Huge respect for O'Shea as he adds a brick or two to the rebuild

It’s worth noting that a whole bunch of the players in this squad have similar experiences in terms of working with John O’Shea.

HIS OWN STAMP: John O'Shea made a decent fist of maintaining the place while adding a brick or two of his own. Pic: Tim Markland

Saturday night was just the start of something for Sammie Szmodics. For John O’Shea it was … what exactly? A caretaker role and an ambition realised, obviously, but it was more than that again. It was an audition.

Tasked with holding the fort while the FAI procrastinates between the Kenny era and whatever new dawn comes with the announcement of his successor next month, O’Shea made a decent fist of maintaining the place while adding a brick or two of his own.

Ireland were solid and structured, the side looked balanced and the work ethic was impressive in the way they pressed a Belgian side that, truth be told, showed all the urgency of a sloth on a Sunday morning.

Put all that together and it doesn’t make for a cast-iron case for any prospective employers but something Szmodics said after his international debut caught the ear given the limited time in which the interim gaffer has had to work.

“John made it a really good, easy week with a lot of information,” said the new guy.

That’s no small thing in the international game. Managers making the switch from club to international football have often struggled to adapt to the different rhythms and constraints since time immemorial. Knowing what to work on and what to ignore is a skill in itself.

O’Shea was assistant manager when Will Smallbone won all of his U21 caps and part of the coaching staff at Stoke City when the Ireland midfielder spent a season on loan at Stoke City and was quick with his praise after the draw with Belgium.

“Everybody has a huge amount of respect for him. I can’t speak highly enough of him throughout my whole career, not just this past week but for everything he has done for me. He’s been brilliant and all the lads have got a huge amount of respect for him.” 

It’s worth pointing out too that a whole bunch of the players in this squad have similar experiences in terms of working with O’Shea. There’s a hefty body of work in the bank there that could come in useful regardless of who gets the new gig in the coming weeks.

Smallbone echoed Szmodic in highlighting O’Shea’s success in imparting his messages, and he added to that the fine balance found in a managerial grouping that boasts Paddy McCarthy and Glenn Whelan, and one with Brian Kerr involved as elder lemon.

Kerr seems to have been a figure content to exist in the background for much of this international window but he impressed with a speech on the eve of the first game when he shared some of his many experiences in the game down the years.

One of Kerr’s issues in his managerial prime was the perception that he had never managed across the water. For O’Shea it may be his preternatural calm, the dreaded ‘too nice’ tag, and yet this is a man Michael D Higgins labelled as one of most “inspirational, committed and admired” of Irish players.

“He’s a good man manager,” said the 24-year old Smallbone. “He’s obviously got an abundance of experience from his playing days and I think him getting that across in a managerial way is very important.

“When you hear from different managers that haven’t maybe been there or played, it’s different to when you’d speak to, like, a John O’Shea that has been there at the top level for many years and he knows exactly what you guys are going through as players.” 

That right there is a quote that could easily be used out of context given the previous incumbent’s CV, but there was no mention of Stephen Kenny in the question that prompted it, or in the answer itself. This was just a player extolling one man, not slighting another.

Whoever the new gaffer is the job remains the same. There is a decent bunch of players to work with, not world-beaters but a collective that should be able to improve on recent results for all manner of reasons.

A 0-0 draw in a bloodless friendly against a disinterested visitor isn't going to turbo-charge any new dawn but if Ireland can turn that sort of game into a 1-0 win then they may be able to operate as some sort of profitable business again.

“It’s just the fine margins,” said Smallbone. “We play that same game another however many times and we probably do come out on top. That’s the main thing for us going forward this year, to turn these draws into wins. That will be key for us going forward qualifying for championships.

“Coming up against a top nation like Belgium is a good test for us and Switzerland [tomorrow] will be another good test, but we showed [on Saturday] that we can create chances and be as good as we can against top nations.”