Charlton reels in the years at the Aviva

JACK CHARLTON looks down on the immaculate, sun-splashed pitch of the Aviva Stadium from the lofty perch of the FAI suite and allows his mind to wander back 24 years to the same place but a very different venue.

“The first day I came in as manager I went out on the pitch at Lansdowne Road and the grass was about this long,” he says, extending his hand to the height of an elephant’s eye.

“I was talking to the groundsman and he said they were going to cut the grass before we played on it. And I said: don’t cut it. I liked to play the ball behind people and if you cut the grass, the ball will be quick, it’ll bounce and go straight through to the goalkeeper or go out for a goal kick. I said, leave the grass like that so that the ball will stop. And it worked.”