O'Neill diplomatic on part-time debate
Credit: Extratime Team (ETPhotos)
“When there was money in this league, did it attract better players, or did the same players just get more money?”
Michael O’Neill was in a rather philosophical mood at his press conference in Tallaght on Monday. Much of the discussion centred around the debate which has extracted opinions from even the most conservative League of Ireland fan – is full time football in this country feasible? While recent attempts by Bohemians and Sporting Fingal failed miserably, O’Neill wasn’t overly dismissive and took everything into consideration before giving his objective point of view.
O’Neill clearly believed that switching from a part-time set up to a full-time system was quite a lot of work. “You start at ten, you’re in till five tomorrow. You do training, another session and then video analysis. If I put those demands on the players now, there’d be problems. Such and such would be missing due to work or other things. It’s very difficult, you have to manage the players more in a full-time set up.”
The Rovers boss was quoted last year as saying he wants to work with a full time squad, which was considered “natural enough” by those in attendance, but money, as always, is the order of the day. There is a two million euro difference between the paths open to Rovers in terms of European progression into the Europa League, and O’Neill does appreciate the difference. “Yeah, I understand that if you were to get knocked out of the final qualifying round of the Champions League, there’s a parachute payment and it’s higher than if we were to be knocked out now.”
The Hoops manager then went onto show terrific loyalty to his players by combining principle with basic footballing logic. He was asked if he had the money available to him, would he invest in new players or whether he would just look to transform his current squad. O’Neill said: “ I think if we were to do that, we would have to do it with the players we have now, because attracting payers from outside the league is very tough, because the average player from Britain would want at least a nine month contract, whereas we’re only looking to keep someone until October. While Europe is attractive, the downside for them is the contemplation of what to do until the window opens again.”
“While progression in the Europe League would be great, I don’t think that would change the way the club is run, I just can’t see that. Jonathan (Roche) is behind me now, he’ll vouch for that. There are things I’d like to do, to improve the club, but I can’t just see us doubling our wage budget. We’d look at areas such as training facilities and things around the first team. Jim Magilton is assisting me at the minute, I think Ipswich spent £100,000 over the course of a year on video analysis. I mean obviously we’d never do that, but things along those lines are what we’d look to address.” The Portadown native was quick to highlight that money would be used to solidify and support, not to re-create. “The sensible thing to do, is to ensure the structures that are in place now and maintain the strength of the club.”
When asked whether or not there was a downside to part-time football, O’Neill chuckled. “The downside is that players are always complaining about not getting paid. It’d be a lot easier to have them on full time contracts. Money attracts foreign players; the Premier League is a prime example of this. Just look at Scotland. The money is going from Scotland. When I played there, Rangers and Celtic had great players such as Brian Laudrup and Henrik Larsson. These kind of players aren’t in Scotland anymore, and it’s very tough for the likes of a St. Mirren or a St. Johnstone to attract better players.”
Michael O’Neill was in a rather philosophical mood at his press conference in Tallaght on Monday. Much of the discussion centred around the debate which has extracted opinions from even the most conservative League of Ireland fan – is full time football in this country feasible? While recent attempts by Bohemians and Sporting Fingal failed miserably, O’Neill wasn’t overly dismissive and took everything into consideration before giving his objective point of view.
O’Neill clearly believed that switching from a part-time set up to a full-time system was quite a lot of work. “You start at ten, you’re in till five tomorrow. You do training, another session and then video analysis. If I put those demands on the players now, there’d be problems. Such and such would be missing due to work or other things. It’s very difficult, you have to manage the players more in a full-time set up.”
The Rovers boss was quoted last year as saying he wants to work with a full time squad, which was considered “natural enough” by those in attendance, but money, as always, is the order of the day. There is a two million euro difference between the paths open to Rovers in terms of European progression into the Europa League, and O’Neill does appreciate the difference. “Yeah, I understand that if you were to get knocked out of the final qualifying round of the Champions League, there’s a parachute payment and it’s higher than if we were to be knocked out now.”
The Hoops manager then went onto show terrific loyalty to his players by combining principle with basic footballing logic. He was asked if he had the money available to him, would he invest in new players or whether he would just look to transform his current squad. O’Neill said: “ I think if we were to do that, we would have to do it with the players we have now, because attracting payers from outside the league is very tough, because the average player from Britain would want at least a nine month contract, whereas we’re only looking to keep someone until October. While Europe is attractive, the downside for them is the contemplation of what to do until the window opens again.”
“While progression in the Europe League would be great, I don’t think that would change the way the club is run, I just can’t see that. Jonathan (Roche) is behind me now, he’ll vouch for that. There are things I’d like to do, to improve the club, but I can’t just see us doubling our wage budget. We’d look at areas such as training facilities and things around the first team. Jim Magilton is assisting me at the minute, I think Ipswich spent £100,000 over the course of a year on video analysis. I mean obviously we’d never do that, but things along those lines are what we’d look to address.” The Portadown native was quick to highlight that money would be used to solidify and support, not to re-create. “The sensible thing to do, is to ensure the structures that are in place now and maintain the strength of the club.”
When asked whether or not there was a downside to part-time football, O’Neill chuckled. “The downside is that players are always complaining about not getting paid. It’d be a lot easier to have them on full time contracts. Money attracts foreign players; the Premier League is a prime example of this. Just look at Scotland. The money is going from Scotland. When I played there, Rangers and Celtic had great players such as Brian Laudrup and Henrik Larsson. These kind of players aren’t in Scotland anymore, and it’s very tough for the likes of a St. Mirren or a St. Johnstone to attract better players.”
