Martin O’Neill was recently appointed as the replacement for Giovanni Trapattoni after the latter was sacked from his role as the Republic of Ireland manager. The former Aston Villa man has roped in Roy Keane as one of the coaches. Keane has been out of work for the last few years along with O’Neill. However, it has been a tough few months for the Irish since they have not been able to see O’Neill manage the team in a competitive match since taking over. They have been involved in a few friendlies against Latvia and Poland.
O’Neill remains undefeated in the two matches, but he has – for the first time – stated that international management is very different from club management due to the weight for matches. After being involved in club football with the likes of Leicester, Aston Villa, and Sunderland over the last decade, O’Neill is finding it hard to not manage his team in the heat of a match often. Ireland’s next competitive match will not be until September. They will start in the Euro 2016 qualifying campaign with the belief that they can make it to this competition after missing out on the World Cup.
Ireland did qualify for the Euro 2012, but they were knocked out of the competition after failing to win even a single match.
“That’s the most difficult part of it. But I knew that when I took the job on. There are a lot of games I have been to and you envy the managers who are adversaries on the touchline. They probably think it would be better to be sitting in the stands. At first, I found it strange to get used to but it will pass. We have to wait until September for our first competitive match but I think it will kick in when we get the draw,” said O’Neill.