Hallgrimsson aware of stakes but football the focus as England roll into town 

Head coach Heimir Hallgrimsson during a Republic of Ireland training session. Pic: Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile

No better qualified candidate to extract the heat from a local derby than the Iceman.

Ireland’s first meaningful match since Greece in June 2023 just happens to be their first home competitive outing against the Old Enemy for 34 years.

Tickets are as scarce as Garda overtime this weekend, the fans are demanding needle and the players seeking bragging rights over their clubmates.

Several were colleagues too of defectors Declan Rice and Jack Grealish, while another former Ireland player, Lee Carsley, is more topical for shying away from the Ireland vacancy.

That Ireland’s most successful manager, Jack Charlton, came the opposite route magnifies the connection between the nations.

It bears all the ingredients of what Ireland yearns to reclaim; penning their own chapter of a storied rivalry, starting a hectic 15-month period as they mean to go on.

Maybe it’s a blessing that the new Ireland manager Heimir Hallgrimsson is detached from the multiple plots and subplots; sporting or otherwise.

In the job only seven weeks, the Icelander spoke of embracing Irish culture but the universal language of football is uppermost here.

From making his name with his homeland at Euro 2016 and the World Cup two years later, he ventured to Qatar and more recently Jamaica.

It’s a similar approach to blocking out the Reggae Boyz noise in order to chime sweet music for Irish fans.

“I've never experienced a rivalry as big as this one,” he confessed about the Ireland/England edge.

“But, from us the coaches, it's about the football; not politics and all the other things.

“It's probably a different game for the media, marketing and security people. We need to focus on what happens on the pitch.” 

Independence of mind has been an early theme of his tenure.

Rather than play catch-up by traversing the English motorway network to scout players, he’s attended just one cross-channel match.

Tracking the players and selecting the squad was delegated to his assistants John O’Shea and Paddy McCarthy.

Likewise, this introductory week in camp didn’t feature a customary bonding session.

Five-day build-ups to an international game are a rarity but he opted to stick to business instead of replicating his predecessor by leaving the goldfish bowl for a meal outside of the Castleknock hotel.

His recent edict about “being good at five out of 10 things, rather than semi-good at seven out of ten” is reflected in his regime.

Breakfast, training, dinner and meeting times are daily bedrocks.

Expect a break from tradition by hearing the views of the Ireland manager by lunchtime on the day before away matches.

If that all sounds workmanlike, then the long afternoon breaks for player downtime detail his trusting side.

That’s his recipe for engendering a team spirit essential for Ireland to reestablish a reputation of competing for tournament qualification.

“We will prepare the same way, whether we’re facing superstars or not,” he asserted. “When you only have six camps per year, the way forward is consistency in what you are doing and how you play. Then you build on that in the future.

“Going from one style to another style in two games within the camp is really difficult.

“We just must be better at what we’re doing. And I think for Ireland to go forward, that’s to operate as a good collective team.

“Going man-for-man, gung-ho, England would beat us nine times out of 10. We can never succeed unless we do it as a unit, as a group.” That quest for momentum will be shaped by his selection and tactics.

Despite the new era, minimal deviation from the template O’Shea set during his run of four friendlies as caretaker manager is anticipated.

Diplomacy was at play when Hallgrimsson refused to rule out Nathan Collins stepping into midfield, ironically a switch mastered by England’s John Stones at Manchester City, but his defensive strength is set to be deployed shadowing Harry Kane.

Jake O’Brien’s idleness at Everton will probably count against him, as is likely the case for Evan Ferguson.

Asking the teen sensation to lead the line for a match of such magnitude, in his first action following a six-month layoff, is a stretch. An impact substitute’s role is logical.

"I think we can really build a strong squad going forward,” the manager declared.

“We have a lot playing at a similar level and then those in the Champions League, Caoimhín at Liverpool and the Celtic players.

"It would be good to have more players like Séamus, who have been doing it at a high level for a very long time.

"It would be nice to have…what's the word in English?... a spine in the team that is always there. You just pick players to support that and we must push those to a higher level.

"Lots are staking a claim – saying I can be there - but I would like it to be: this is our starting eleven."

A cold assessment is long overdue.