"I'm the boss. I'm the gaffer. At the end of the day what I say goes. The buck stops with me."
Back in January 2006, Steve Staunton strode into the Mansion House in Dublin with Bobby Robson a few steps behind, stared down the press and delivered the message that he was the man in charge of the Republic of Ireland, not the man beside him who had won major honours in England, Spain, the Netherlands and Portugal.
Robson had joined Stan's ticket as 'international football consultant’ a very Linkedin way to describe what was essentially meant to be a steadying hand to a man whose first managerial role of note was the national team having been player-assistant manager with Walsall for half a season.
The intricacies of such partnerships are very hard to truly comprehend unless you are inside that particular bubble, but one thing’s for certain – the project didn’t work here, and Staunton and Robson's short reign left many fans befuddled about who actually was doing what.
Fast-forward 18 years and once again an Ireland press conference is causing some bewilderment as assistant coach John O’Shea, rather than recently-appointed head coach Heimir Hallgrimsson, faced the media ahead on Monday ahead of this evening's UEFA Nations League B clash with Greece at the Aviva Stadium.
With Hallgrimsson already stressing that he was taking somewhat of a backseat for this window given his late surprise appointment, the balance is being scrutinised and it was the former interim manager and presumed possible full-time candidate O’Shea that had to face up the media scrum when pressed on it.
"The boss is the boss and there are clear lines on that," he responded when quizzed would it lead to confusion for the players in camp.
Not quite ‘the buck stops with me’ but both O’Shea and Hallgrimsson will be hoping those lines stay clear rather than blurred.
Managerial history has been dotted with examples where the dug-out dynamic has been so grey that it simply hasn’t worked.
I’m the gaffer
Starting with the aforementioned Staunton-Robson partnership, the former’s managerial career seemed ultimately scarred by his experience with the Boys in Green. Indeed, his managerial CV includes few other entries – assistant manager at Leeds under Gary McAllister and a short and unsuccessful stint as Darlington boss.
While on the field issues didn’t help Staunton and Robson, hindsight eyes can only look back at what was a pretty bedlam-filled 22 months.
Ahead of his third game against the Netherlands, a man approached Staunton near the team hotel and threatened him with what was reported to be a plastic imitation Uzi sub-machine gun. Then there was the decision to recall Andy Reid with the FAI sending the notice to Tottenham, even though the player had departed for Charlton months earlier and of course there was Robson’s appearance on RTÉ’s Liveline where callers queued up to slam Staunton, the FAI and all involved for 75 minutes. English paper The Guardian screamed, with some justification, that ‘Sir Bobby Robson deserves better than being involved in this Irish farce’ after said radio show.
Shortly before his axing, then FAI chief executive John Delaney stated to that RTÉ "It's unfortunate that I've been personally linked to the appointment when it was a decision of a committee of 10."
Even the end-game had a hint of gallows humour about it as the FAI hired two rooms at the Crown Plaza Hotel and the media duly picked up the trail, only for the summit to take place at the Radisson Hotel near the airport instead.
The results had left the association with little choice. There was the shock 5-2 loss to Cyprus, Staunton watching from the stands in punishment for kicking a water bottle onto the field in the 1-0 loss to Germany. Then came Robson’s Liveline appearance, where he kept his cool amidst the barrage, after a late 2-1 win over San Marino, who won their first-ever competitive match at the weekend.
Even all this time later, it's not exactly clear where Robson's influence started and ended, which in itself points to the confusion of the ticket.
The Impossible situation
When it comes to joint-manager catastrophes, the first out the gate is inevitably Liverpool’s decision to join Roy Evans and Gerard Houllier at the hip ahead of the 1998/99 season.
Evans was Bootle-born, a descendant of the famed Anfield boot room and with more than three decades at the club, was accustomed to a certain way of doing things.
He'd arrested the slide of former manager Graeme Souness, had introduced talents like Robbie Fowler and Michael Owen and was popular on the Kop.
The press was less forgiving at the time, dubbing his players ‘the Spice Boys’ for their less than professional lifestyles off the pitch. They rocked up to the 1996 FA Cup final – where they’d lose to rivals Manchester United – in matching cream Armani suits, supposedly picked out by goalkeeper David James, who didn’t cover himself in glory for Eric Cantona’s late winner.
That game was undoubtedly in the minds of the board when they decided that to reach the pinnacle, the club needed to become more serious and while it was assumed the Frenchman was coming in to replace retiring coach Ronnie Moran, there was shock when a joint ticket was instead announced.
From the off it was clear that the pair didn’t gel, with Evans a players' man and Houllier a disciplinarian.
Players were confused, the duo couldn’t agree on team selections and the chaos off the pitch was reflected by on-field results.
A few months later, after a 3-1 November League Cup loss to Tottenham, Evans stepped away.
Reflecting over the years, he made no secret that Houllier’s personality clashed with his own while Evans admitted it would have been better for everyone if he had been sacked from the off.
Strong personalities
Alan Pardew and Joe Kinnear weren't exactly shrinking violets, and when the pair were thrust together by Mike Ashley at Newcastle, nobody was expecting it to work out – and so it came to pass.
Dublin-born Kinnear had previously been manager at St James Park, a stint that included a famed press conference where he swore over 50 times in the first five minutes, before illness saw him have to leave and not return when his contract officially expired.
Four years later, in 2013, he was back as a director of football, marking his return with another notable interview, this time on Talksport where he famously spoke of his player ‘Yohan Kebab’ rather than Cabaye.
Pardew’s position as Newcastle manager wasn’t viewed as overly solid at the time, and the ground became shakier after Kinnear’s arrival.
The Newcastle statement announcing the appointment made it pretty clear who was in charge, stating: "Chief scout Graham Carr and manager Alan Pardew will report in to Joe."
Pardew, for his part, was diplomatic and said he would battle on, even as club legend Alan Shearer said the move had undermined him. Kinnear responded by calling Shearer "clueless."
In two transfer windows, Kinnear failed to make a single permanent signing and resigned less than a year into the role days after Pardew had said: "If I was in charge, solely, of transfers, things might be different but I'm not."
Pardew wasn’t long behind him, escaping to Crystal Palace in the face of vitriolic fan protests over results.
A manager in name only
Shane Keegan’s name may be more synonymous now with hurling fields of Laois, but few will forget his rather bizarre one-month stint as Dundalk manager.
An opposition analyst under Vinny Perth, Keegan soon found himself sharing the sideline with Mikel Arteta as Dundalk took on the Gunners in the Europa League at the Emirates.
Keegan didn’t want the job, nor did he think he was qualified.
But he had his Uefa pro license and Filippo Giovagnoli, the club’s previous interim boss, didn’t - meaning he wasn’t allowed to manage past the qualifying stage of the tournament with Keegan, then coach, taking charge instead. The club were fined €50,000 by Uefa as a result of this ‘shadow coaching’ as Giovagnoli was in the technical area when he wasn’t meant to be.
The following year, Giovagnoli’s role was changed from head coach to coach with Keegan taking over as manager ahead of the new league season.
The initial press conference announcing that news saw questions about who would be actually picking the team, the insinuation clear that Giovagnoli would still be the key decision maker, and it was clear it was a situation with no long-term future. The pair left the club a month later.
Watch Republic of Ireland v Latvia in UEFA European Under-21 Championship qualifying on Tuesday from 4.30pm on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player. Follow a live blog on RTÉ.ie/sport and the RTÉ News app.
Watch Republic of Ireland v Greece in the UEFA Nations League on Tuesday from 7.20pm on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player. Follow a live blog on rte.ie/sport and the RTÉ News app and listen to commentary on 2fm's Game On
