Martin O’Neill has played down his role in international football, insisting it is all about the players performing on the pitch.
O’Neill’s counterpart for tomorrow night’s game against Georgia is the recently installed Vladimir Weiss, who most notably led Slovakia to the 2010 World Cup, and is looking to use that experience to improve his side's ability to compete in this qualifying group.
And while many believe that Weiss’ arrival has helped to improve this Georgia side, who beat Spain in the build-up to Euro 2016, before putting in a decent, albeit, losing performance against Austria in their opening qualifier, O’Neill feels that too much significance is given to a coach’s role these days.
"The most important thing is sometimes forgotten in this day and age: the game is about players and that has to be recognised some time again," said O’Neill, speaking at Wednesday afternoon’s press conference.
“Well, I'm not inexperienced myself, you know. If you ask me have I enjoyed international management, yes I have and one of the main reasons I have enjoyed it is because we have qualified.
“We qualified for France and we had some really great performances out there, including beating Italy. But I don't look at it like that.”
And while O’Neill may be enjoying his role as an international manager, where he qualified for a major tournament at the first time of asking, he admitted that his current role pales in comparison to his playing days.
“You are asking about enjoyment and I have had a really excellent career as a player and a manager. I have enjoyed it. Which have I enjoyed most? Playing.”
Accompanied by Seamus Coleman at today’s media briefing, O’Neill encouraged the Everton man to play as long as possible.
“Seamus might be at some stage or another taking his coaching badges – I hope he takes them when he's 49 and plays as long as he can because playing is the best thing you can do, honestly, it really is. This is second-best by a good way in terms of management.”
And O’Neill puts down that managerial enjoyment to the players that have brought him success and helped the team reach Euro 2016 in France last summer.
O’Neill is a renowned motivator and has proved that his style is certainly suited to the international role, where you can only work with the players available to you.
While he explained that it was his job to prepare the players, he never felt that he was competing with opposition managers, most notably current Chelsea boss Antonio Conte, who was in charge of Italy when Ireland recorded their historic win in Lille.
“For instance in the Italy game, I never felt as if I was up against Conte in the match – excellent manager, proven himself, really great.
“I felt the players were there – my job is to prepare them, get them ready, try to play as strongly as they possibly can, try to play to their absolute maximum potential and that game against Italy, that's great.
“I got great delight in it, but I got delight out of the performance of the players.
“Honestly, that was it, and the fact that we qualified and that we kept going and we conjured a goal when we most needed it.”
Watch live coverage of the Republic of Ireland v Georgia on RTÉ2 from 1900. Live radio coverage on RTÉ 2fm from 1900.
