Martin O’Neill: Leicester give us all right to dream
As a former manager of the club, Martin O’Neill understandably retains a special interest in the fortunes of the Foxes this season but while he thinks a comparison with his Irish team has validity, he’s not about to stick his neck out and predict that they too are about to go all the way in France this summer.
“I think Leicester doing brilliantly gives people a bit of hope and hopefully they can go on and win it,” he said after his latest squad announcement yesterday.
“I think they can. It is almost a certainty that they are going to go on and qualify for the Champions League and you would have said that that would be an enormous achievement in this day and age — which it is.
“Do I see now, some side like ourselves, or Northern Ireland or Wales, thinking that because Leicester are doing well, that should give us the impetus to feel we’re capable of winning the competition?
“I think I’d have to sit down and think about that for a while (smiles)
“But I know what you’re getting at. I think that you would say that teams like Germany, Spain, are very gifted, have won World Cups.
“What I think that Leicester have done is that they’ve given us all a reason to hope and dream that we can do things and not just go there and make up the numbers.
“I do not want to make predictions by any stretch of the imagination.
“We had the draw, I came back, we were having a bit of fun about saying how tough it was — and I still think it is tough.
“But does that prevent us from getting through? Not at all.
“I think what we’ve done in the group, the victory against Germany, should give you a boost.
“Now I know that by the time we get around to playing in the Euros it will have been some time since we played that game but I actually genuinely believe that that victory against Germany was the catalyst — I know we lost a couple of days later against Poland — that carried us on to victory against Bosnia.
“So I think that we should be going in as positive as we possibly can, taking the opposition into consideration.”
From his own experience as a player, he also made the point that, at the 1982 World Cup in Spain, he was involved with a team which, at least for a brief, heady spell, overturned football’s established order.
“I played with Northern Ireland and we lacked a lot of things but we felt with the things we had, and by enhancing and exaggerating them, for want of a better word, that we maybe could stand a chance in games,” O’Neill recalled.
“Now we got to the World Cup quarter-finals and we were very strong, we could hold onto leads and defend leads, but we weren’t that brilliant at going chasing a game.
“For instance, when France finally scored and got in front, they beat us well in the second half of the game (1-4) because we were trying to chase a game and that wasn’t our strongest point. It doesn’t mean that we gave it up.
“So I do see similarities with what Leicester are achieving at the minute and what the likes of ourselves and other nations are trying to do.”
Randolph (West Ham), Forde (Millwall), Westwood (Sheff Wed), Elliot (Newcastle), Christie (Derby), Coleman (Everton), Keogh (Derby), O’Shea, (Sunderland), Pearce (Bristol City, on loan), Duffy (Blackburn), Clark (Aston Villa), McShane (Reading), Ward (Burnley), Cunningham (Preston), Doherty (Wolves), Brady (Norwich), McCarthy (Everton), Hendrick (Derby), Gibson (Everton), Arter (Bournemouth), O’Kane (Bournemouth), Whelan (Stoke), Green (Rotherham), Gleeson (Birmingham), Meyler (Hull), Quinn (Reading), McGeady (Sheff Wed, on loan), McClean (West Brom), Judge (Brentford), Hayes (Aberdeen), Forrester (Peterborough), Pilkington (Cardiff), Walters (Stoke), Hoolahan (Norwich), Keane (LA Galaxy), Long (Southampton), Murphy (Ipswich), Doyle (Colorado Rapids), Stokes (Celtic), Cox (Reading).
Wolves defender Matt Doherty had a rude awakening by his first call-up to a senior Ireland squad and hopes he wasn’t dreaming.
“It’s not really hit me yet because I was half asleep. I heard my phone ringing and I was too tired to even answer it so I went back to sleep,” Doherty told the Wolves website.
“Then I woke up to millions of texts and that on my phone.”
The former Bohemians player was surprised but delighted with the call-up:
“My form has been at a good level for Wolves recently, you are always going to be surprised when the phone actually does ring for a senior call up but I feel I’ve been playing well in the Championship and am really happy that Martin O’Neill and his staff have noticed that.“
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