McAteer fears 'perfect partner' Carsley may end up out of FAI's reach
GREEN LIGHTS: Former Irish international footballer Jason McAteer ahead of Ireland’s match against Canada which takes place at lunchtime on Wednesday. As an official partner of the Republic of Ireland Women’s National Team, Carlsberg 0.0 has teamed up with former Irish international footballer Jason McAteer to encourage fans to continue their support for the Girls in Green and watch the game.
Jason McAteer didn’t need much prompting. The first mention of Stephen Kenny’s Republic of Ireland team yesterday took him back to August of 2020 and his take that the gig was a big ask for a man with a CV built in Irish football and with one brief stint in Scotland.
Kenny’s reign has since delivered just ten wins in 34 games. Ireland finished eight points adrift of qualification for the 2022 World Cup, the prospects of making Euro 2024 are bleak, and two Nations League campaigns have been, well, more or less disastrous.
None of that last paragraph can be contested, regardless of which side people might take in the ongoing debate over the national team, its manager and theories about style v substance, but McAteer isn’t blind to the context when it comes to making judgements.
Lost amid the hoopla 35 months ago was his line about how a change in approach might be a good thing for the Boys in Green and he gets it that Kenny is working with a pool of limited means and against the backdrop of those glory days under Jack and Mick. Bottom line, though?
“Obviously my comments early after Stephen got in made a few headlines but I stand by what I said,” he explained. “I’m certainly not saying I’m sitting here now with a smile on my face because of what happened.
“I wanted them to be successful but that was my opinion at the time and it stands. I’m not saying results have proven me right but I just thought that it was a tough ask for Stephen going into that kind of dressing-room and getting results.”
Kenny’s Ireland need an unlikely pair of results against France (away) and the Netherlands (at home) in September if the team is to harbour any hope of qualifying via Group B. Even the ridiculous back-door route seems to be closing with results posted elsewhere.
Talk, inevitably, has turned to who might be the next man up and Lee Carsley’s potential candidacy was being tossed around long before the former Republic of Ireland midfielder guided England to a European U21 title in recent weeks.
McAteer and Carsley still keep in touch. The pair had eight years together with Ireland and they were roommates ahead of that crucial World Cup qualifier in Dublin in 2021 when the former scored his famous half-volley winner against the Dutch.
“Out of all that team he was probably the perfect room partner for me,” McAteer explained yesterday. “I wasn’t in a good place around that time, just in general. My life was a bit of a mess. To have him around me… We roomed together for the week. Just being around him, he looks after you. He’s a carer. The game has gone to a different level now when you talk about mental health and he is right up on that, he’s all over it. He’s a really good character.”
There’s no certainty when it comes to who might bridge the gap between pitch and dugout. McAteer felt Jamie Carragher was a cert for life as a gaffer, for example, but Carsley was another he thought could lean that way.
It’s ten years since Carsley offered his services as a scout to the FAI but that, and a reported link with the U21 job never came to pass. He has since held a variety of posts, mostly at underage levels, at the likes of Coventry City, Brentford, Manchester City and Birmingham City.
There is an understanding on McAteer’s part that Carsley’s recent success can’t be making it any easier on Kenny, and that he commands both the CV and the skills to command a senior dressing-room.
“But, then again,” he said at one point, “Lee has got to look at it from his point of view and think, ‘Where is my career going?’ Is Ireland the right move for him? I'm not too sure it is at the minute.” It’s not the money. The FAI is ‘only’ paying Kenny somewhere south of half-a-million euro a year, but McAteer doesn’t get the impression of a man motivated by finances as much as a still-young 49-year old who is plotting a clear career path.
If there is a new chapter awaiting Carsley then McAteer envisages something in the Championship. All of which begs the question as to who might actually want the job whenever Kenny’s stint in the role does come to an end.
“It's difficult. As much as it wasn't a great watch, (Giovanni) Trapattoni did bring us success," McAteer said. "He was a big character, a big name in the game. Instant respect. Someone who knows their way around international football, has bags of experience and knows how to get results.
“Sometimes it's not about being attractive in the way we play. Sometimes it's just about trying to get a result, trying to move up the ladder and become a more attractive country to play for. That's only going to come when we're qualifying for tournaments.”
It’s an old and ongoing argument that continues to divide opinion here and if his top-of-the-head mention of Sam Allardyce as a possible candidate will hardly strengthen his case, then it speaks again to the crossroads that looms sooner or later for the men’s side and for the FAI.
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