Just another day in Abbotstown as Irish football controversies hold court again

It is easy to sympathise with the likes of Heimir Hallgrimsson and John O’Shea who find themselves caught unwittingly in the firing line through all this.

FIRING LINE: Assistant head coach John O'Shea during a Republic of Ireland media conference at the FAI Headquarters in Abbotstown. Pic: Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile

There will come a day again when an Irish coach or manager will feel confident of fronting a press conference at FAI headquarters in West Dublin that isn’t kidnapped by a controversy that is not in any way, shape or form of their own making.

This was not that day.

John O’Shea had been that guy before. The Republic of Ireland assistant coach sat in the very same seat in Abbotstown in early September when he had to make it clear that Heimir Hallgrimsson, not him, was the man picking the team.

Two months later and he was bemoaning the negativity around the senior men’s squad, some of it from Glenn Whelan who had shared the same dressing-room as a player and been a part of the Ireland setup during O’Shea’s four games in interim charge.

Now an interim boss himself, at Wigan Athletic, Whelan reiterated his criticisms earlier this month when suggesting certain players were too comfortable with losing, and that some were “very lucky” to be playing for the Boys in Green.

O’Shea is, reportedly, still close with the Dubliner. He joked on Monday that there was “a fair chance” he was aware of his friend’s opinion, but added that it hadn’t been mentioned between them in the time since.

“Everyone is entitled to their opinion. When you get a couple of bad results or you get a different performance then everyone has an opinion about it and these things are respected, but we keep things tight in-house as well.”

He had, O’Shea insisted, no issue with the attitude of any of the players.

It would be great at this point to move on to football matters. To concentrate on the call-ups to the squad of Stoke City’s Andy Moran and Southampton’s Ryan Manning for this week’s Nations League promotion/relegation double-header against Bulgaria.

But this is Ireland. And this is Irish football. So we’re not done with all that.

Hallgrimsson spent much of his squad announcement last week being asked about the breach in the relationship between him and the FAI on one side and Damien Duff, Stephen Bradley and the League of Ireland on the other.

Bradley had been left seething in December by what he perceived as the Icelander’s suggestion that domestically-based players would need to move abroad to boost their international chances.

That spat has since been smoothed over, and Duff has vowed to stop creating headlines with barbs directed at the FAI, but the Shelbourne manager reiterated his worries for Irish football in general over the weekend, and for the senior men’s team.

Duff claimed to be in the dark about the Bulgaria game, and the opponent itself, until very recently and shared how, when he asked a friend if he wanted to go to this Sunday’s second leg in Dublin, the response came in the form of laughter.

“Listen, I’m fairly sure deep down that Damien knew who Ireland were playing,” said O’Shea, playfully.

“I’d be fairly confident. Maybe he just doesn’t like his friend and he didn’t want to go to the game.”

Head coach Heimir Hallgrimsson and assistant head coach John O'Shea pose for a photograph with members of the Finglas United Football For All team. Pic: Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile

There is no denying that Duff’s stated concerns over the mood and the energy “on the streets” are valid. But it is easy to sympathise with the likes of Hallgrimsson and O’Shea who find themselves caught unwittingly in the firing line through all this.

There was an almost plaintive ‘why can’t we all just get along?’ remark from the former Manchester United man here that spoke for an exhaustion and a frustration that the whole country must feel at this stage.

But there was more to come before he was done.

Colin Healy’s 13 caps with the Republic of Ireland were earned at a time when O’Shea was a young player with the national team. This link, tenuous as it is, was enough to seek an opinion on the former Cork City manager’s dispute with the FAI.

To recap: Healy claims that the FAI’s chief football officer Marc Canham gave him a “verbal assurance” that he would recommend his retention with the women’s national team to the board as long as Ireland avoided a heavy defeat to Wales in the Euro 2025 playoffs.

An agreement that, Healy says, was broken.

“It’s one of those things, isn't it? It is a shame how it turned out as such. These things happen in football. The communication side of it obviously… Colin obviously feels that it wasn't put across to him right at the end. You have to respect that.

“It is a case that these things happen in football. We have to move on from it. We have to learn from it. We have to move on as well.”

The phrase ‘one of these things’ is unfortunate. It’s not the sort of response that reeks of empathy, but it’s hard to be overly critical here of a man placed between such a rock and a hard place as he sat there in an FAI tracksuit just trying to do his job.

Just another day in Abbotstown.