ONCE UPON A time the guaranteed drama of an Irish international week came not on the pitch but in the midweek press conference. That was when the FAI would give Martin O’Neill a break from media duties and wheel out his assistant Roy Keane.
Keane, in fairness, was rarely anything but box office.
That doesn’t happen these days: the Irish team are entertaining on the grass, while the assistant manager has taken a far more reserved role. That changed slightly on Monday as Keith Andrews took pre-game media duties for the first time, ahead of the friendly visit of Lithuania.
Keane’s name came up.
The question was couched in less profane tones, but Andrews was asked for his reaction to Keane calling him a “bullshitter” in a 2020 interview with showbiz journalist Barry Egan.
“You might have to ask him why”, replied Andrews. “In terms of how it affected me it didn’t affect me in the slightest. I touched on it, about how passionate I am about this role. My conscience would be very, very clean in terms of what I put into it because apart from family life it is actually the only thing I care about. In terms of making this team better, in terms of making Irish football better, in terms of giving us a team we are proud to watch.
“I have obviously been a fan, I’ve been a player, it is my only team. It is the only team I care about.
“So, no, it didn’t affect me. When you go into a new job players pretty quickly suss you out, if you are not up to the level. So in terms of the preparation going into it was obviously of a high level.”
Do Keane’s comments and Andrews fairly diplomatic response sum up the differing philosophies between the two managerial teams?
“In terms of previous regimes that was their bag”, replied Andrews. “I was very much a fan at that stage. I travelled to the Euros as a fan or a player in a certain period and before that very much a fan before that.
“That was their bag. This is our regime and this is how we see fit to put things into place and hopefully we can just continue to work and continue building to keep that momentum going.”
Before Keane was raised, Andrews was asked his and Kenny’s approach to player criticism, and he explained why communication needs to differ at international level.
“The big difference between club and country is if anything happens on Tuesday afternoon you don’t want to be too critical because that will be left for a few months. Whereas at club level, the next conversation is two days later. We constantly want to take steps forward as a group. They’ve got to be receptive to be constructive criticism whether that’s in a group format or one to one.
“We bring them in to show certain clips on where they need to be better on certain areas. That goes throughout the squad. Stephen deals with that really well.”
Andrews first began working with Kenny at U21 level, and stepped up with him at senior level while Jim Crawford stayed put to take the managerial reigns from Kenny. They didn’t know each other very well prior to working together, and this working relationship blossomed when Kenny rang to ask for a chat over coffee.
“We’d had a few conversations at Ireland games, nothing major and then just basically a phone call to say would I be interested in just meeting up for a coffee and we just spent around four hours together talking about football.”
Andrews has taken a much lower-key role than some of his predecessors, while a lot of media narrative has focused on Kenny’s succession of number threes. First Damien Duff, and then Anthony Barry. “I’ve been that constant around certain coaching aspects”, replied Andrews if he felt overshadowed, “but regardless of who it is, it’s been consistent in terms of Stephen and myself. I haven’t felt overlooked.”
The latest number three is QPR coach John Eustace.
“I played with him a long time ago when I had a loan move at Stoke so I knew him but I didn’t really know him because we haven’t really connected since, certainly on a personal level, we played against each other a few times and nothing major.
“From a coaching capacity he’s come in and slotted in seamlessly to the group. He’s a very humble fella, he gets on well with Stephen already, the connection we have, that will grow because it can’t instantly happen, the levels you want to get to.
“You need to find out about your strengths, weaknesses etc. He’s come in quite late into the camp. It’s impossible to know everything about all of our players and how we’ve played in this game and that game but as a first week goes, I don’t think it could have gone much better.
“I’ve said it before, in terms of the training week, we’ve been very, very content with it. As a player, you want it go to smooth but on this side, maybe you need a few more problems to fix and show the players. It went really well and he was a big part of the preparations for the last week. He’s slotted in brilliantly and the lads have really taken to him and he’s produced a good song as well which is really nice.”
That song was Wonderwall.
Perhaps Keane would approve of that, given Oasis were willing to be festooned with jeers and plastic pints of beer by Rangers fans at a gig in Glasgow in 2005 for Keane’s sake, dedicating a song to him as he had just signed for Celtic.
“You can take it, you’re grown up, aren’t you?”, roared Liam at the time.
He was wrong on that…but you can apply that composure to this current Irish assistant manager.
