Reasons to be cheerful

As 2014 takes over from 2013 we should, by rights, be feeling the effects of failing to qualify for Brazil ever more deeply.

The closer we get to Rio, the further away it ought to seem for an Irish football team which abandoned all hope as far back as last September.

That the vista of a summer devoted to providing warm-up fodder for South America-bound opponents isn’t, in fact, quite as appalling as it should be, has everything to do with the notion that the darkest hour comes right before the dawn. In other words, having exited the age of austerity with the departure of Giovanni Trapattoni, we are now anticipating an era of plenty in the company of Martin O’Neill and Roy Keane.