O’Neill hoping for fond farewell
But now that the great night has dawned, there are bound to be mixed feelings inside the stadium at the foothills of the Dublin mountains, because the end of a season has suddenly been transformed into the end of an era.
The club finally confirmed the worst kept secret in Irish football yesterday when a statement was released officially announcing that tonight’s game against Spurs would be manager Michael O’Neill’s last in charge.
Media were informed that questions on the subject would not be taken at his pre-match press conference but, while there was no attempt to dissect the nitty-gritty of the breakdown in his negotiations with the Rovers board, O’Neill acknowledged the occasion would be an emotional one for him.
“You’re always sad to leave a club, whether as a player or a manager,” he said. “I played for 14 clubs, so you get used to that sadness. It’s like getting continually ditched by girlfriends, you get used to it. The three years have been very enjoyable, very hard work and a huge challenge. It’s for other people to judge how I did. But my career moves on and I’ll have to look at where that takes me. I have no huge career plan. But hopefully for the supporters and especially the members of this club who basically subsidise and keep the club alive, they’ll be able to look back and enjoy these three years.”
Whether O’Neill ever quite fully won hearts and minds among the support in Tallaght is one thing but there can be no doubting or debating the huge success he helped bring to the club. Highlights of his tenure include back-to-back titles and, in Europe, outstanding moments such as that celebrated win in Belgrade and Rovers taking the lead against Spurs in their own backyard.
Yet, when pressed, O’Neill went right back to the beginning to find the personal highlight of his reign as Rovers manager.
“I think the most enjoyable game was that first night in Tallaght when we beat Sligo,” he said. “To see the looks on the supporters’ faces, to see what having their own home meant to them after 20 years on the road, was just fantastic.”
The goal now, of course, is to make the last game equally memorable. Rovers go into their final Europa League group game still seeking the point that would take the bare look off the table and provide them, finally, with some tangible reward for a series of impressive performances against some of European football’s big guns.
Noting that it could also be a last curtain call for some of the Rovers players who are now out of contract, Dan Murray said that they’d like to send the manager off with a farewell present of one point — or more.
“It would be nice to finish with a win for him,” he said, “although I’d say the gaffer is not fussed if we do it for him or for ourselves. That was his message to us at training: go out and do yourselves justice and forget about everyone else.”
Given that the team have had only one competitive game in six weeks, Rovers will hardly be in ideal physical condition against a Spurs side which, though very much second-string, will still contain up to seven internationals.
Murray summed up the test for Rovers as follows: “We’re playing a Champions League club, potentially the champions of England. That’s what we’re up against.”
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