In the last few days, former Ireland manager Mick McCarthy has suddenly become the frontrunner for the vacant management.

But bringing the current Ipswich boss back would show a lack of imagination according to football writer Miguel Delaney who contributes to ESPN, the Irish Examiner and The Blizzard and is the author of Stuttgart to Saipan.

Delaney was on Off The Ball last night to discuss the Ireland situation and while he says he likes McCarthy, he has a few reservations.

"My one major thought is that it represents a lack of imagination that seems to underscore our entire football infrastructure. You cannot deny that McCarthy was a success as an Irish manager. But his good strength - which may be valuable with this team - was getting many more limited players onside. But this time it won't be offset by having one of the greatest players in the world (Roy Keane) to balance it out," said Delaney who explained the context in which McCarthy operated as Ireland boss:

"I think there's a wider issue here. If you look back at the 2002 World Cup campaign, it actually marked a watershed in international football. Most people agree Euro 2000 was one of the greatest tournaments of all time with its concentration of quality and so many of the world's best teams playing to their fullest. Two of them were Portugal and Holland who we ended up in the next group with. Ireland put it up to both and knocked out one and in the very next tournament it was as if international football had shifted. It started off an era where it was never more open which was coincidentally the first full tournament after the Champions League expansion.

Louis Van Gaal might have returned to the Dutch national team, but the football landscape has changed in the past decade ©INPHO/Lorraine O'Sullivan 

"If you look at the teams in the playoffs now, it's so much more open than it was a decade ago when McCarthy was striving so long to finally make that qualification. So the absence of Keane figure may not be so important but that makes it harder to analyse what McCarthy was like as an Irish manager."   

Delaney admits he is still undecided about the McCarthy's legacy as Irish boss and the fact that the international football world has changed completely since he left the role may be an issue. And he feels a more ambitious appointment to tie into proposed changes to the infrastructure in this country.

"If it does happen, it almost looks like that we've just gone for the most obvious option again. It reflects this feeling around the international side at the moment. A lot of the talk has been about changing the infrastructure and root and branch reform. We've been talking about this since Spain and Germany started to make headway. Everybody knows what has to be done but there seems to be no will to make it happen."

You can listen to the full interview in the Off The Ball Football Show podcast on iTunes which also includes Spanish football expert Sid Lowe speaking about his new book Fear And Loathing In La Liga and Graham Hunter on Spain and Atletico Madrid.

 

Main Image ©INPHO/Tom Honan