MICHAEL O'NEILL is more than just a manager. Not only has he restored Shamrock Rovers to the upper reaches of Ireland's Eircom League, he has implemented a new wage structure, liaised with the local council – which is developing the stadium where his team play – and promised to treat the club's money as though it were his own. One board member jokes that, as well as taking training four nights a week, he delivers milk in the morning, coal in the afternoon, and in about half
O'Neill, in fact, is out on the pitch at Tallaght Stadium in south-west Dublin, strolling between the lawnmowers and sprinklers, a mobile telephone held to his ear. The 39-year-old from Northern Ireland is nothing if not hands-on. That is what c
omes of spending five years as a financial consultant in Edinburgh, two-and-a-half as manager of Brechin City, and 20 playing for a broad spectrum of clubs ranging from Coleraine and Clydebank to Newcastle United and Hibs, where he is now among the candidates to replace Mixu Paatelainen.
Of course, he isn't keen to discuss the vacancy at Easter Road, for which he has been touted these last few days. Nor is he willing to confirm reports that he has yet to sign a contract with the community-run club he joined last December. "I've had no approach, and there has been no approach to Shamrock Rovers as far as I know," he says. "It is speculation as far as I am concerned. I'm preparing as normal for our next game, and have no reason to do otherwise."
Which will come as a relief to the Dublin fans who see in him a man that can bring back the glory days. Rovers are an institution in Ireland, the country's biggest and most successful club, but they have been through a traumatic couple of debt-ridden decades, robbed of their home and subjected to administration, relegation and a series of protracted legal disputes. Only since a supporters' buy-out four years ago has there been any kind of stability.
Now back in the top flight, they moved into their council-owned ground last winter, and identified O'Neill as the man to shape their new era. "That was part of the attraction for me," he says. "The board were all elected members and I could sense that I wasn't just being asked to build a team. I was being asked to build a club. They had been homeless for 22 years. They needed help. I don't want success in the way some managers do. I'm not here just to win a league title, write it on my cv and disappear 12 months later with the club in administration. Success here would be winning trophies, but not if it jeopardises the club's future."
O'Neill, who has guided them into the league's top four, has a degree in mathematics and statistics, plus financial qualifications secured while working for Ernst & Young in Edinburgh. He has used some of that expertise to handle a budget dwarfed by the three clubs Rovers are chasing. Their structure, he says, is not unlike the "Scandinavian model", somewhere between full- and part-time, with many of the players otherwise employed during the day.
Charged with looking after the club, from the grassroots up, he is a kind of chief executive, a role he admits might appeal to him further down the line. "It is something that would interest me," he admits. "I don't know whether I will be one of these guys who manages into his 50s and 60s. God, I don't know if I could deal with that. But the business side is something that suits me. I have a good understanding of where money should be allocated in a football club. Having been a player, I know that there is a lot of waste."
O'Neill played for 13 clubs, most productively Newcastle United, Dundee United, Hibs and Wigan Athletic. While he wasn't the most demonstrative of players, he was pleasing on the eye, a cerebral influence. His midfield work is fondly remembered almost everywhere he has been, including St James' Park, where his short burst of prolific scoring coincided with the emergence of Paul Gascoigne. "I tried to play the game the right way, which sometimes made me a frustrating player to deal with. I liked to see things done right, and if I had an opinion, I had to express it. Maybe I did that the wrong way occasionally, but it was with the right intentions. Looking back, I would do things differently. You see the other side of it as a manager."
O'Neill admits that he never quite fulfilled his potential. Although he played alongside Johan Neeskens, Liam Brady and George Best in the latter's testimonial at Windsor Park, he admits that 33 Northern Ireland caps was no reflection of his ability. "I probably should have had double that. If I am honest, I still have elements of frustration about my career. I had injuries at bad times, but a lot of it was down to myself. It would have been nice to have a sustained run at the Premiership. And I regret not playing for longer. If I hadn't been distracted by trying to set up a career outside football, I could have played in the SPL until I was a lot older."
As it turned out, he was most effective in his younger days, with Newcastle, Dundee United and then Hibs, for whom he made 97 appearances between 1993 and 1996. Although born in Portadown, he admits that Edinburgh is like a second home. "I have moved around a lot, but that is where I have had my best times. It is where my two daughters were born, and I would envisage keeping my house there. I am sure, at some point, we will end up back there."
How soon is the question on many a Hibs fan's lips. On July 27, the Edinburgh club will play Shamrock Rovers during their pre-season tour of Ireland, but O'Neill has no reason to believe that he will be in the away dugout. He has only just made himself comfortable in the home one, instilling in Rovers the same flowing style that won him praise at Brechin City. He says that 95 per cent of his squad's training is with the ball, and that matchdays are all about motivation.
"I have played under various kinds of managers, the tyrants, the Jim McLeans of this world, and English managers, who I was often disappointed in. In my experience, Scottish managers are better organised. I tend to go heavily on the man-management side of things because at this level there is not an awful lot between the players. It is not about tactics, and trying to be clever. It is about making it as simple as possible. I'm not convinced that systems are that important at this level."
O'Neill has signed three players he learned about in Scotland: Gary Twigg from Brechin, Greg Cameron on loan from Dundee United and Craig Sives from Hearts. Sean Webb, formerly of Ross County and St Johnstone, is also on the books. Twigg has been by far the most successful of them, scoring 14 goals in 15 appearances, including the first at Tallaght Stadium. "When I took Gary to Brechin, it was clear he shouldn't have been playing at that level," says the manager. "He is a great finisher, and very clever at bringing others into play. For me, this lad should be playing SPL or higher."
O'Neill says Ireland's top sides are as good as the best in Scotland's First Division, and might even give the SPL's bottom half a run for their money. Rovers, who sell out their 3,500 seats every week, are about to open another stand, which will double the ground's capacity. They also benefit from summer football, which he says can only improve standards. "It means that we have to start pre-season training in the middle of winter, but it is something Scotland should look at, especially in the lower divisions. We have long, light nights here for most of the season, which means we are not training indoors, or scrabbling around looking for floodlit facilities."
It has also encouraged the Eircom League to schedule fixtures on a Friday night, when there are fewer clashes with rival attractions. Players are not ploughing through a muddy pitch, fans are not shivering in their short sleeves, and clubs don't even need to turn on the lights. It's the kind of idea that appeals to O'Neill, manager, penny-pincher and fan of the game's finer points.
