Big Jack: The Waterboy
As age catches up with us, cynicism is a number of unwanted traits we acquire. Suddenly, scanning through the history of our lives, we focus on memories of our younger years. We scoff at our previous pastimes, hobbies, favoured television programmes, fashion sense and cringe at times when we embarrassed ourselves through the folly of our youth. It seems like a different life. However, this transformation into a cynic can bring us to realise that certain things we were enthralled by at this early stage in our lives were not all they were cracked up to be. Like the Republic of Ireland under Jack Charlton.
Despite an unbeaten qualifying campaign on the road to South Africa 2010, the Irish footballing public are still not happy. The exclusions of Andy Reid and Stephen Ireland have dominated the headlines for almost a year. RTE’s fabled panel of experts have never hesitated to stick their oar in regarding the performances of this group of players. Negative tactics, players not good enough, established players not performing. Largely ignored is the fact that with arguably the weakest Irish squad for the best part of 25 years, Giovanni Trapattoni has brought Ireland within 180 minutes of the World Cup.
It’s been a case of making do with what you have got. With no recognised left-back in the squad, Kevin Kilbane has slotted in. His transition from left-winger, to central midfielder, to left-back has meant he will win his 100th cap at Croke Park tonight against Montenegro. The midfield is made up of a combination of Keith Andrews and Glenn Whelan. The former was playing in League 2 18 months ago, whilst the latter is in and out of the Stoke team. Sean St Ledger has emerged from nowhere to be part of Ireland’s first-choice central defensive unit. He is yet to make his bow in the Premier League, but has already made an impression at international level.
With so many of the first XI novices at this level, there is not much experience in reserve. Strikers Leon Best and Caleb Folan’s first time in Dublin was for their home international debuts. Martin Rowlands and Liam Miller are expected to line-up in midfield tonight. Rowlands played his first Ireland game in over 5 years Saturday, whilst Miller did not have a club a month ago.
Taking just a random sample of the squad, we can see how well Trapattoni has done to get us this far. The fact that he refuses to move from his Milan base, and is rarely seem attending club matches involving his players can be excused. Football is a results based business. Jack Charlton got the results. But had a far higher calibre of player available to him.
At Italia ’90, the country went football mad. Tri-colours outside every house, the streets were full of people of all ages sporting replica kits. Opel was the most famous brand in the country. This scribe settled for an outrageously fake Irish kit, something that my cynical self of today would not have approved of. A gallant defeat to hosts Italy made a villain of Salvatore Schillaci. It even encouraged Colm Meaney to sport a t-shirt with the immortal phrase ‘F**k Schillaci ‘ on it. Caught up in the frenzy of it all, I didn’t realise how short we were selling ourselves.
Charlton had a squad of immense ability. Packie Bonner was a solid and reliable, most of the time, goalkeeper. Captain Fantastic Mick McCarthy alongside Kevin Moran was as tough a centre-back pairing as you could come across. David O’Leary, arguably the classiest defender in Britain at the time, played just 26 minutes in World Cup. Arsenal’s record-holder for appearances couldn’t break the Moran-McCarthy axis. Another centre-back by trade, Paul McGrath, was played in midfield. The Black Pearl was a player of such immense natural ability, he could have lined up anywhere on the field and stood out. Liverpool’s Steve Staunton and Ray Houghton had just claimed the league title. Club-mate Ronnie Whelan couldn’t get into the team.
Kevin Sheedy was an integral part of Everton’s most successful ever. Housewives favourite Andy Townsend was a highly influential player, captaining Chelsea and Aston Villa during his career. Up-front there was Niall Quinn, the Peter Crouch of his era (apart from the fact he was good in the air), and the greatest post-war goalscorer in English footballing history: John
Aldridge Has A Quite Word
Aldridge. The Scouser never managed to reproduce his incredible scoring exploits at club-level for Ireland, and was often made a scapegoat by Charlton, being substituted when things weren’t going to plan.
A sample of that squad shows the gulf in class compared to Trapattoni’s charges. But Ireland’s displays at Italia ’90 were so negative and primitive. Splendid results against England and the Netherlands were sandwiched between dour draws against Egypt and Romania. With the players at Big Jack’s disposal, there should have been a different approach used. Whelan was one of the best passers Liverpool ever had. O’Leary, despite not being everyone’s cup of tea, has ahead of his time: a centre-back with a unique ability to spot a pass and carry the ball out of defence. Those are just two players, regulars for the two best teams in England at the time, and they were used sparingly.
It was long balls up towards Quinn or Cascarino, the ‘put them under pressure’ philosophy. The midfield of such footballing talent and vision was bypassed, merely assigned to force the opposition into mistakes rather than create anything constructive of their own. Something that they were well capable of doing.
Before Euro ’88, Charlton controversially left Liam Brady out of his 22-man squad for the finals. Suspension ruled him out of the opening 2 group games, whilst there were doubts over his fitness following injury. However, room should have been made for a player described by many as one of Serie A’s finest imports. Chippy never fitted into Charlton’s ideals. He was too elegant for his liking. Many consider him the greatest Irish footballer of all time. Others compare his relationship with Charlton similar to the one Andy Reid enjoys with Il Trap. Whereas Juventus needed Micheal Platini to replace Brady, Reid’s place at Tottenham was taken by Hossam Ghaly. That’s the difference in class we have here.
Failure to qualify for Euro ’92 was sealed with 2 very careless draws with Poland. A 2 goal lead was lost in the away leg to the Poles. Victory in either of these games would have meant qualification ahead of old rivals England. Gary Linker denied us a place in Sweden with a late equaliser in Poland. Looking at how the tournament, one must wonder how Ireland would have fared.
USA ’94 is remembered for a stunning victory over Italy, and little else. A meagre exit to the Netherlands was an extremely disappointing end to a tournament that promised so much. However, much of the squad was past its peak, and the stifling heat was a major factor in Ireland’s struggles. Putting the matches in the middle of the day to suit television attendances was probably not the wisest move.
Charlton did a lot of good for football in the country, and was a larger than life character that seemed to have time for everyone. His reckless exploitation of the ‘Granny Rule’ meant that roughly half his squad would be born in the United Kingdom. He deserves his freedom of Dublin and his record of qualifying for 3 tournaments in 6 years is not to be sniffed at. As I mentioned earlier football is a results based business. But we should expect better results when there is a better calibre of player available. His record in the major championships stands at:
Played 12 Won 2 Drawn 6 Lost 4 Scored 6 Against 9
Maybe it’s the cynic in me, but looking back I would have expected a bit more.
Good luck !
A french visitor !