The remit of your everyday underage international manager can be a hard one to pinpoint.
Qualifying for major tournaments and challenging for prizes is one thing, but producing competent performers for the senior stage may be looked at as the ultimate aim, perhaps even in lieu of results on the pitch.
However, having missed out on Euro 2023 qualification after a penalty shootout play-off loss to Israel last September, Republic Of Ireland Under-21 manager Jim Crawford very much knows what he wants. His present class are determined to go one step further and book a place in the Under-21 Euro 2025 finals in Slovakia.
They start their campaign on Friday night at home to Turkey in Turner's Cross and follow that up quickly with another home tie against San Marino on Tuesday evening. Crawford reminds us that the next Irish team to qualify for a major Under-21 tournament will of course be the first team to do so.
"Qualifying for the big tournaments is important," Crawford told RTÉ Sport this week. "It's important to have players and staff in the frame of mind of, 'c’mon, let’s qualify here’. It’s something we talk about quite a lot. We do want to qualify, same with the last campaign and the campaign before that. Everyone wants to make that breakthrough and become the first 21s team to qualify for a finals.
"For no other reason than to challenge yourself against the best players in Europe. It offers a real springboard for development if you play in tournaments likes that against the best teams in Europe. Yeah, it’s great when you get players who are still qualified for the 21s who move up to the senior team. Whether that’s Festy [Ebosele], Evan [Ferguson], Andrew Omobamidele, Gavin Bazunu. Troy Parrot’s another one,
"When you look at it like that, you’re delighted for the players, making that step up. We had Festy in last March. We had numerous phone calls and meetings with Festy.
"With him, it’s about pushing him. It’s not about keeping him here locked with the 21s, it’s about pushing him to his limits to become the best player he can. And if you do that, your reward is getting brought into the senior team – and that’s what’s been happening with him.
"He’s played in some big games with Udinese and we’re delighted for him. So yes you want to qualify but it’s nice to see players who are still eligible for the 21s get brought into the senior team."
The transient nature of the grade makes long-term goals difficult. Crawford and his team cannot ignore the fact that producing well-rounded senior footballers can be what decides if his tenure is a success or failure.
"In 21s football, players come and go so it’s a new batch of players," the former Shelbourne ace said. "It’s really getting them to understand their roles and responsibilities for the game. We’ll treat this group of players exactly as we did the last. We’ll approach each game on its merits and we’ll look after the whole process side of things, making sure that we can implement what we practice on the training pitch throughout the games.
"There’s been no goal-setting as such, in terms of, ‘we need X amount of points this window’. We’re just thinking, ‘let’s control the controllables’, with regard how we train on the pitch, make sure we’re right and we’re ready mentally and physically come Friday at half-seven."
With two home games to star the campaign, a fast start is not only eminently acheiveable - but arguably a prerequisite in a group that also includes Italy, Norway and Latvia.
"We beat Bosnia 2-0 to start the last campaign and it is a big help to get off on the right footing, to start well," Crawford said.
"A good performance breeds confidence, it sort of glues the squad together. It is important. It’s certainly not going to be easy, we’ve analysed Turkey and they’re a very good side. They’ve a lot of players who have played in some big games for their club.
"A lot of them are in and around their first teams, whether it’s the Turkish top league, the Belgian top league. You’ve got the boy [Kenan] Yildiz with Juventus, he’s made a few appearances with them. So he’s certainly a threat. But nothing that we should be afraid of. We have a group of players here that are very talented so it is important, to breed confidence, that we get off to a good start.
"It's an exceptionally tough group. I would have thought that being in pot two in the draw, we would have got something a little bit easier. It's going to be a real challenge for the players and for the coaching staff, but nothing that - I don't think - would cause any fear within our group."
Watch Republic of Ireland U-21 v Turkey U-21 in Euro 2025 Under-21 qualifying on Friday from 7pm on the RTÉ News channel and RTÉ Player
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