THE ROTATING CAST that is Stephen Kenny’s coaching staff today recruited its latest member, with QPR assistant manager John Eustace stepping into the void left by the departing Anthony Barry.
Barry – who himself replaced Damien Duff a year ago – has left to join the Belgium staff, and will ironically make his bow against Ireland at the Aviva Stadium in a friendly international on Saturday. He has been replaced by Eustace, with whom he has a couple of parallels.
Both men’s playing careers began in the Coventry youth ranks, and both went on to complete the same Uefa Pro Licence coaching course together. Frank Lampard was on that course and took Barry with him to Chelsea as a result, but at that stage Eustace was already working at QPR.
Eustace played almost 400 times in his playing career before a knee injury forced his retirement at Derby County in 2015. He was appointed manager at Kidderminster a year later, whom he twice led to the Conference play-offs before being whisked to QPR as Steve McClaren’s assistant. McClaren’s sacking in 2019 did not mean Eustace’s exit: instead he was retained as caretaker manager. Seven points from seven games was enough to stave off relegation, and Eustace has since remained on as Mark Warburton’s assistant.
Like Barry, he will juggle his Irish duties with his role at QPR, where he is currently working with Jeff Hendrick. The rest of the Irish squad don’t yet know much about him, though Conor Hourihane today revealed he has played against him.
“I played against John, which probably makes me feel a bit old! I’m looking forward to working with him.”
“It’s no secret that Anthony was fantastic”, said Hourihane when asked to assess Barry’s impact. “When he first came in, he was a breath of fresh air. He had great ideas and the way he coached was great. He was at Chelsea and you’re not a bad coach if you’re at a top club like Chelsea. They’ve won a few trophies and he’s been heavily involved. He was very impressive in his time here, put his stamp on the group and was brilliant. He’s gone to Belgium and we have to move. Hopefully John coming in can give us a few different ideas, along with Keith [Andrews] who is brilliant.
“Thanks to Anthony for everything he did but it’s a new chapter now. We’ll try to move forward.
Alan Browne, sitting alongside Hourihane, chimed in agreement.
“Yeah, it’s obviously disappointing to lose some of the backroom staff, he’s highly regarded in the game. We wish him all the best, got some great coaches, a great manager and the players are really striving under them so hopefully we can continue the good work under them.”
Barry will be among fewer recognisable faces than expected when Belgium come to town, with Roberto Martinez limiting himself solely to players with 50 caps or fewer. Youri Tielemns, Divock Origi, Thorgan Hazard, Simon Mignolet and Christian Benteke are among the headline names included without the likes of Courtois, Eden Hazard, Lukaku or De Bruyne.
“I’d say they’ll be alright”, said Hourihane. “They’re pretty exciting, a fantastic squad. With a few out, they’ll have lads chomping at the bit ready to go. They’ve world class names. Belgium will go into this game as red hot favourites. We’ll have to go about our business and be well prepared, hopefully put in a positive performance and see what the result is.
“There’ll be a fantastic crowd there and a great buzz to see the Aviva full. The crowds in the last couple of camps were fantastic so hopefully we can put in a good performance first and foremost and see what way the results go.”
The FAI are hoping for a sell-out, with 45,000 tickets sold as of this afternoon for the first game since Kenny renewed his contract.
“Yeah, it’s great for him and well deserved”, said Hourihane. “In the last couple of camps, we feel like we are turning a corner, playing some good stuff and getting some good results. Exciting time. [The contract] draws a line under it, like I said, and onwards and upwards and we’re looking forward to this camp and the games ahead.”
The Irish squad linked up today with all present bar Caoimhin Kelleher, who is joining up tomorrow. Nine of the players who have not been playing regularly for their clubs in recent weeks were put through their paces by Kenny, Eustace and the rest of the staff, with the rest of the players given the day off to manage their respective workloads.