I’ve endured a fair bit of good natured ‘banter’ in the office this week.
As a Scot with an Irish family background, I wouldn’t have expected anything less, but unlike my ‘countrymen’ Ray Houghton, Aiden McGeady and James McCarthy, I’ll be shouting for the land of my birth not the land of my forefathers this Saturday.
Of course, Scotland and Ireland are regular foes on the sporting field.
We play each other every year in rugby’s Six Nations, but that never really captures the imagination back home, certainly not in the same way that this game has. It’s almost certainly win or bust for Ireland, while Scotland know that a point might be enough come Saturday night.
The players will certainly know a lot about one another. Seamus Coleman, Aiden McGeady and James McCarthy will face Everton team-mate Steven Naismith. Aston Villa’s Shay Given will possibly go up against Alan Hutton, while Sunderland’s John O Shea could be marking Steven Fletcher. There is also the potential for team-mates from Stoke, Derby, Norwich, Hull and Ipswich to go up against each other. Familiarity may breed contempt?
The two managers are also well aware of each other’s strengths.
Martin O’Neill and Gordon Strachan have had very similar career paths, both on the pitch and in the dug-out. They both won European medals as players, O’Neill with Nottingham Forest and Strachan with Aberdeen, both represented their respective nations in the World Cup and both played under one of the great managers of recent years, O’Neill under Brian Clough, Strachan with Alex Ferguson.
Both men have embarked on successful managerial careers since, with both Strachan and O’Neill having most success at Celtic. The statistics show the two managers had similar levels of success as both secured three Scottish league titles during their time at the helm. O’Neill had a win ratio of 75.53% during his time at Parkhead, while Strachan won 67.03% of his games.
Both had landmark triumphs domestically, O’Neill’s treble in his first year was Celtic’s first since Jock Stein’s time and Strachan’s three league titles in a row was only the third time this had been achieved in the club’s history.
However, their European success at Celtic Park is what makes Saturday’s contest all the more intriguing.
Martin O’Neill led Celtic to the UEFA Cup final in 2003, beating some of the lesser lights of European football along the way, but he never made it past the group stages in the Champions League, despite having the likes of Henrik Larsson, Chris Sutton and John Hartson available to him.
Strachan, on the other hand, managed to get past the group stages on two occasions, using the likes of Evander Sno and Massimo Donati to negotiate his way into the last sixteen, beating AC Milan and Manchester United along the way.
Strachan’s ability to get the best from his team, even though they weren’t as impressive on paper as the team O’Neill had at his disposal, might be the telling factor come Saturday night. Ireland probably have better players than Scotland, but the visitors might have the better team.
The old adage that managers build teams in their own image has never been more true than in the case of Gordon Strachan. Shaun Maloney, Ikechi Anya and Scott Brown are all well under six foot tall, but they harry and hassle the opposition in the style of their boss and they also possess some of his quick-thinking skills too, as evidenced by the trio’s involvement in Scotland’s winner at Celtic Park in November.
Strachan’s contract is up at the end of this campaign.
"If he keeps performing like he’s performing at the moment, and winning matches like he’s doing, he can stay until he picks up his bus pass as far as I’m concerned - and I’m sure the board would back us on that,” said SFA chief executive Stewart Regan, who went on to say that it is too early for contract talks despite the manager "doing as much to rally Scotland as Nicola Sturgeon".
Strachan has certainly managed to convince the players – and the supporters in Scotland – that qualification for a first major championship since 1998 is a possibility. Avoiding defeat at the Aviva might be enough for the Tartan Army to revisit France next summer.
Kevin Corcoran is Series Editor for RTÉ's Soccer Republic
