During Giovanni Trapattoni's regime, it seemed pretty obvious that the Italian did not rate the players at his disposal.

Consequently the Boys in Green were a 'safety first' bunch of players.

That is going to change now though, now that Roy Keane is involved, according to John Giles who was analyzing the Ireland situation on Off The Ball last night.

"Roy Keane has a winning mentality and that would be an expectation to win. That obviously comes across to the players that this guy that they're dealing with wants them to win. In the Trapattoni regime, he was a bit negative coming into it. There will be a big difference in attitude," said Giles.

But Keane will have to curb some of the excesses of his mentality according to Giles.

"What makes leadership is pushing and cajoling players to play with the same intensity that they played with. Most players didn't have the intensity of play that Roy Keane had. I understand where Keane's coming from but there's different ways of doing it. Roy would probably have been pretty aggressive doing it, instead of with a little bit of softness.

"I think when Roy started in management he expected the same from the players as he did from himself. When you've become a manager, you've got to drop that because you have to accept that you're not going to get all the players. I don't think Roy acknowledged that. I think he still wanted that drive from the players. All a manager has to do is get the best out of the players at his disposal." 

When he was at Sunderland and Ipswich, the players at Keane's disposal were often ex-Man United players or Irish players.

Giles believes the time spent out of the game will help Keane as it means he has seen more players than he did when he first started.

And Giles feels the fact that Keane and O'Neill have points to prove will benefit Ireland.

Back in the 70s, Giles and O'Neill were involved in the fabled Shamrock Rovers XI which faced Brazil.

"Martin was only a young lad at the time. He'd only just started in the Northern Irish national team. I also played against him in the first match that the Republic played the North at Landsdowne Road. I only met Martin a few times on social occasions, the last being the get-together for that team about five or six years ago.

"I've always found Martin to be a very nice lad, a terrific player with a great work ethic. He's a very intelligent lad and he's always struck me as driven."

But as driven as O'Neill and Keane are, Giles believes they need to concentrate on the Ireland first team rather than get overly involved in revolutionizing the game and youth structures in the country.

"I think they are two separate jobs that people get mixed up. Scotland, England and Wales are not producing players so it's deeper than us being isolated. The international player is only as good as the players that the clubs have. He doesn't have any influence over it. It's the clubs that have the influence and produce the players. Obviously you should pay as much attention to producing the players at schoolboy level but O'Neill and Keane will have enough on their plate picking the players and having a successful international team." 

Giles also talked about the reasons why high-flying Arsenal are "not the complete package" and also explained how it's easier for young Irish players to move to the UK at the age of 16 than it was in his day.

Listen to the full interview below or download the podcast on iTunes: