Although it was nothing to do with us, shortly after hotpress spoke to Niall Quinn, Peter Reid was sacked as manager of Sunderland. Within hours, Mick McCarthy was strongly linked to the vacancy which, to the astonishment of anyone with a passing interest in English football, was eventually filled by old school managerial boot camp dinosaur Howard “Sergeant Wilko” Wilkinson. A week later, Ireland were booed off the Lansdowne Road pitch after losing their second consecutive European qualifier, to Switzerland. On a day which saw calls for Mick McCarthy’s resignation reach a deafening crescendo in the Irish media, we caught up with Quinner again…

Barry Glendenning: Were you sad to see Peter Reid get sacked by Sunderland?

Niall Quinn: “Oh yeah, without a doubt. It came as a shock because we never expected after the Arsenal game that he would be fired. We thought the three games after that (West Ham, Bolton, Charlton – BG) would be the three that would make or break him, y’know. On paper, those three games are winnable. Very winnable, in fact. We felt if we got seven out of nine points there we’d be right back up the table and in business to get going again and lift the cloud that’s been hanging over the club. But the powers that be thought differently and they parted company. It was a sad day for the club because Peter brought it from nothing. It was on the scrapheap when he took over, and now it has the potential to be a real force in the Premiership.”

BG: Were you surprised by the appointment of Howard Wilkinson?

NQ: “I was stunned. It was the best kept secret in football, because if you’d given me a hundred guesses, I’d wouldn’t have named Howard Wilkinson. But we’re over the shock now and he’s come in and he’s got his claws into the players. He’s working us extremely hard… far more physically than Peter would. But everyone’s repsonded very well and all we’re focusing on now is the game against West Ham at the weekend and getting three points on the board.

BG: Are you going to feature in his plans?”

NQ: “I haven’t spoken to him yet. He asked me to stay on board until he got the first game out of the way. Five staff were let go here, so there was only himself and Steve Cotterill here and they were very short-handed. In fairness to him, all he wants to focus on is the three points against West Ham, so my situation didn’t arise yet, and probably won’t arise until next week.”

BG: Mick McCarthy’s name was linked to the vacancy left by Reid. Would you have liked to have seen him get the job?

NQ: “Well, I dunno, because Dave O’Leary, who’s another great friend of mine, was just as strongly linked. It was funny really. I honestly thought neither of them would get it because the club sacked Peter and five others, and I was finding it hard to see where Mick or Dave’s five people were going to come from. That’s why I thought somebody else must already be in place, but as it turned out I read it all wrong, because Howard came in and he doesn’t have his staff sorted out either and hasn’t had a chance to do so yet.”

BG: Do you think Mick McCarthy has a future as Ireland manager?

NQ: “Well, the press obviously have their own agendas, but I think Mick and the team have to dig deep and get on with it. That’s the way things have happened for us in Sunderland, and to be honest, all the manager and his players can do is ignore what’s being said in the press and just play football.”

BG: Are you surprised by how fickle and easily led the fans who booed the Irish team seem to be?

NQ: “I am a bit, because the one thing the Irish team has always been able to count on, no matter how bad things were, was the support of the fans. Having said that, they pay their money to go to the game so they’re entitled to voice their dissatisfaction.

“All I would ask of the people who are baying for Mick McCarthy’s blood is that they make sure they have the best interests of Irish football at heart. This isn’t about taking sides, and they shouldn’t boo Mick just because there’s a few journalists with agendas who want to see him gone. The ideal situation would be that the first domino is knocked over in the reconciliation stakes between Roy and Mick. I said it to you last week and I’ll say it again – we have to get Roy Keane back in a green jersey.”