A strange new world

For the majority, it almost goes without saying, the strangest thing about Martin O’Neill’s appointment as the manager of Ireland is his choice of assistant.

But not for Martin O’Neill. For him – a manager who has always stressed that he is in the results business – the strangest thing is that he will have to wait ten months from his appointment before his team is actually playing for points.

He had touched on the subject at his grand unveiling in the Gibson Hotel in Dublin on Saturday and later returned to it over an informal cup of coffee with a small group of journalists, saying he perhaps hadn’t emphasised enough just how unprecedented this new experience is for him.