are rarely aligned

REFRESHING HONESTY?: Diane Caldwell during a Republic of Ireland women press conference at the FAI National Training Centre in Abbotstown, Dublin. Pic: Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile

When Ireland played Scotland at Lansdowne Road in 1986, the Scottish manager Andy Roxburgh was said to have asked his players at Celtic, Manchester United, and Liverpool to detail the strengths and weaknesses of the Irish players at those clubs.

David Walsh told the tale in his magisterial profiles of the Irish squad that appeared in the Sunday Tribune before the 1990 World Cup. After asking Roy Aitken and Gordon Strachan to provide information on the Ireland players at Celtic and United, Roxburgh turned to Kenny Dalglish, then player-manager at Liverpool, and asked him to tell his fellow Scotland team-mates about Ireland’s players. “I don’t have anything to say about the Liverpool players who play for Ireland,” Dalglish replied.