Time for Reflection
Reflection? I wish I’d seen mine when I walked into the plate glass door a few weeks ago and broke my nose in three places. Anyway, as the domestic game packs up its troubles in an old kitbag and the Republic of Ireland finish their first year under Trapattoni, it’s time to try and get a sense of where football is at in this country, to put it all in context.
Writing this after a thrilling FAI Ford Cup final at the RDS offers a prism and certainly helps put the smile back on the face of those who passionately care about the game. The two best teams by the year’s end contested the final although Drogheda, Pat’s and Cork might at certain stages of this turbulent season have vied for that particular nomination.
Hindsight is crystal clear, but considering I can’t even see a glass 
door in front of me…At the very beginning of the season I tipped Pat’s to win the league with Drogheda and Cork fighting it out for second and an improving Bohemians to finish fourth. Derry, I was sure, would win the cup.
Well Stephen Kenny’s men did win the League Cup and came so close to clinching their own double with success in the FAI decider, but all the garlands this year go to Bohemians and Pat Fenlon.
Luck plays an important role in any competition, but the Gypsies were so good, so often, they didn’t seem to need it. Consistency in a world gone mad, they performed even when key players - especially defenders - were missing.
Without question they have the best goalkeeper in the country in Brian Murphy and I agree with Pat Fenlon’s assessment that he is second only to Shay Given in an Irish goalkeeping roster.
Whether his ability alone will get him an opportunity with the Republic of Ireland squad is questionable, and considering neither Trapattoni nor any members of his management team were anywhere near the RDS last Sunday must make it unlikely. 
Perhaps we should send the Italian a DVD of Murphy’s performances this season to add to his growing list of Christmas viewing.
If Murphy were playing with Spurs (and they could surely do with him!) then he would automatically be in the squad. Hell, even if he were in the reserves at White Hart Lane he would be in the squad. Just doesn’t make sense to me.
Owen Heary is an inspiring leader and I think Roddy Collins was very harsh in his comments during RTÉ’s Cup final broadcast. Heary won the league again and it’s no coincidence given his attitude and ability. And he continues to score vital goals like the one in the cup semi-final at Inchicore that brought Bohs to the brink of history.
Late in the game he was still making runs deep into opposition territory and his unquenchable spirit is still willing the body on.
Bohemians though do have an ‘old’ look to them, despite the relative youth of their manager, and their ‘normal’ time goalscorers, Glen Crowe and Jason Byrne, along with their strike partner Neale Fenn, have, it seems, been around for ages. How they’ll add to their squad and how they compete in Europe next season will be an interesting watch.
And here’s the rub…which Bohemians will take the field next season? Will the proud club even exist?
Their future, like last season’s champions Drogheda, is very much linked to a property deal. Dalymount Park was valued at €60 
million at the height of the property boom but surely now that valuation has changed.
The league itself has been devalued this season. The previous years’ champions Cork City went into examinership and nobody knows how close they came to extinction. Ditto Drogheda. In fact, no club in this current climate can say they are safe going forward. And I don’t mean attacking the opposition penalty area.
Galway did a marvellous job to stay in the Premier Division but not before serious pain, wage cuts and redundancies. They were not alone. Finn Harps, Sligo Rovers, Cobh Ramblers and Bray Wanderers all suffered financially and with so many players out of contract it’s hard to imagine the landscape come next March.
On the positive side though, the performances of Drogheda and Pat’s in Europe were stirring and as MNS has shown week-in and week-out, the quality of some of the goals compares with any league anywhere.
Think of how many good players were lost to the league this year as well, with the likes of Paddy McCourt, Dave Mooney and Conor Sammon all moving on, with more to follow.
Keith Fahey seems poised to complete a move to Birmingham City and while presenting him with his Goal of the Season trophy 
recently we got to talking about how he and Lee Carsley could be the central midfield partnership for Ireland and the Blues by the end of next year.
There’s no doubt that Fahey has the ability. Sadly, he will only get within an ass’s roar of an Irish squad when he moves abroad. Only then will the manager consider him for a midfield berth and based on his treatment of Andy Reid he won’t go and see him in the flesh and won’t gamble on an exhilarating playmaker.
The context for Trapattoni’s era so far is simple. As long as results continue to go his way in the qualifying matches his judgement can not be called into question. He is, after all, his own man and some of the reaction to the defeat by Poland was quite simply hysterical.
However, the manner in which results are achieved is important too and leaving gifted, native talent out on the basis of a system that has yet to be tested by the top seeds in our group is difficult to swallow.
Qualifying for South Africa and boring the pants off the rest of the world when we get there doesn’t really excite me, although I’d swap that for another hard luck story.
What Drogheda and Pat’s did this year gave me pride and gave 
me hope. Next year is, I think, the most challenging and the most crucial Irish football has ever faced.
The professional game in this country could prove to be economically unsustainable and the national side could meekly bow out of a World Cup group that’s eminently winnable.
Or the domestic league could learn from the excesses of the past and use the lessons of the last few turbulent months to cut its cloth correctly. And Ireland, with its best players on the field, including Ireland, (but that’s a whole other story) could march on with a swagger to trigger the renaissance.
In the meantime, as the bruising fades, I’ll just keep taking the tablets.
Tony O’Donoghue is Group Football Correspondent for RTÉ.
